Heya Sara, in Tunja tonight, somewhere else tomorrow night then Medellin on Tuesday afternoon.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Heading off from the highlands of Choachi heading down to Villavicencio we had a wee surprise of three Royal Enfields out for a hoon.





We made attempts to meet ADVer DaytonaMike in Villavicencio no reply so we continued north and took a shortcut which took an interesting turn.

It was a road through the open backlands of the eastern side, we took a turn which led us down a road winding through farmlands and plantations so very nice indeed.

It was hot so we played in the puddles to cool the boots



Upon leaving a small town our road turned into a single lane vehicle track that slowly but surely disintegrated to a riverbed style of road, we should have known better at this point.



Coming across a small creek we forded it, it was dirty so could not see the bottom or rock, it was also a greasy as a mechanics rag so proved interesting, clip on the pic to play.



Negotiating it successfully we carried on with the track getting gnarlier the it appeared ... a river .... a BIG brown river, we would not even cross it in our truck shown up above let alone on Maya loaded so yeap a bit of a show stopper.



Oh dear, to turn around was a l o n g way back but to cross was impossible.

Turn back, our only option so we did crossing back over the slippery creek and backtracking some 14 km to the turnoff, again turn left and go wide out or go way back and backtrack back up the main road so we chose to turn left clobbering miles of rough stoney roads and finally finding the magical bridge which we were very happy to find or it would have been an epic back track.

This skinny bridge was a welcome sight





Destination was Villanueva, only because we were running miles behind and I was spent, it was also nudging 40 degrees so we were dripping hot, luckily we found a reasonably priced hotel with sort of air-conditioning to save the day.

The last bit of today was so slow with lumpy roads



In fact SO slow today that our shadow got sick of waiting for us then overtook us ... the cheek of it

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Time to head back up to the highlands where we don’t dissolve in the heat :rofl, this whiteyfoo and 40 degrees hmmmm, today was grey so the big black ribbon was not bouncing heat back up at us which came as such a bonus.

A huge rain storm had crossed only seconds ahead of us at one point, only getting a few spits of rain on the screen but our boots got a good wash, Maya receiving a quick waterblast.

We hit the 56 road turnoff squirreling up the zig zag which was mint before leveling off and following the gorge which was very brown from mum nature giving the landscape some watering (turns out a lot of watering).

Stunning day



Brown soup



The supermoto circuit came to an abrupt stop and the adventure bike circuit started with gusto.



Before we knew it we were into some very rocky terrain, greasy as well, hmmmm time to back off the speed.



Turns out we were in for a massive roadworks treat, mum nature had dealt to the road in epic proportions in places and the damage is significant, several places there was roadworks with big front end loaders and a few big bullys pushing water laden earth around, the mud in these parts was up to 200 mm deep and well beyond MT 90 and Heidenau safe working limits so we slid around like an eel on a hot plate.

Near the end when we found a small creek we washed the radiator out so Maya wouldn't overheat.



Making it through the sloppy section of about 50 km the “zona de tunels” appeared, at least we knew then we were on the right road (this time), the waterfalls inside the tunnels and entry to the tunnels were amazing, we were getting more and more soaked INSIDE the tunnels, some of them enough to fill buckets in seconds.

A clear river, seems the storm was localised, this could be anywhere in New Zealand south island



Raining inside the tunnel



This leads you all the way up to the reservoir Embalse La Esmerdald then around the reservoir towards civilization.

Villa De Leyva was meant to be our destination however we fell short of that too (see a patten forming), late in the day, spent from the mudplug we crashed it in at Guacheta.

Guacheta is a small industrial mining town, not what you would call a tourist trap but a nice quiet place to stop and the hotel had hot water ...PERFECT, parking was a little skinny but the owner said hey no worries and people had to walk sideways past Maya, she was a big grubby too from the shenanigans earlier in the day.

