hi guys , your enjoying the trip, just one tip , ive noticed your carrying a bit of gear, rethink what you need,cause it will make riding more enjoyable have a good one, stay safe cheers

Yes, I've definitely had several "next time I do this" moments on this trip! On the F800, the big blue bag just so happens to be filled mostly with camping gear (I have a really plush sleeping pad!) so the weight isn't too bad. That and my boxes are rather small so I actually don't have too much more than necessary. I'm not too afraid of the rough stuff. However, I've also come to the conclusion after meeting a couple on a pair of KTM 690's that there are 2 ways of going about a trip like this: You either pack a big bike with all the things you need to be comfortable and stick to the main roads (which are amazing!) and stick it out in comfortable places. Or forego all the niceties and get a smaller (650 ish) bike that can handle the rough stuff and rely on the fact that you will more than likely find a place to stay each night and leave all the camping gear and unnecessary heavy stuff behind and go find the backroads!

Last observation is, if I did this again, I would definitely take far more than 3 months, or just do one country at a time by flying in and renting a bike in each destination. If you take more time you can get to a location, drop off the stuff at a hostel/hotel and take day trips out from the area for a couple days then move on. This would be my preferred method in the future.

Sorry, that got wordy! Cheers!

Weclome to Cartagena, Colombia! This city was one of the first major Spanish ports in the Caribbean sea. Lots of neat old buildings as well as the Walled City which we spent a little time in.

Lets start with a little story before picture time, shall we? Our first day in Cartagena, we had to go to the middle of the city to buy our Soat (Colombian vehicle insurance). As we left the hotel, one of the guards told us we couldn’t go downtown (we were staying several miles up the coast), then someone else told him everything would be fine because we were tourists. Baffled by this 5 minute exchange and not getting a full explanation, the expedition continued to find the Soat office. As it turns out, no motorcycles are allowed in the center of the city, so when the office was found, parking was a bit interesting…

First, a one armed man (by the end of the day, his official name was ‘one armed bandit’) told us to park on one sidewalk. As this was transpiring, we realized the office was across the street which looked like more suitable parking, so after moving the bikes, a policia kindly spent a few minutes telling us that no bikes were allowed in the city, but we could park in front of the building for a few minutes. He also used his phones translator to tell us he has notified all the other officers in the area to let us be when we leave. Also translated was that we needed to pay the parking guy, which turned out was a younger guy, not the one armed bandit who seemed very upset that we were not parking on his street. So once that was all squared away, we ran up to buy insurance!

11:13 was our arrival time to the 8th floor (the elevator only went to the 7th floor). As it turns out, their system shuts down at 11 for lunch and won’t process anything until 2. After all the stress of parking! So one of the office gals who spoke a little English went down stairs with us to explain our situation to the policia. So the bikes got parked next to the building, the parking guy got paid, and everyone seemed to be satisfied (except the one armed bandit!!! who wouldn’t leave us alone until we left the area). So the bikes would be parked there until after 2pm when the computer system finished lunch and insurance could be purchased.

So now we go for lunch! After entering the walled city, and a couple small museums later, we found ourselves in a coffee shop with prime Colombian coffee.


They even had special ways of preparing a cup of coffee! This was my favorite which seemed to be some sort of reverse osmosis kind of crazy thing! So cheers to a strong cup of Colombian coffee!


With some time to kill in the walled city, we decided to continue to wander around. Michelle was getting distracted by all the fancy knockers on all the old doors.


And then we found a Chocolate Museum! Someone is as excited as a kid in a candy store!


We also saw a lot of fruits. Welcome to the tropics where you can buy just about any fruit you can imagine on every corner for extremely cheap!


So after our tour of the walled city and 2pm on the horizon, the group returned to the Soat office. With the building in sight, the one armed bandit struck again! Hassling us for money. We ignored him and entered the building. On the way up, Brian said he had offered the guy a couple dollars before but he wasn’t satisfied. It seemed as if he wanted the same compensation as the other parking person? As we left the insurance office, we quickly geared up and headed out of the town hoping the one armed bandit wouldn’t see us. As we were pulling onto the street, a car came right up onto our back wheels honking! THE ONE ARMED BANDIT! Brian was in the lead and quickly navigated our group through the traffic, zipping left, right, and through a couple red lights! After a few minutes of evasive maneuvers, the black car slowly faded into the distance in our mirrors!! What an experience!

