Day–3 (Salento to Medellin)

The previous evening when we checked into the hotel, I was annoyed at not finding air-conditioning. But the manager had smiled and said, firstly if you remove your space suit you will feel a little more airy and secondly, just wait for the night to arrive. He was damn right. We woke up to a very chilly morning in Salento. After a simple breakfast of fruits, fresh juice, freshly made Arepa (Colombian flatbread of ground maize) and omelette, we pack up & strap up soon and put on our inner jacket liners. We hit the road heading north wards. With a bright sun, its getting really warm and steamy inside our jackets so we shed the warm liners as the ambient temperature started rising and hence it was a hot & sweaty ride.









No wonder we found Colombia a very clean country

















Along the way we are stopped at a military check point and in a friendly tone the soldier said something in Spanish with a small figurette of a soldier and all I grasped was the word ‘pesos’ (probably some military charity or whatever). Although I am into charity, I wasn’t sure if this was going to the right place, hence not wanting to take a chance with English, I brought out my best trick and started talking in pure native Hindi language- “hum log bharath se aayein hai aur….) explaining that we are an Indian couple and we are here on a ride and we loved the country etc…… his puzzled face said it all and we were waved thru with a smile…..but one thing I must mention here is that all over Colombia the police & military were extremely polite, friendly and very reassuring that they cared for our safety. Anyways getting back to the ride, we briefly ride Rte 50 passing thru Pereira, Santa Rosa and then branch left onto Rte 29 another wonderful piece of tarmac with its lovely twists & turns. By now it is time for refueling ourselves and our bike.































Now that’s a familiar sign from India













We fuel up the bike and for lunch we selected the adjacent truck stop for two reasons- safety & good/fresh food. It was an ordinary roadside eatery but lots of trucks and other vehicles around. Also there was a clean toilet for our use. We use google translate on our phone to order food and feast on another wonderful round of Pollo sopa, pollo frei with arroz al vapor (Chicken soup, Chicken fry and steamed rice). The service at this eatery was wonderful and always with a warm smile.











We continue on Rte 29 northwards merging into Rt 25 which is a major north-south artery highway in Colombia. The ride went thro' some scenic mountains carpeted in green foliage and jaw dropping valley views. We also had our fill of negotiating thru unending 18-wheeler traffic crawling up the mountain, road construction zones, traffic jams in tight switchbacks making the ride a lot more intense and time consuming. We were gliding thru a series of small mountain passes with well paved motorcycling tarmac slow enough to enjoy the scenery but fast enough to enjoy the road. Our ride takes thru La Pintada, Santa Barbara, Caldas etc.







































Riding some more kms further down slowly the cluster of concrete jungle is coming into view signaling our final approach into the famous city of Medellin. From the city outskirts the traffic is relatively heavy and swift although we see a number of fixed speed cameras along the way. Around this time there is a light drizzle that is slowly turning into proper rain. We make our grand entry into the city of Medellin, which is the second largest city in Colombia cradled in the Aburra valley. As we near the city center, the skies have liberally opened up its reservoir and to make things worse, our GPS is just not able to recognize our hotel $#%@&*! That’s a complicated situation with rain and not speaking the language spoken in spain!!! We try all combinations with GPS, but no luck. Suddenly lady adventure tells me on the intercom that during her googling she remembers some museum is located near the hotel. We search museums and Bingo! Mr Garmin finally wakes up and directs us there before ofcourse taking us in circles thru some one-way streets etc, but finally to our relief bang opp the museum is our Ibis hotel…. We checked into our hotel dripping with water.





















We wash up and go for an evening stroll to the nearby Mall where we have another comic situation. We ask the lady security officer for the super-mercado (supermarket) and she sternly says exito..I thought she was telling me its too late so get lost……! Anyways, I walked towards the exit of the mall and to our amusement we find that the supermarket there is actually named EXITO!!!







We ‘Easterners’ are surprised & DELIGHTED to see this spary in our bathroom!!









Respect for these guys to keep the city safe (sorry for the unwanted special effects!)



Wow, after Mrs & Mr Adventure just gained some more wisdom on EXITO, we picked up some fruits and small groceries and finished the day with a simple dinner. It was a long and tiring day for both of us but nevertheless enjoyable.