Turbo 3/3/11

Colombia Coca-Cola, 2007
Antonio Caro
Museum of Modern Art, Medellin


We reached Turbo dirty, broke, with no idea where to go and a rusty motorcycle without a permit. Very happy to be on the mainland finally.

First thing I noticed when getting off in Turbo was the motorcycles. 9 out of 10 vehicles is a motorcycle, most being 100cc 2 strokes or 125cc 4 strokes.

We had several things to do.

1. Find an ATM. Easy. Rate was about 1900 Colombian pesos to the dollar.

2. Find a hotel. "Hotel Good Nigth" (no typo) fit the bill, for 20,000 pesos.

3. Wash the salt off the bike. There was a "parquedero de motos" (parking place for motorcycles) across the street, which had water and I washed it there.

4. Get a bike permit. The friendliness of the Colombian people really came to light at this point. Buisness owners volunteered to watch the motorcycle. Police were friendly and helpful, apparently not perturbed by the fact that we were riding an illegal motorcycle. Buerecrats made phonecalls for us. Eventually we found out we needed to go to the DIAN office, that was located on the military base on the beach. Sometime in the past I remember reading that Colombians customs were very difficult and could take weeks. Not sure where I heard that, but Colombian customs were a breeze. In and out 5 minutes, very simple paperwork. Plus, it cost nothing.

Turbo is one of two big port town destinations on the North side of Colombia. If you take the cheap route across the Darien Gap, you will probably end up at Turbo. If you take a nice sailboat cruise, you will end up at Cartegena. Cartegena is famous for Colonial Architecture and tourism. Boring! Turbo is famous for being dirty and dangerous. Give me Turbo any day.

We spent two days in Turbo doing some busy work. Getting the stitches out of Michelle's head, updating the blogs, getting the motorcycle permit, things of that nature.

We began the road to Medellin, which brings me to the next thing I noticed about Colombia. Incredible variety of scenery. A few hours ride in any direction and you will be in a completely different climate. Beaches, amazonian jungle, Andes mountains, desert. You have it all in Colombia.

The route to Medellin is a rough one. Takes 8 to 12 hours. There are frequent closures due to landslides, protests or Guerilla action. Luckily it was open when we were coming down.

Colombian security is much improved over the past few years, but there are still signs of unrest. On the radio a few days earlier we heard that the Guerilla had burned four cars. Sure enough, we saw all four of the scars on the road.


Crazy scenery. Dense jungle to the Andes mountains in a few hours.





And of course the road itself was amusing too.


We stopped at a small roadside fruit stand for some Avocados to supplement our lunch. "How much for these two?" "Oh just take them, their a gift." Things like this would be common in Colombia. Latin America is generally an incredibly friendly place, but Colombia stands out.


Slept in the small town of Debeina for the night. Lovely little hotel for $6us. Clean, small, cool. I recommend it.


As I unpacked I realized that sometime during the process of packing up to leave Turbo I lost the tailbag with all my tools and spares. We called the hotel but no luck. I felt completely naked without a set of tools with me. This would have to be fixed soon.

Medellin 3/6/11

Next day we arrived in Medellin. I will never forget coming around the corner and seeing Medellin for the first time. Surrounded on all sides by the towering Andes mountains, Medellin's red brike houses overflow onto the mountain sides. Skyscrapers shoot up from the center, almost as high as the small mountain that sticks up from the center of the city. We were moving too fast to take any good pictures, but here's a shot anyway.


Again, tons of motorcycles.


You may remember we repaired a flat front tire in Guatemala. We had unsuccesfully been search through 7 countries of a correct 100/90/16 tire. Well after we had patched the tire for the third time on the way to Medellin I decided it was time to stop being picky. We stopped at the first tire shop as we entered Medellin and they quickly located a 110/90/16 tire. Close enough right? Once they had mounted it I realized what a monster it was. Big dirt tire. I love the look, but the low speed handling did suffer.

$43 installed. Random China tire.

Medellin is the former capital of Colombia, and it's home to almost 4 million people. It has an interesting reputation. Some will say it's a historic cultural center, others will talk about crime and prostitution. Definitely both of these things. Theaters, museums and history combined with the grime, characters and convenience of the big city. Definitely my favorite city of the trip so far.

No shortage of cheap love hotels. We stayed in "El Encuentro" for $6us per night. Tiny room, but it had a private bath, cable TV and an ipod-ready stereo system. The downside was the other guests. Some nights we were kept up by two rooms battling to see who could turn the stereo up the loudest, other nights it would be somebody jamming out on the bongos, sometimes it would be a nosiy client with his prostitute. Ah, the memories.

We did the touristy thing, checked out the museums of modern art and the Botero plaza.

Fernando Botero is probably the most well knwon Colombian artist, famous for his "volumous" interpretations of people and things. Medellin's contemporary art museum had a whole floor dedicated to him, and the plaza outside had huge Botero statues.


"Pablo Escobar is Dead"



With the Botero Statues;


Cool plaza.


Lots of little theaters around Medellin, doing performance and film. One night we went to a theater doing a performance of Synthia Plath´s (the poet) life. $5us for students, comes with a and coffee. Live music, incredible actors and actresses. Very cool.


The food in Medellin is great. You can get a delicious dinner on the street for $3000 pesos ($US 1.60).


Also tried Arepas. Similar to the pupusas of El Salvador. Arepa de Chocolo (left) is made with a sweet corn dough and topped with white cheese and butter. The Arepa de Quesito is made from a lighter dough (rice?), filled with cheese and topped with lecherita (condensed milk cream stuff). Incredibly delicious, incredibly bad for you. A must try.


The last night in Medellin was a Saturday night. Apparently all the hotels increase their prices, and we couldn't justify $20,000 for our current hotel so we searched for something cheaper. We found a little green door downtown, and inside was the equivelent of a tenement house. Big space subdivided into makeshift rooms with cardboard-thin plywood. Mostly for long term rental but they offered us a room for $4.00us for the night, bike parking included. Our room was a closet with a mattress and a black and white TV with one channel. Perfect! Cheapest hotel of the trip yet.

The plan was to go to sleep early, get up at 6am and do the 8 hour drive to Medellin. Just as were about to go to sleep the kids living in the building discovered us. We spent the next four hours chatting and entertaining them. They brought us sweets, a bit of sausage, a bottlecap, their english homework and a prized 12" LP record (Golazos Del Mundial '94). Really sweet kids, very cool experience.


We got to sleep just around 2am. There goes our plans! Worth it.