A sick shed but a promise kept

After a good nights rest in Pereira and the storm long gone we set of early and had an uneventful ride south to Cali. The scenery is still breathtaking and each of these countries we pass through dispels any preconceived ideas of what we thought the countries would look like. All, without exception, have never failed to impress.

Cali is a big city and is very busy indeed. We stayed in a hotel and tried to walk to the centre only finding ourselves in the wrong part of town where the sex trade flourishes. A quick detour got us back into the centre and some normality and, of course beer time. We found a small bar in a hotel and, in our best Spanish ordered "dos cervasus - two beers". What we got was a set meal for two with orange juice. Being the reserved English types we pretended that was what we ordered and tried to eat it. It wasn't good and we only ate a little, paid the bill which thankfully was small, and left. This was yet another victory for our fluency in Spanish. The further south you travel the less people understand Spanish. As Sandra and I are both fluent in Spanish we can only assume that some new language has been introduced which is alien to us.

Anyway from Cali we rode to Popayan. This is where things started to go a little wrong for us. I had noticed the day before the Shed had a cough and splutter at around 4000RPM, and as we rode today it got steadily worse affecting the whole rev range. As we approached Popayan the Shed was awful. We had asked the owner of a gas station for some new plugs and he promptly called his bike mechanic friend and gave us directions to his place in the town, It was next to the Honda dealership he said. Well we couldn't find the workshop so I popped into the Honda dealership and ask for directions. At this point all hell broke loose. Once they realised we had a problem, the owner of the dealership jumped on the shed and was going to test ride it. I only wanted directions but these chaps where hell bent on helping. I persuaded him I would ride and he was pillion. A quick run up the road and he could feel the problem, Into the workshop all other work stopped on the sea of 125cc bikes and 4 mechanics set to work. Unfortunately their efforts where in vain and the problem still persisted.


Now what to do? We could ride on to the border and into Ecuador where we had a mechanic on stand by or try and fix it in Columbia. We decided to press on. Careful riding and overtaking was required but we made it to the border in torrential rain, got through in record time and no money changing hands whatsoever, we set of for the border town of Tulcan. What a shock this was. At 2600 meters this place is cold and damp. Everyone was in winter gear and we got very cold indeed. Usual strugglel to find a comfortable bed and a good meal. The Shed, still very ill, was driven down a large ramp to the hotel garage. This ramp proved to be almost impossible to get out of the next morning with a cold and sick bike. It took me three goes and a run up to clear it.

We had contacted Diego our mechanic friend in Quito and got directions to his workshop. On the way to Quito we passed the real equator where we stopped and had the pictures of Sandra and I in different hemispheres and the sick shed on the actual line.


The Correct equator

There is a little confusion about the equator in Ecuador which is a little odd. In 1985 the Ecuadorians built a big fancy tower on the site of the original equator mark (worked out using a abbucus by the French some 100 years earlier). This monument is very fancy and has a string of attractions around it. Unfortunately 12 years ago, the USA military took a look using the latest military Global positioning system and found the monument was in fact 250 meters north of the actual equator line. I would have loved to have been at the meeting where this was explained to the board of directors of the monument. A bit of a cock up in my book.

Anyway we were in for another surprise when we met Diego. A very young man indeed and not the grey beard life time mechanic I had thought he would be. We met in a gas station. Diego turning up on a competition off roading bike with a massive grin and a big welcome. After my initial surprise we found Diego to be a professional and careful mechanic, listening intently to the symptoms of the bike and discussing all the other bits and bobs we needed to do. We met his family and visited his workshop and knew our bike was in very very capable hands. Diego drove us to our hostel where we checked in for five or six days. Its nice not riding or having to sit on the bike for a week. We can get a lot done while the shed is in intensive care.

We went to the aforementioned wrong equator, which turned out to be very beneficial. Two crazy bus rides there and back, one of the rides having nearly severed my arm as it got caught in the hydrolic guillotine door of the overcrowded bus. Even though the monument to the equator is in the wrong place it is still very important to the Ecuadorians and it is visited by lots of tourists.

The Wrong equator

It is surrounded by lots of shops and cafes too. One of these cafes sold spit roasted Guinea pigs. Now Richard is my best friend, and being a friend of Richard's carries it's rewards and penalties. Richard has organised surprise bungy jumps for me, almost had me arrested in China and ha,s in the past, got me into trouble more than once. Richard has always insisted that when we reach South America I must eat a spit roasted guinea pig.

Now these things in Ecuador are a delicacy and quiet frankly not cheap. But a promise was a promise and a freshly dead and roasted guinea pig was ordered



Well that's that. I wont be eating another but I'm sure Richard with have some equally unpleasant challenge waiting. On reflection we really like Ecuador and particularly Quito. We are staying in an area where back packers thrive and we are enjoying the whole buzz of the place.