Dirty bum!!!:rofl



So ok, here is our second attempt at a vid, this with Latin music hopefully not banned, governed, restricted, patented or without by north American law

Tried to embed but my net nolegde not good

Road 56 Tunnels, Colombia - YouTube

For those maybe unable to see it try this

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Will definitely take that as a compliment

EDIT, mate what a cool site you have going on there too!

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Not a big day planned and a gentle scoot through backroads to Villa De Leyva which is a small tourist stop.

For us today was a backroad tour through the pottery manufacturing capital.





Villa De Leya

The tourist town with a HUGE main square or Plaza as they call them here.



Sun setting over the Plaza



A local ... flat out!!!



Was a nice town to visit with many tourist attractions, while there we wanted to see the Teracota Casa, what a seriously cool place.

Here is a couple of pics, if you wonna see tonnes more click on the pic which will take you to our album





While there we did a short climb to the lookout to try and work off some empanadas which have been slowly accumulating thus making a spare tire on us .... we don’t have room for this.

That white dude was copying me :rofl



View from the top looking down into town



On the way back down we stopped at the loveheart (as ya do)



It is actually quite big



The funny things you find in a small town, a Kiwi knife, made in China, found in Villa De Leyva in Colombia fairly international trade goin on there



The place we stayed at has a puppy, pretty groovy wee felless she was keen to play and even keener on our lunch.



Next small ride to Sacama, on a red road which means it is paved and easy, after floundering around on some rough backroad it will be nice to see some tar and twisties for a while .....what can possibly go wrong :rofl .. :huh... :eek1

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

G,DAY GUYS, GREAT TO SEE YOU STILL ON THE ROAD,
LOVE THE PHOTO,S. I WILL KEEP MY EYE ON THIS THREAD.
YOU,VE MADE IT FEEL I,M ON ROAD WITH YOU GUYS, KEEP
IT COMING AND SAFE RIDING CHEERS GUYS THANKS, ROGER.

Still going strong, great to see. First time I've checked in on your thread for a while, and still loving it
Funnily enough I thought of your adventures when deciding if I'll pop back home for Christmas; which will include visiting my sister in Wanaka

Warrick

Great to have you along Roger, still chugging away, only a couple of weeks left and Ecuador calls

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Heya Warrick, we won't be home for another two Christmases yet b u t if you come when we are there be sure to look us up.

We are not hard to find.

BTW what does your sister do in Wanaka?

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

With an easy day set in mind we headed north to find our paved road was in fact no quite paved and in fact was quite lumpy, easy enough then we hit tar :clap

An unusual church in Santa Sofia



We made it to Paipa and stopped for lunch and were looking at maps and GPS deciding which way to go.

While at lunch I heard a 4 cyl bike go past, slow down and stop, then turn around and come back (we were also on a one way street but that makes no difference here) :rofl

I local dude was out on a ride and stopped to look at Maya, I went out to find him positioning the bikes for a full on photo, he had managed to talk the hot young lusty from the girls lingerie shop to take a pic.

Classic, next thing I was in there too big smiles all round.

The rider came into the restaurant and we chatted about place to go he duly pointed to where we had been looking which was Lake Tota set at 3200 meters.

Lunch was had, goodbyes etc and we were on our way, tap dancing over toppes, going around cars and making the potholes even bigger with the 950 trench cutter.

A cool monument between Paipa and Lake Tota



Our road wound its way up and over via shingle and tar, a marriage we had gotten used to, climbing up and over the pass it got cold, Lake Tota in sight it is beautiful and clear.

Paddocks at 3600 meters take on a different look







The town of Aqitana was in our sights as the place to stay, although early in the afternoon it was easy.

Rocking into town Maya created quite the storm, we tried to find a reasonable priced hotel but nup, the cheapest was $35 mil and was a POS the next level was set for tourists rather than travellers.:huh



The local Police got in on the act and there was a competition to find a hotel amongst the force with each one reporting back to camp leader who was with us.



