Day–6 (Honda to Bogota)

As usual we had a nice breakfast served by our host and went around the Posada Las Trampas hotel enjoying its old world charm. Honda being an extremely hot & humid place, we had to repeatedly gulp down huge amount of water to fight off dehydration (remember, I told you we bought a gallon of water the previous night). Still the ride started with both of us dripping in sweat.











That’s a choice of Indian tea (not the strong variety we Indians are used to sipping!)





No harm in a bit of help from Google-Translate to order the choice of eggs!





Our friendly hostess







The ‘Tea-kit & kettle’ we carry on all our global rides



Yeah, that’s a whole damn gallon for the heat & humidity!!!



Load up the bike and slowly made our way out of the narrow streets of Honda city and onto the highway heading towards Bogota. Again my dashboard flashes low pressure in my tire. Fortunately, there was a gas station nearby where I went and had the puncture fixed once & for all.



























Soon we were ascending the mountains with lots of road repair stoppages as well as landslide clearance. One thing that particularly impressed me is that any road construction zone is well marked, well manned and motorists are also well mannered waiting in line patiently. Seems it is also customary to have a lot of street vendors who sell their stuff at these road repair sites. We also saw a ‘mobile cafeteria’ lodged on a small Bajaj Pulsar 150cc bike…. By now we both are also familiar with the 2 boards that road repair crew hold directing traffic – PARE in red color (means STOP) and SIGA in green color (means GO)…wow, our Spanish knowledge has substantially increased!! It was foggy in places (a hallmark of Colombian climate), while there were some more fresh landslides and slushy road repair works along the route.











Wow! A mobile cafeteria…probably missing only a cappuccino machine!!











Rear pic…..No, we are not on the wrong side of the road.





























After some more riding, we stop for lunch at a nice local roadside eatery. Lunch consisted of steamed rice, Arepa, salad and the Colombian version of Rotisserie chicken with their spices. After a nice & fulfilling meal, we continue our ride and refreshingly, as we started ascending on highway 50 soon the temperatures started dropping as we begin to follow the zig-zag route towards Bogota gliding thru pastures and mountains covered with wild shrubs. Along the route, we had some more entertainment when we were following a covered pick-up truck transporting a bunch of naughty school girls heading home who were showing funny gestures to all passing motorists (nothing rude just the friendly kiddy stuff), so Mrs Adventure promptly starts the video camera and instantly the girls panic and cover their faces with their school bags. We found it very hilarious…

















The ‘naughty school girls brigade’ shying away from the camera….



Again we have heavy rains lashing at us just before Bogota together with slushy roads slowing our pace. After some more kms of lush greenery in the countryside, we are slowly beginning to see bits of concrete jungles emerging in the background. Proportionally, the traffic density is also increasing on the roads and we have to negotiate our fair share of crazy drivers on the road. The continued heavy rains sabotaged our plans for some local sight seeing of parks and other attractions in Bogota while when we still had the bike. Once inside the city limits, it’s a painfully slow crawl in mad city traffic (with rain) into the heart of the city and we navigate our way towards the B3 hotel where we check-in again.



































Later in the evening we returned the bike and went out for an evening stroll to again taste the addictive ‘salpicon’ fruit drink. At the juice joint we met two wonderful Colombian women, who were returning home after work and although they did not speak a word of English, but somehow with a mixture of sign language and a few words here & there we had a very interesting conversation about Colombia and about India and the 4 of us perfectly understood each other. At that point Farzana was telling me, the people are so friendly here, wish we had known some more Spanish and it would have a been an even more enriching experience.











Infact the day we first landed in Bogota, we were both very apprehensive about where we went or what we did due to reading and being told about all the past horror stories in Colombia. But having travelled alone thru the country armed with only a motorcycle and a smile (obviously the smile substituted for Spanish) and interacted with so many wonderful people in Colombia, we were more comfortable & confident of the country and our personal well being. Besides, with our Indian tanned skin color we easily blended into the local crowd except whenever Spanish language came into the equation!

Next morning we take our flight out of Colombia, but we are both left with a feeling of wanting more travel in South America, ofcourse certainly after learning some more Spanish.

Distance travelled: 176 kms

On a closing note, with our arrival back into Bogota on the bike, this marked 2 very special milestones for Mrs & Mr Team Rideforpassion- Firstly, the successful culmination of our ride in Colombia in one piece and secondly the fact that we as a Indian husband-wife team have now done a motorbike ride on all the major continents on the planet. We are surely nothing like those hardcore RTW travelers, but in our own small way with the given challenges of originally coming from humble backgrounds, having limited resources, money, time, school going children etc, we were able to accomplish this feat which to us is an important personal accomplishment. Thanks to the almighty and also the encouragement from our friends & relatives.

Two Indians with our beloved tricolor in Colombia



Gratitude to the almighty



Don’t know where our next biking adventure will take us, but for now its adios…to all of you and thanks for coming along with us here.