Those who Shrug

One thing that seems to be consistent wherever I go on the bike (and I have now been through ten countries) is the eternal attraction to almost everyone of a loaded up motorbike.
Sitting outside the hotel in Granada last night while having dinner, I was not wearing any recognizable motorbike gear and was therefore, just another tourist. My bike was parked nearby on the street. I watched people as they walked by and they pretty much all at least give the bike a good long look as they pass, and very often they stop and give the machine a walk around as well. It doesn't´t matter if they are tourists or locals, men or women, old or young - they almost all take a good long look.
What is it about the bike? Its dirty and scratched and heavy. Its not a particularly attractive machine as far as aesthetics go, and anyone with a little imagination can see that it is far from a comfortable way to travel around the place in anything but perfect weather conditions. Then of course there is the extreme limitation of stuff you can carry with you and the dangers of traveling so "naked".

So my guess is that the "attraction" is the dream of freedom that the bike symbolizes. It seems that almost everyone feels trapped and longs for the "freedom of the highway". A place where there is no one to burden you with responsibilities and you have no commitments to anything other than the whim of your own desires. People are envious of the riders ability to apparently just shrug off these burdens of life and they always offer up words of wonder and encouragement.

So then the question becomes, "If it is so attractive then why don´t more people do it?"
It seems to me that the answer is largely a question of fear... What will happen if they were to shrug? ....
But I can not judge people for their choices to shrug or not to shrug - There are far too many complexities in each of our lives for anyone else to see or judge. Believe me I know how trapped a person can feel and I know it took outside events to change and give me the opportunity to "take this ride".. But what I can say is that if my journey is in any way motivating for other people and if I can help others to find the will to face a little more of their fears and step out of their comfort zones just a bit, then I have done a good thing.

I too have plenty of my own fears and they play around in my mind constantly, But I´m getting better at recognizing them and I try to challenge them when I can. Some of them are still very big and I don´t have the courage for those battles yet, But others I can deal with and I become a better and stronger person every time I manage to make a choice that is in denial of fear. Little by little I am becoming more free :)

That freedom that we all want isn´t on the highway... its in the mind... and it is freedom from fear... and it can be done!

Bit of a Struggle

Well, I am now successfully here in Panama with my bike and gear all intact. Getting to this state was however a bit of a struggle!
The bike shipping effort took all day as mentioned earlier. Then the next day we headed to the airport at about mid-day to catch a 4:30 flight. We checked one piece of luggage and then "pfaffed" around in the lounge area for quite a while reading magazines and such But then we headed for the boarding longe in a hurry when we realized it was getting a bit late. We were in a line up for final customs waiting and Marie mentioned that she was surprised that they didn't do boarding announcements. To that I said that I strongly preferred it this way (I always prefer the quiet and I figure people should take responsibility for themselves - watches are cheap and easy to use. ) Anyway, less than two minutes after my bold statements, as we had just finished the customs stuff, one of the airline staff came up to us and informed us that the gate had closed and we had missed the flight!
Given my comments of minutes before, this was rather ironic to say the least :) We were both surprised by the situation given that it was still 15 minutes before flight time but there was little to be done about it...
I was a bit frustrated by the situation (given that I had alowed myself to not follow my usual airport protocols and just hung out with Marie, and let it "happen", but Marie was unperterbed by the results of casualness, and mostly just amused at the irony...
We were escorted back to check-in and after some wrangling, we were booked in (thankfully at no extra charge) for the next flight on a sister airline for an hour and a half later. This didn't´t cost us anything but it really should have since it was our own fault. - Yes it was very ironic, but in this case at least I think I was no hypocrite since I still feel the same about those annoying boarding announcements :)