In the end they said sorry nothing reasonably priced ... with hand shakes and thank yours we headed to Sogamoso with our afternoon starting to expire.

That was a neat hoon down a great road, now trying to find a reasonable hotel in this area was turning out to be a mish and we had no luck there in the big city, I think we were in the wrong place.

With Mongui not far away it had the appeal of a small place in the hills, so ..... aim, fire and we set off on a reasonable road which turned into a small single lane dirt road and Mrs.Garmin kindly leading us through a myriad of back road cross stitch, at 4 km to go Mrs.Garmin had a moment and recalculated, by this time it was dark and she added another 6 km of backroad which was slow going, we were very grateful for outstanding lighting from the LEDs, ..... s o ....Ok, (as given to us from another famous RTW traveller) rule 1 ..... always trust your GPS, rule 2 .....never trust your GPS, rule 3 ..... refer rule 1

With the end in sight we chose option 1 & 3 eventually getting into town under the shadow of darkness.

Now Mongui is a very very quiet wee place, hard to sneak in quietly on the bike and we caught the attention of the local police (again) as we rode around the town square the wrong way ... again :rofl, a quick telling off then he helped us get to our hostel.

What started as plenty of time diminished quickly with a string of events, Mongui sits at 3200 meters so again it was cold, perfect for sleeping in.

A good nights sleep was had after a coupla rum roadies.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

The loop we did so it all makes sense



We decided to stay two nights at Mongui as we had done some reasonably big back road days consisting of 90% plus shingle, rocks and mud so Mongui turned into a rest spot.

Monguis big specialty is the beautiful church in the main plaza



And a neat wee stream with trout in it



Upon leaving we had visions of heading to Sacama then up to El Cocuy, it was a “red” road on the map and all previous “red” roads had tarmac of varying quality so doable, leaving Mongui was sealed for about 10 km then that was it.

We past a horse and cowboy mob celebrating the Colombian soccer win, these guys were into it.



Heading deeper into the mountains we uncleverly past our last fuel stop thinking there was one further up (the station we went past was packed) but with 30 L tank and still a healthy volume it wasn’t an issue until we really started to climb and climb for miles.

We stopped at a gasolinera and found out that where we were heading was no more gas until Sacama and quite some climb yet, also the road getting rougher meant lower gears so more fuel usage.

In order to play safe and not get stuck at nearly 4000 meters we put in 2 gallons and set off into the distance climbing and climbing.





Reaching the top of the valley we rode many km on top of the world in a stunning moonscape tortured by mum nature due to the elevation and pretty much having the entire place to ourselves.





Back to our visions, well, that didn’t quite pan out as the road roughened and got muddier with some repairs done to the pot holes, a smoothe section with attempted fixes.:rofl



There were small tarns dotted around the landscape with small waterfalls



The road then got muddy ....and stayed like that for a considerable distance.





Then came the mind torture, Mrs.Garmin was happy then said do a U turn and drive 60 km ... WTF .... then continue 60 km straight ahead, then do a U turn, then drive 44 km ahead, U turn, 20 km ahead, U turn, 44 km ahead.

Starting to wonder what was going on we stopped at a house and asked ...she said si senor todo derecho (yes sir straight ahead).

Back to not sure whether to trust the GPS we did continue, human intervention payed off with the basics of well there was no road to turn off and no other way around it so it must be right, trust your own gut instinct.

Mrs.Garmin kept telling lies, then went from 60 km, down to 40 km, down to 20 km down to 4.4 km in the space of 2 km, we spotted a place of worship of significant size and the road got very good very quick like within 100 meters from mush and mud to this in the pic... ah ha civilization, sure enough just after that we spotted Sacama with some relief of not having an epic backtrack.



Sacama was a late afternoon lunch then we hit it to get out to Hato Corozal, the police said two hours .... for 61 km .... WTF ...no way man we are on a big bike, he was right, rough as a river bed in places then were saw the smooth stuff in the distance .... you beauty .... erh wrong that was sandpit and lots of it so yeap a false friend in the distance kinda like a mirage in a desert.

