Landfall in Columbia was at Cartegena which is a colonial city on the North Coast.
Apparently the place was regularly attacked by pirates when it was used by the Spanish as the main port for shipping the treasures of the new world back to Spain. Francis Drake was one of the pirates that totally sacked the place back in the 16th century. The Spanish then spent two centuries building massive fortifications around the town and port. These walls and forts are still here (They are indeed massive!) and the old section of the town within the walls has been very well preserved. The town has become a major tourist destination in Columbia and with good reason; The architecture and atmosphere are wonderful. The old buildings with stone entryways and hidden courtyards with fountains and swimming pools are magnificent. The flower covered balconies throughout the old town make me seriously think about what it would be like to live here for a while.
The town is hot during the day but in the evening the place really comes alive with al-fresco dining everywhere (it is a bit full of tourists though). In short, I would have to say that it blows away my previous "best city experiences" on the trip (Oaxaca and San Christobal de Las Casas in Mexico).
After we arrived from the boat, we spent a day recovering from the days of sea-sickness induced starvation (ie just drinking and eating and making little moans of satisfaction).
Then the next day was spent getting the bikes off the boat and running again. This proved more difficult than hoped and Marie spent the morning taking her bike apart and putting it back together. Eventually her bike started up fine after we had towed it up and down the street for about a kilometer (I guess it still had its own version of sea-sickness to get over). The big seas and strong winds meant that the salt-water dousing were constant for the bikes and it was really hard on them
- Note to Motorbike Riders - Don´t take your bike to sea if you care about it!!
The amount of corrosion on all exposed metal surfaces and especially on any exposed electrical wiring and contacts was terrible. We had prep´ed the bikes as best we could and had sprayed all the sensitive bits with WD-40 but it seemed to make no difference at all. So each of us spent more or less a full day in Cartegena working over our bikes very thoroughly and trying to get rid of as much of the corrosion as possible.
So, now we have been in town for almost a week and the bikes are about ready to move. Ive got a few more touristy things to see here and then I´ll likely head East along the North coast. Then from looking at my map and some reading it looks like more or less a straight run South into Ecuador over about a week or so. I´m yet to ride around in the country and they say you need to be much more careful than in Central America, but we´ll just see how it goes.
