Day-1 (Bogota to Ibague)

We are used to the large & bulky sidecases of the R1200RTon our other trips, so Mrs Adventure, who also heads the packing department, was very upset seeing these narrow looking metal sidecases, but I assured her these will indeed carry more stuff than the odd shaped RT sidecases and I couldn’t have been more correct. The provided liner bags has the capability to hold a lot of things. Indeed, I came away very impressed with the fit, finish, ruggedness, waterproof qualities etc of these aluminum sidecases made by a local Colombian company MASTECH.

In the morning looking out of the window, it’s a cloudy day. After gulping down a nice breakfast at B3 hotel and loading up the cases we started out from the big and busy bogota city in peak morning rush hour traffic. The Colombian capital city of Bogota, which is part of the Cundinamarca municipality located high on the Andes mountains at a height of 8600 feet, its the third highest capital city in South America.





Proudly affixing the tricolor





It’s the Colombian rule that either the helmet or jacket should display the bike plate no



The customary parting shots







With a population of about 8 million, it is indeed a crowded city and the traffic is chaotic. While most cars were keeping to their lanes, the small capacity commuter bikes (mostly Indian made Bajaj Pulsars, TVS Apaches and Hero Hondas), are zipping past us and splitting lanes at will.

Me with the fully loaded tall GS and its extra wide cases was not in a position to split lanes and flowed slowly with the car/bus traffic. At one point where the oncoming traffic lane passes 4-5 feet higher than our going lane, an oncoming bus splashes some water that lands directly in our face & mouth thru the open helmet visor. Yuk…. As we are riding out of town there is a lot of anxious moments mainly due to the complete lack of Spanish language reading skills (traffic signboards), which we hadnt thought much about while planning. The concern was more about being stranded on a deserted highway or forest with no knowledge of local language.









































Anyways the ride thru the Andes mountain range was very scenic with a welcome overdoze of greenery all around. We stopped along the highway for lunch at a small restaurant where we ordered our meal thru a cocktail of sign language and google translate! Enjoyed the lovely food served by a friendly mother-daughter team that ran the place.





Bikes just pass thru a dedicated narrow lane and don’t pay toll charges in Colombia

























The mother-daughter duo that run the eatery



Proceeding further our highway 40 passed the towns of Soacha, Silvania, Boqueron, Melgar, El Espinal, Chicoral and we ended the day in Ibague. We faced a mix of cool weather, rain, humidity and scorching heat(remember, we are close to the equator). Once in Ibague, it was a small town with tight streets and some dodgy looking streets as well. Anyways our GPS dumps us to the Hotel Dann Combeima. It is located in a nice part of town that is safe for 3-4 blocks all around and there are lots of shopping & eatery spots around.







Sorry, I only have one passenger, and I don’t intend dropping her off…..























































In the night we went for a small stroll within the safer parts of the town, finished dinner & settled into bed.