Museums, mines and monsoons

We eased our way into the South American way of life. Bogota has a lot to offer and we took full advantage. Just as well as things would get sticky later on. We stayed (deliberately) in the same hotel as Globebusters. These guys know how to pick hotels and we took advantage of the group rate (thanks Kevin). This enabled us to sort out all the paper work for temporarily importing the shed and gave us a chance to chat to the group.

Arriving a day earlier than the main group, Kevin and I got our bikes early which gave Sandra and I transport around the city. On the way back from the airport to the hotel for the first time I noticed some odd handling characteristics from the shed. Something wasn't quite right. I put this down to the tires being deflated a little for the plane journey. I also noticed we were out of petrol. My early modification's plan for the Shed was to get in excess of 300 miles on one tank of petrol. I have only taken this near the mark once, in the Yukon in Canada, remember? Then it went to 285 miles and now the odometer read 306 miles and the nearest gas station was some 6-7 Km away. Anyway, we did it, but it was a bit nerve racking taking the shed into one of the most notorious cities in the world with only fumes in the tank. Anyway, after a pleasant evening in the hotel the next day was going to be spent locating a new speedo cable for the Shed so it was off to BMW Bogota. Whoooo , what a facility this is. Gleaming new bikes and cars with fully integrated, and a well equipped workshop. I ordered the part and went back to the hotel, the bike still feeling very odd indeed.

While we waited for the part Sandra and I had decided to visit the famous Gold museum at the other side of town. A fantastic new building full of.... well full of gold stuff from a long time ago. Now I know you should like this stuff. I have been told its important and I guess it is....... but after three big rooms of gold stuff you kind of get a bit jaded and frankly bored. I hid my boredom very well, Sandra seemed to enjoy it. I humped and moped about, shrugged my shoulders and dragged my feet, This was a seriously dull place. Sandra, with her sixth scene picked up on this, and it was soon time to leave.

Now it was time to take in the atmosphere outside the museum, much more interesting, firstly it is teaming with people and secondly there was a very big police presence, including riot police with shields, a huge armored car with the optional extra water canon, and a Jehovah Witness (no where is safe from them) who collared us and told us not to be so selfish in the future. I never knew we were, so I have decided to ignore his advice. After looking around for a bit we took a ride back in a taxi to the hotel. The other globebusters group members turned up, so an evening of drinking and swapping stories commenced.

The next day Sandra and I where due to get our speedo cable from the dealer. I got the bike out and it was a bugger to get off the stand or even push it. I now know the trouble with the bike, a flat and I mean really flat rear tire. I shoved some air in it and rode to the dealer to take a closer look.


A screw had buried itself in the tire and was slowly letting the air out. Fortunately I had brought along a puncture repair kit and soon had it fixed.


I was also told the part would be another day which meant we had to hang around for 24 hours, but since we had decided to visit the cathedral made of salt, (My dad is a big salt fan, he would love this place) it fell in with our plans. Some 50Km north and the tire holding its correct pressure we came to a town called Zipaquira, found the salt cathedral and in we went.
Basically it's an underground salt mine that has been converted into a cathedral. Unlike the gold museum this place grabbed my attention and I thought it was an incredible to look around.

So much so when I get back home I am going to build a church entirely from them sachets of tomato sauce you get at cheap restaurants.

We headed back to the BMW dealer to make sure the part had not turned up, it hadn't. Now after two nights with the globebusters we had felt a bit like hanger ons and both Sandra and I felt uncomfortable with this. Not because the group had not made us feel unwelcome, quite the opposite, we have made some friends there, but we both felt that this is our adventure and it was time to be on our own again. So we found a great hotel with a super knock down rate and spent our last night in Bogota.

The next morning saw a late start as I finally retrieved the speedo cable. This proved to be a problem getting out of the city on a Saturday morning at 10:30. It took well over an hour and tempers frayed at the huge traffic jams, the shed is not happy in them and neither am I. We where heading for a town called Honda to the west of Bogota. It looked close on the map, but is twice as far due to the twists and turns in the road. A great biking road with lots of mad Columbian drivers all trying to ignore any rule and get to their destination by any means.

Endless hairpins, beautiful scenery, the journey marred only by my sudden braking due to a truck having completely flatten one of the gazillion 125cc motorbikes. It's rider was some 50 meters down the road being looked at by other passes by. I prepared myself for the worst as we passed the chap who was alert and conscious, his leg was not in the right place and pointing the wrong way, but he seemed (other than that) to be OK. A stark reminder of what can happen. We pressed on, a little slower than before, till we reached the Metropolis of Honda, a small town nestled in the mountains with a mucky old river running through it. We have learnt now not to stay in the first hotel we see and to check every room before we decided, so we took over an hour looking at 3 or 4 hotels and then decided to stay at the first one we saw..... typical. We parked up the bike and got settled in, went into the town and immediately felt more foreign then ever - no tourists just locals, all very friendly mind you. This town could only be 2Km square with a few thousand people and oddly 400 taxi's, we have never seen so many in such a small town, we wondered what they did and who went where....very odd.

Anyway we found a small place in which to eat, Sandra's mastery of the Spanish language saw two perfectly cooked cheese toasties turn up on our table, they were really nice. To finish off we thought we would have a banana split. Now I could order these easily at it was advertised in big letters on the front window. "Dos" I said to the helpless waitress as I pointed at the big letters on the window. She smiled at went off to make them. Feeling pleased with myself I sat back down and readied myself for the fruit and ice feast we would surely be eating. Sadly we had to eat another round of cheese toasties as our waitress had not understood a dam thing. We toyed with trying again but the moment had gone and a third cheese toastie would have pushed us over the edge. So, we bought two cans of beer and went back to our room. It was only then in the dingy light of a single uncovered bulb, the old wooden ceiling fan pushing only hot air around the pale yellow walls and barred windows, that I realised how like an old 1950 movie it was, The hapless Europeans lay side by side on a cotton coved mattress in the Columbian heat trying to keep cool sipping beer from a can and eventually Irish whiskey straight from the bottle. It made us both smile.

The next morning we woke early, this was easy as we never actually went to sleep. Saturday night is party night in Honda and boy, these chaps party on. Music, shouting, police sirens and just as I nodded off at around 5 am, the cathedral bell ringers, who obviously live 50 miles away decided it was time the Robinson's had had enough sleep and the call to church was made.

From Honda it was more fantastic roads to Pereira which was our next planned stop. We now have a plan regarding finding a hotel. You find the best one you can, often very posh, ask the rate (knowing full well you cant afford it). Then look sad and ask for another hotel, one of two things will happen, The rate is reduced as if by magic or (this is my favorite) the bell boy will tell you where you can get a really good hotel at a really good rate. Works every time. Anyway, after we had got our fantastically overpriced rate and we both looked sad the rain outside started to come down. It got faster and faster, hail, winds and a proper storm hit us. It was incredible,

We waited out the storm with some anxiety as the shed was left outside and by luck facing into wind or she would have been over. The doors from the overpriced hotel actually blew in and water was everywhere, And as soon as it started it stopped. We found our way to the responsibly priced hotel and had a great night.