Later that night at the hotel, we all had a good laugh at the situation. So the next morning, we were all anxious to get on the road and head towards Medellin, where we would gain elevation and the temps would be cooler. Here is Brian and Karoline enjoying the 100 degree heat!


So much more chances for photos now that I had my own personal photographer on board! Michelle even got a quick shot of some locals loading up some donkeys with water.


After long and very hot day, we stopped in a town called Caucasia. Our impressions of Colombia were mixed at this time. The roads seemed to be in good shape, but we had expected more mountains, more elevation, and not as much heat!

The following morning our expectations were met and then surpassed! Within the first 50 miles the scenery began to change. After entering a valley and riding along a river for several miles, we crossed a large bridge where my personal photographer told me we had to stop to take a better look:


We had entered the mountains! While taking a break at the bridge, we realized there were military posted all around the bridge. One came over to the kiosk we were at and Brian convinced him to take a picture with him.


Meanwhile, a family became curious with what was going on, and before long they were posing with our bikes!


After the break the roads started becoming very interesting. This was one of the main roads connecting the coast to the city of Medellin, a major city with a population of over 3 million people. So there were many trucks on this very windy mountainous road. Between hairpin turns, steep up and down grades, and many blind corners, the trucks were starting to hold up progress. But after watching many locals making seemingly suicidal passes and all the other drivers cooperating to make sure no one got in an accident, our confidence grew. Soon thereafter, the passing began!


Just peak your head around the corner, if there is any room, start to pass. The trucks were going so slow in areas, it took no time at all to get around them. Quickly we realized our advantage! Large motors which could accelerate uphill, all of us (other than my photographer) were connected through an intercom system so we could notify each other of oncoming traffic, as well as a renewed excitement as the temperature fell from elevation gain.

No evidence was found to give credibility to this sign:



The roads were extremely enjoyable to ride and the scenery was becoming increasingly interesting.



After several exhausting hours of seemingly perfect motorcycling roads, the final approach to Medellin began. As we got closer to the city, we began to notice much more touristy activities.


The following day, we took advantage in being in a large metropolitan area and went out in search of a place to get some motorcycle maintenance done. Brian was out to get sprockets, chain, and a rear tire put on his bike. Kalil and I were due for oil changes. After fighting a little traffic, we found the mecca for motorcycles! A whole street dedicated to motorcycles, accessories, parts, repair shops, fabrication shops, paint shops, yup, it was all there. This guy and I had a fun time changing my oil in his shop even though we only understood about 10% of what the other said!


Brian had noticed a machine shop next to where he had his tire changed (for under $10 USD! and faster than our oil changes!) and suggested to Kalil that he should take his ailing pannier over there to get fixed so that he could use the lock again. So not long after, I decided to take advantage of another machine shop to get an extra foot welded onto my kickstand:


For under $10, you could get a lot of work done! 30 minutes later, Kalil’s pannier was properly closing and locking, and my bike wasn’t leaning over as far when I put the kickstand down! So much accomplished and it was only a little bit past lunch time! Time to go find something touristy to do!

The heart of Medellin is in a valley along a river. As the city grew, it expanded up the mountain sides all around the heart of the city. This city is huge, FYI. While the public train system works great along the river in the flat area, it doesn’t work up into the hills around Medellin. So the solution is:


I’m a big fan of chair lifts. I’ve been building lifts for five summers, as well as riding them constantly for 14 winters. So checking out a metropolitan gondola that cost me less than a dollar to ride was exciting! The town has two more gondolas under construction as well! Maybe there is a future in lift building….

The following day, our destination was outside the city to a place that Brian and Karoline had researched. El Penon rock in Guatepe, Colombia. This huge rock sticking out like a sore thumb a midst rolling green hills happens to have a great view from the top of an area flooded by a large dam down river. They built a stairway to the top of the rock, creatively building the staircase into a crack in the rock!



The top elevation of the rock is around 7005ft (2135 meters) and after 675 steps, we are all still smiling!


The view:


After getting back down, it was time for lunch, where the view still was quite extraordinary.


That evening, my photographer had a date with an airplane to take her back to California. So this is all I have for now!


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