That hurdle crossed, we successfully boarded the next flight in time and then found our selves in the Panama airport a couple of hours later. At that point, after some more "pfaffing" around, we decided to spend the night at the airport since it was going to be quite expensive to get a taxi to a hotel and stay the night and then another back to the airport in the morning. So, we found a quiet spot and lay on packs and fleece jackets for the night. I am eternally jealous of Marie as she seems to be able to get a good nights sleep almost anywhere. I on the other hand am one of the worst sleepers I know and I didn't´t get any sleep at all. It turned out though that the money saving measures were worth while...
Next morning, after a coffee, from the international passenger terminal we got a taxi to the cargo terminal and found the office of the people who shipped the bikes for us. A quick peek in the warehouse confirmed that the bikes were there and in good order. We then set about trying to get them out but found that the Panama end of the operation had added on an extra hundred dollars or so of charges. We did not like this!
We were very polite but did not wish to pay since we had asked very clearly and specifically about this and the agent had been very sure that this would not happen. Marie is also an former senior employee of one of the worlds largest freight companies (Maersk) and knows very well how things like this work, so I mostly sat back and let her handle things. So we sent emails and made phone calls and waited but in the end, as Marie expected (thoug she apparently hadnt "expected" it when we had shipped the bikes out of Colombia a few days ago?), we changed nothing. In the end we paid the difference and all I can do now is put a post on the most viewed motorcycle adventure touring web site in the world (Horizons.Com) that this particular agent sux! - But on later reflection I decided that I cant be bothered wasting further energy on these guys so I'm just going to move on and let it "slide", but the company concerned is "Metacarga" for those who are interested.

So, then we had to do a bit of other paperwork at rather distributed sites (involved hitch hiking in the back of a pick-up) before we had our babies back in our care. After that it was relatively easy to find our way back into the city and to the backpacker place that we had stayed at about six weeks ago - love that GPS :)
It was then mid day ish and we separated to get some tasks done in the city. My end of the deal was to find some motorcycle engine oil so we could each do an oil change. Bike oil is not the same as car oil and there are about three kinds: 2-stroke oil that is mixed with the fuel for small 2-stroke engines - very common in the cities down here but not correct for us. Synthetic 4-stroke oil that is great for our big bikes but costs about $15 per litre down here (and we needed 6 litres for the two changes) - again not for us. And finally, Mineral 4-stroke oil - good enough for our bikes and only costs about $5 per litre. So I got a taxi at random and said "take me to your motorbike shop". He promptly did so but alas... They had only the two sorts of oil that I didn't´t want. So, back in the taxi and off to another place... Same problem... then again.... and again... and again. I have no idea what was causing this phenomenon but we finally managed to find some only on the sixth attempt! After that, I taxied back to the hostel in the evening and felt rather beat-up by the whole day.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Seperation Anxiety

Yesterday was "ship the bike" day.
It took about seven hours to get through all the steps between getting the bike out of the hostel (tricky to get it back out into the street with the full luggage load from being parked in the back court yard) to returning by taxi in the evening.
There was no real stress involved though since the people that I came into contact with were all very helpful and friendly. The agent that was doing the shipping was very friendly too and really all I had to do was spend most of the day waiting around in various places - They did all the worrying for me :)
The bike was handled well while I was there too. It was loaded onto forklifts twice in order to get it up onto the loading platform and then again to weigh it in on the scales (285Kg fully loaded - that's 50Kg more bike and gear than Marie´s KLR650!). There was also a police inspection of the luggage but it wasn't too thorough (not that I had anything to hide) .
So at around 6pm in the evening I walked away from the airport with my helmet in my hand and no motorbike. It was quite a strange feeling after the last five months with the bike as a constant companion. It was just as strange this morning, waking up at the hostel and seeing a blank space in the back court yard where there was no bike.
I catch a flight myself this evening and I guess I´ll see if the bike has made it through the trip without damage when I try to go through the Panama version of the "waiting game" to get the bike through customs there - probably on Thursday morning.

The Old Spit on The Gringo Scam

So, I´m tooling around here in Bogota Colombia while I try to figure out a cheap way to get back across the Darrien Gap. It seems there is no cheap way other than the boat option (about $600) that we took to get down here in the first place. This is not a very attractive option for a couple of reasons. First is the obvious not wishing to repeat the unpleasantness of the voyage South and the corrosion damage to the bike. The second reason is that this is the wrong time of year and finding boats going North that can take motorcycles would likely take several weeks of waiting in Cartegena which I have already done enough of. The alternative to boats is to fly. I looked into this in Ecuador but the price was high so I rode here to Bogota since the price was reputed to be about $650. I have now looked into this with a couple of cargo companies and it seems I was somewhat misled! The best price I can get is $875 for the bike and then there is another $350 for my own ticket. This is a bit of a bummer but there seems little option at this stage.

