Day–5 (Doradal to Puerto Triunfo to Honda)

Our room was air-conditioned so we had a good nights sleep but there was no hot water in the bathroom (as if we needed it in a hot & humid place!). After an early morning stroll in the sprawling garden of the resort we were staying at, we were treated to a nice breakfast of Arepa, bread, cheese, fried eggs, fruits and some Colombian coffee.















We started the day with a trip to the ranch of the once most dreaded drug lord in the world, Pablo Escobar. From the main gate, it’s a long ride on a well paved dirt track with greenery on either side which was indeed ‘a walk in the park’ for the wonderful Bavarian thoroughbred GS we were riding. The Late Monsieur Escobar’s private wildlife collection and theme park have now been converted into an amusement park. His former luxury home I am sure has seen better days but now lies in a little desolate condition, probably since the Colombian govt does not want to glorify the guy who once wrecked havoc in the country running an almost parallel govt with the drug mafia. Anyway for our mixed luck, part of the attraction was closed for maintenance.



































As we leave the ranch, I notice that my tire pressure monitor is blinking on the dashboard & warns me of pressure dropping in my rear tire. It was an extraordinarily hot & humid day and both of us were completely dehydrated after this small ride. Along the ride we stopped to check our tire pressure and as we were doing that we are profusely sweating…One of the men sitting there gestures me to a guy selling some stuff on the other side of the road. At first I didn’t understand, but then presumed it may be some tourist trap stuff. Damn, how wrong I was. Actually, the good soul seeing us dripping in sweat was just telling us to go and have a hydrating drink. Still with some reservation I went to the push cart guy that was selling something called ‘Salpicon’…. When I had a glass of it, believe me, no Red Bull or whatever energy drink could be so thirst satisfying on such a hot & humid day as this local refreshing Colombian fruit drink Salpicon. Wow, this drink made up of freshly cut fruits dissolved in cool watermelon juice & crushed ice was absolutely rejuvenating and thirst quenching. We downed atleast 4 glasses of the stuff and headed back to the hotel. Infact my lady loved it so much, she got very annoyed at me for not stopping the next day at a Salpicon kiosk along the highway!





On check-out the credit card machine just would not make wireless contact to the mobile tower or satellite or whatever (that’s how its done in remote locations in Colombia without a land line). Anyway the receptionist was kind enough to do it manually and call the bank and get the approval. By this time I again gulped down atleast 2 more full bottles of water…the humidity & heat was killing and with all the riding gear I was worried I may black out.….yeah the heat was so intense. It was almost noon time and hence we had a light lunch and then checked out. We headed off on highway 60 which initially had its regular twists & curves, but on one particular stretch for the first time in our ride we encountered arrow straight stretches for kilometers together. Would have put me to sleep!. Anyways, we continue further and subsequently branched right onto highway 45 towards the town of Honda, our destination for the night. It was another hot day and to make it more challenging, my rear tire was again rapidly losing air pressure. I stopped midway and fixed the puncture (atleast that’s what I thought) and finally landed in Honda completely dripping in sweat.























































The sprawling town of Honda has nothing to do with some Japanese manufacturer of automobiles! It takes its name from Ondaimas, the indigenous people that inhabited the banks of the massive Magdalena river. The city is nestled along the river in Tolima province and was once the main river port of Colombia from 1850 to 1910. This place is super hot & humid almost throughout the year so not a great place for daytime tourism! We are staying at the historic Botique Posada Las Trampas Hotel built in the 1600s. The city has its own charm with narrow cobblestone streets with lots of old and well preserved buildings.





















Good the English text was there…or I would have presumed something less moral!!



Late evening view from our window



We went out for an evening stroll to the main town square that had kiosks selling cut fruits, ice creams, and other stuff, but we settled for another enjoyable Colombian snack- plantain fritter. Later in the evening we dined at a local eatery with some excellent food and then went into a super market for some grocery purchases, most important being a gallon of WATER! Also picked some freshly cut fruits - lulo, mora etc. We had to give up on other stuff since it was all in Spanish and google translate was going bonkers with our overload of translation requests!!









Flat and out in bed after an exhausting day in the hot scorching Colombian sun.