Rough road and mum nature decided we were too smelly :rofl



The dreaded smooth bits and the welcomed lumps beside it, this was our road for some 20 km.



Then this, huge straights, very wide





A quick 180 of the scene, the big black baddies is where we came from, click on the pic to play



Making it into Hato Corozal there was a huge festival .... NOT a sausage of accom anywhere, thankfully it was only 20 minute blast down real tarmac that was actually almost smooth down to Paz De Aiporo so we laid our bones down to rest for the night there, certainly no tourist town but excellent food.

Another accidental big day .... almost like work.

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

After the big day it was a tarseal cowboy jaunt for a while, looking out east of the mountains towards Venezuela there is an empty expanse you could hide New Zealand in ... it is just huge.:eek1

Entering into Aguazul the road was blocked with hundreds of trucks and cars .... again so we pushed our way to the end of the line, a young Policeman was there and just flagged us through, the next Policeman at mid point said no you can’t go through ... WTF so we had a language barrier discussion in the middle of the street as he said we had to wait two hours for when the bike race was coming through.

We only needed to go about 50 meters and we were home free. We parked Maya and I walked over to “the other end” 50 meters away and in pig spinglish asked if we could come through to another young Policeman behind some cones ....he kinda indicated ok.:clap

Raced casually back to Maya, Ellen and put our gear on quietly outa sight of Mr.Plod no 2 who wouldn't let us through then hit the button without looking back while aiming directly for the policeman with the cones at which point he shifted the cones and we carried on through ... too easy. WOH HOH ... there are merits in not quite understanding and looking very different :rofl

Our intention was to get to the salt church and we took a short cut so we didn’t have to backtrack on a road we had done, we had a great time wondering around backroads that turned out to be anything other than a shortcut .. I shoulda learnt by now.

This is common sight, the militars giving the thumbs up, it is not that they like our bike it means you are ok and safe to pass, great job you guys!!!! .... and I always thought they all liked KTM 950 Super Enduros :rofl



We did however get to ride through beautiful gorges and mostly on tarseal .....to that point



Lake Tota was on the list to go back past then turn off into the unknown which it really did turn out to be.



There are bits of civilisation dotted around here and their



Later in the afternoon at 3800 meters and a road ending by a small lake that looked like a picture from Dr Seuss we opted to take the road down to Tunja.





We had at that point spent all afternoon skunking around in the back yard again on shingle etc .... hmmm we am not very good at staying on tar.

We knew the road would go to Tunja as we had run out of other roads so by process of elimination it worked.

Tunja sits at 3000 meters so we didn’t pull out the speedos, alway a bonus to sleep at that height tho with cooler temps.

We made the most of the cooler temps as the next day we were heading back down to the lowlands ..... note slightly warm :huh

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Heading back to Medellin to get the rear shock checked, radiator protectors on and new Motorex blood for the engine we hit the tar seal to Barbosa.

Although we had come through this road prior it was from the opposite way and with the wetter conditions it bought out waterfalls etc so it seemed like an entirely new road and of course the view where opposite, it is amazing what you see looking back, this was not flowing last time :eek1



This was new road (for a change) and again with mum nature feeding the land it made for great waterfalls.



Heading up and over the road from Barbosa we had already done however we had already covered most roads so ran out of options at that point :huh. We did get to see more this time as the weather/fog was clearer :clap

During the night there had been massive thunder storms west of us, luckily the road up and over the top had missed most of it and was pretty dry as there is upwards of 50 km of ratty roadworks.

Getting back down onto the main drag we headed toward Puerto Boyaca to stay the night, along this road the amount of rain had become apparent but we were unaffected being on tar for a change.

Creeks were full and this was common sight along here.



Not much more to say cos it was an easy open road ride ...... nice for a change :clap

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

As said

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere