Sunday, July 14, 2013

On the Road Again

After a long and painful stay in Cali,  my parts arrived and I got my bike running again.  Finally!  The evening of the breakdown, we were at a hotel at a gas station,  I heard a Harley pull in for gas so I ran down to ask if he knew of a Harley shop in Cali.  The only Harley stealership in Colombia is in Bogota, 9 hours away but he told me about a guy in Cali that works on them.  We had a truck lined up for the morning so that was where we went.  I had to trust somebody.  It turned out to be a good move.  It was a one man operation and there was plenty of bikes in and out while we were waiting for parts.  I wanted to do the work myself but it was his shop and tools,  what can I say.  He finally got it together on Thursday around lunchtime.  Total bill - for labor and oil change $80.00US, I gave him $100.  We had already paid for another night at the apartment we rented which was directly across the street from the shop, so when we were invited to go for a ride that evening for supper we said yes.  We road to one of the parks where they hang out, waiting for everyone to gather.  It was 9:00pm by this time, but about 15 Harley's gathered together with a handful of other makes to give the Americans a night tour of Cali.  We were treated like celebrities.   Couldn't spend any money and everybody wanted pictures together.  What a great time we had riding around.  We gulped down some wings and burgers before being escorted back around midnight.   Next day it was time to hit the road that we missed so much.  We took a two or three hour test ride to a town called Popoyan.  Known as the "white city" because almost all of the old buildings downtown are white.  It's quite the site.  Today we moved on further south to Pasto about 60 miles from the Ecuador/Colombia border.  Not much going on here but we took a walk around to see what we could get into.  Tomorrow should take us to the border but we probably won't go through that aggravation until Monday morning.  So, stay tuned, same time, same channel. Do you know where your children are?

Cali downtime consisted of a lotofwalking around,  the Mercado(market) and the zoo.

Typical zoo so just a few pictures of animals you don't usually see.
                     Llamas....yes they are!
            This is a Tapir.  The Guatemala national animal.
        Baby to the Tapir above.
If I recall correctly this is a South African Bok


I know you see tigers butdo you get to pet them? 
Neither did we.  Too bad the glass was dirty.
This is his "pen pal"
The rare speckled bear found only in South America
         These are the largest rodent in the world and they are infesting South America.  They are called Capybara

                        Andean Condor. I believe this is the largest bird of prey in the world



                      You lookin' at ME?
         I have no idea what this bird is called.  


  Of course the last pictures are parrots and the toucan.  

 
               Fruit and grain at the Mercado


           These have been rooftop views of Cali from our apartment.
          One from street level.   Three million people live in Cali.
   Gathering at the park.  Now the park is to my right,  it is in the center of a big roundabout and the
cars cruise around,  bikers although segregated by style of bike,  all gather here and hang out and everybody just has a good ole time.
You can see the park in the background.  Check out the size of that rubber tree above the car.
        Harley Guzman and girlfriend.  He was the mechanic that put my parts in.
   Here we are on the night ride.  Notice how there is about five or six lanes.  It's a two lane road.  That's how they roll in Colombia.  Actually all throughout Latin American countries.
Camera setting was off but this was the crew that showed us around plus a few not in the picture.
The overlook that they took us to.  Trust me the picture doesn't do it justice.
             Next up---- Popoyan, the white city.


We hiked up a hill.behind the town to an overlook





On to Pasto
 
                  Central plaza Pasto





Pasto had some massive doors,  like 10-12 feet tall so I took a few pictures.  For some reason graffiti started to catch my eye so I started taking pictures of that too.  Also some statues on the cathedrals. 



Here we were in a restaurant about 60 miles north of the Ecuadorian border and as we paid our tab and heading outthedoor,  in walks this unknown character.




We are now on the border at Ipiales until morning when we do battle with customs and immigration.  They say it takes 4-5 hours here on a regular basis.  Beaurocracy? at its finest.  Goodbye Colombia, Hello Ecuador.




































































3 comments:

  1. motoservicioharleyguzman@hotmail.comJuly 14, 2013 at 10:05 PM

    I'm very happy to take a good image of our country especially cali hopefully continue their adventure with great success at a distance receive a big hug and I feel very happy to have been able to help in the repair of your Harley. since cali its friend. HARLEY GUZMAN

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  2. Glad you got in a good rest you looked road weary. Nice group photo. Back on the road again. Send some business photos, maybe a car dealership. LOL getting cold yet?

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  3. Wow how fortunate you are. What great friends you are making along the way. I hope you have a little address book to take their names and addresses. That would be great to keep in touch. Their hospitality is remarkable as is the architectue. The places you are seeing ar beautiful. Glad you found an awesome Harley mechanic you probably enjoyed each others company very well. Safe travels

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