On a side note, I could probably ride to the southern tip of South America and then ship the bike back to Canada in a container and fly myself home for the same cost. It would also likely take me about the same time to ride South as to ride North. So why not do it?
Well, because I am tired of touristing, the season is wrong, and I would not do justice to all the wonderful things there are to see in South America. My choice remains to head North.

OK, once I had decided to take the expensive flight back to Panama I then found that the cargo agent will only take US$ and not credit card. So, on Monday morning I trotted off to the bank to change some travelers cheques into cash. This was possible but it cost me an extra fee to do it (which it is not supposed to grrr !"$%&*). Then I headed back toward the hostel I was staying at and to find a travel agent to get a ticket for a flight for me.
A couple of blocks along the way, I suddenly had something wet land on the side of my neck. I figured I had been hit by one of the many pigeons in the city. I assumed the worst and was wondering if I had any tissues or napkins on me so I could wipe myself off without making a bigger mess of things. While I was doing this, I felt some movement around my right front pocket. My hand responded automatically and I found I was holding onto the wrist of a short, middle aged, and well dressed woman with her hand buried in my wallet pocket!
Eye contact was made and she seemed quite indignant and after a surprised/mean look I let her go and continued to deal with the mess on my neck. I wiped it with my hand and discovered that it was probably saliva rather than bird excreta. So, while I didn't´t see the set up, I am pretty sure that is what it was - a perfectly timed distraction within two blocks of leaving a bank and a hand in my pocket - Too much to be coincidence. I had however moved the large amount of cash to an inside pocket in my daypack and was fully wearing the pack (both shoulder straps on) so I would not have lost that much. I had not seen any suspicious behavior at or outside the bank, and I had paid some attention to that sort of stuff. Likewise, I had not noticed anyone following but I was not really looking for it either. It seems my senses and reflexes were enough to save me this time :)
Oh well, got away with it this time...Live and learn :))

Clean Trucks but No Shower Heads

A couple of other observations about Colombia:

Nowhere else in the world have I noticed people tacking so much trouble to keep their trucks clean. I'm talking about the big road rigs here (but I suspect it applies equally to individual cars too). Throughout the whole length of the country, the highways are continually lined with roadside truck washing areas. The water is usually gathered from mountain side creeks and brought down to the road side using 20-50m of poly pipe. It is then a free supply of water with good pressure. These areas are outside of virtually every single dwelling located alongside any highway.
The people here seem to really care about their truck´s appearance and usually about one in three of the sites is occupied by a truck being cleaned. The exception to this is on Sunday when almost every site is occupied and people are out with long handled brooms scrubbing their favourite Juggernaut :)

On a related note, there seems to be an acute shortage of shower heads here in Colombia (in Mexico it was fuel caps for trucks). Most of the hotels that I have stayed in , even the good ones, seem to be missing the shower heads in the bathrooms. It just seems a little strange that people would steal these minor items...They cant be that expensive to buy. Its no real problem since the flow of water is just as effective for getting clean with (if a little less enjoyable) but I don't understand why the phenomenon exists.... Just another of life's little puzzles.

Locked in for the Night on the Road to Bogota

I have just arrived in Bogota Colombia.
It took us three days to get here from Quito. The first day we had boarder formalities that took a little longer than hoped, so we stopped in Pasto at the same hotel as we did on the way south. This was the hotel we had the "noisy night" in but we were smarter this time and took a room on the top floor. It was also a Monday night and it was far quieter - Much more sleep was had by all :)

The second day we made good progress and made it to a town called Palmira, but we took a risk and stayed in a fancy looking Motel just out of town. The security at the place was quite surprising till we figured out what it was all for. There was a large bared gate at the entrance and communication was through a mirrored window and intercom. they let us in and we asked to see the accommodations. We walked over to one of the doors and on the way immediately noticed that every single room had private parking with big metal doors to close the vehicles in, and the only doors to the rooms were from the garage (ie behind the double steel doors). This all seemed rather "over secure". Not to worry, we went in and had a look at the room which was large and very clean and tidy and even had a gym bench in there. It was then that I noticed the instructions for the gym bench on the wall ... It indicated about eight different "arrangements" for two people to "use" the bench!
Smiles were stifled and a request was made for a simpler and cheaper room which was then provided.

Then the next little surprise was that the staff wanted to lock us in for the night! It turned out that the garage doors could only be opened and closed from the outside! It also turned out that the only way to get in or out or any sort of service was by using the phone and that if you ordered from the menu in the room, the requested items were delivered via a little metal box inserted in one wall. There was a door on the inside of the box and a door on the outside of the box...
And a closer look at the menu indicated that there was a section titled "extras" with some very exotic items available!!!
So, it was quite clear what this place was mostly used for... People could drive up in a car with tinted windows and get a room and any needed supplies via phone service and then depart when they were finished without anybody ever having seen their faces. Likewise, other people in the motel would never get to see them or even see their car or number plates. So it was not so much secure as "Private". Regardless of the uses other people put the place to, the room was very clean, very large, and very quiet and so I think it was good value for money :)

Another good nights sleep was had by all.

Day three was spent heading East to Bogota. The road goes through two very large mountain ranges (at right angles) and the whole day was spent either climbing or descending on very twisty mountain roads. These are not hills but real mountains. The scale is like Switzerland and the GPS showed that we had over 3000m of height difference between our high and low points. It was baking hot down in the valley and freezing cold at the high points of both mountain ranges.
The traffic was more or less as expected and we were either fighting our way up past strings of very large trucks crawling up the switchbacks or we were coasting down the same sorts of roads just waiting for the face to face confrontation as the big trucks decide to pass each other on the way up in the other direction and take absolutely all of the road up when they do. We had several exciting encounters but we are both experienced riders and it was really just another day on the roads down here.
Then we arrived in the outskirts of Bogata and I have to say that the traffic here is probably the most chaotic that I have ridden in on this trip. They really have no idea about driving in lanes, and the rules for merging and changing position on the road are different but quite simple = If you can see a gap in front of you and you can get to it then do! Don't worry about what is going on beside or behind you and if you do it reasonably slowly then you can assume other drivers will avoid you. It seems to work OK.
The city its self is the most crowded that I have been in so far (both pedestrians and vehicles) and the roads are confusing too. So we ended up following a taxi to a hostel that had been recommended to us. This also worked fine.

Safe in Bogata... Tomorrow figuring out about flights to Guatemala and Panama for people and bikes.

Time to Turn the Titanic Around

I´ve now been in Quito for a week.
The city is nice enough (as cities go) but the weather here has been less than fantastic. It has rained in the afternoon of every day but one so far and there have only been two mornings where there was blue sky. This is apparently how it is at this time of year, and it seems that it is the same on the coast, in the mountains and also over in the Amazon jungle.
So, what have I done with my rainy week - not a lot :)
I was planning to do some maintenance work on my bike; I was planning to go check out the old city; I was planning to go on some day rides to nearby towns and volcanoes... But well, it really doesn't feel like fun fighting the traffic in the rain, so I´ve been taking a break, just wandering around in the tourist section of town, watching a few videos, and wondering what to eat next.

I´m definitely feeling a bit burnt out from the touristing life and I´m comfortable with Quito being my turn around point for this trip. I think I´d rather come back to Ecuador another time (with good weather - August they say is best) and see the Galapagos Islands before riding to the Southern tip of the continent. I´ve been looking into the options for getting back over the Darrien gap and I'm hoping to fly it this time rather than the unpleasantries of another boat trip. So far the options are to fly from either here or Bogota in Columbia, both with a destination of Panama. Its cheaper from Bogota but less hassle from here in Quito. I will make a choice in the next day or two and then set about heading back north. From Panama I will ride North but I expect I will take a break of a few weeks somewhere in the ride to alleviate the burn-out. Not sure what or where or when - We´ll just have to see what comes up.