A Thousand Shades of Green...part 3

Are we there yet? Almost, just a couple more days of destination type riding and we should be in Belem. For now we will be happy to make it to Paraiso do Tocantins and although there is nothing special we can find about this town, we decide it is a good distance to ride and there are a couple of nice hotels online so that usually means a full services town. The rolling farmland flanks both sides of the route and there are to many Brahma cows to count. It is extra hot today and a strong crosswind makes us feel like turkeys in a convection oven. 

We meet a friendly young lady at a gas station who is very surprised when she realized that there is a woman under all that gear or maybe it was because Brenda was taking her picture. Either way her reaction was priceless. 

We find Fernando’s Hotel along the highway in town and are pleasantly surprised by a nice pool. Perfect for 34°C and a couple of sweaty bikers. We splash in the pool for a bit and even get to try out some underwater photography. Can we say we were swimming with the dolphins count if they are just painted on the side of the pool? All in all a nice way to spend my Birthday.

Yes, we are underwater. 

Back into the oven we go as we make our way to Porto Franco – small town with only a couple of hotels to choose from.  The nicest looking one tells us they are fully booked so we go to the second nicest looking hotel and for R$120 we have a room, roughly $40CAD. The ladies at the desk are helpful and cheery, parking the bikes added a unique experience for this and likely any trip. The parking area at the hotel was under construction so we were directed to park in a building supply warehouse down the street. I took my bike first and a young lady escorted me there and gave me a ride back on her little motorcycle. Then we repeated the process for Brenda’s bike. So I got two rides from the young lady, on the back of her bike back to the hotel. It turns out she works in the hardware store connected to the hotel, which also explains the parking arrangement. After that it was all giggles and smiles from the girls and a big thumbs up from the guy at the motorcycle shop across the street from the hotel. Small towns are great. The plan was to go out for supper but a major rain storm rolled in and we decided to just hang out at the hotel and watch the lightning show. We were asleep fairly early, like 9pm, partially because we changed time zones and gained/lost an hour (it felt later than it was).

Our Hotel/Harware Store. Came in handy for parking and buying an outlet adapter.

A sunny sky in the morning is always a nice sight and we are up to watch the sunrise, almost. A small but tasty breakfast and we got to cook our own eggs, more self serve type of a place. The bikes are safe and dry in the warehouse and we load up and tackle the oven again. The tropical look is still prevalent with palm trees and a thousand shades of green but now we also see very large fields mixed in with the wild jungle and the cattle ranches. The fields are in fallow so we are not sure what they grow, likely potatoes and corn. 

Large fields with smokey haze in distance.

Friendly locals. This is a bike taxi which is popular here.

Diners along the road.

There is also a heavy haze of smoke in the air, we come across some areas where the underbrush has been burned off but it seems like far too much smoke for bit of burnt underbrush. We chaulk it up to wildfires as it seems very dry, even though it just rained last night. The truck drivers keep us company along the way and we get to pass some of them a couple of times. Why a couple of times? Well we can only ride about 2 hrs before we need gas, the trucks can go a lot farther, so it turns into a bit of a leapfrog game. The wind is very strong today and the later it gets the stronger the wind, by 2pm we are getting blown around pretty good and decide to stop for the day at km1670: a huge truck stop, complete with restaurant, hotel, convenience store, car/truck wash, tire repair place, and a couple of friendly kids on bicycles. The room is very clean and the a/c works great, a nice relief from the oven outside. This heat is exhausting and as there is not much to do we are once again asleep by 9pm.

Some basic housing along the roadside.

Sandstorm blowing through.

The final push.

So I guess we are officially backpackers for the rest of the trip. That is a strange concept to absorb as we bump along on the magic bus towards Tulcan. The ride should be about 6hrs maximum with a cost of $6/person, the bus is comfortable and similar to a Greyhound. This is actually a refreshing change from riding as we can chat freely, watch the scenery and take in what we are seeing without worry of crashing into something. By the time we arrive in Tulcan we decided to carry on across the border into Pasto, we have a friend in Pasto who is expecting us and didn’t mind that we would be arriving late. We just stepped off the bus and a nice little lady asked if we were going to Colombia, and if so would we like to share a taxi to the border. The actual border is only 10km from the bus depot and a $3.50 cab fare, we decided quickly to share the taxi and chat with the couple along the way. They were trying to be helpful with the border process as well but just didn’t understand that it is a different process for foreigners. We need multiple copies of our passports and entry stamps so while we are waiting for copies they are already stamped out of Ecuador and across the bridge into Colombia.

Helpful biker pushing the truck as the mechanic sleeps in the chair.

Vendors come on the bus at stop lights.

Cute little girl in front of us, she was so well behaved.

We on the other hand are now standing in line and waiting for service, then we are sitting in the penalty box as they sort out our passports. It appears that when we entered Ecuador the officer pulled up our names in the computer but did not update our passport numbers. This has caused problems more than once, I am not sure why we get new passport numbers when we renew our passports, it should be like a driver’s license, one number for life. But I digress. Eventually we are given back our papers and we are free to go across the bridge and start the Colombia entry.

Looking back across the bridge at Ecuador.

To our surprise, Canada has imposed an entry fee for Colombian visitors into Canada, thus Colombia has reciprocated with a $65USD entry fee for Canadians. Payable in cash only, despite what I later read online. At the time it made a significant difference because we did not have $130USD on our person, we had $22USD, some Euros, some Peruvian Soles, and some change from various countries. The money changers were more than happy to give me a less than desireable exchange rate for all this which allowed me to get my fee paid and passport stamped, then I jumped into a cab for the 10km ride into Ipiales to get more money, then back to the border to pay Brenda’s fee. All the while Brenda sat patiently in the secure area of the immigration department. One more plan change, it is not too late and we are too tired to carry on to Pasto so we stop in Ipiales for the night.

Dealing with the money changers.

Stopping for the day is rarely a bad decision and we are treated to a modest hotel room and breakfast. It is cool in Ipiales at night and as most buildings do not have central heating the cold weather is managed by numerous heavy wool blankets, the floor is still cold as ice but that is what shoes are for. After what seemed like a ten minute knap it was breakfast and a short walk to the bus depot and off to Pasto. A short and very curvy 2hr ride later and we were in Pasto.

Our friend Armando asked us to call him if we were ever in Pasto so we found a Claro outlet and bought a SIM card ($1.80CAD including 200MB data and 15minutes of local calling), wow do we get ripped off with cellular plans at home. The rest of the day is spent getting settled at Armando’s house and a quick tour of his city. It was nice to catch up on what has been happening in his life, last year he was on his way to Bahia Blanca Argentina to see his two boys and their mother. That visit was very important to Armando as he does not get many opportunities to spend time with his children. Armando also understated his love of music, his house is adorned with guitars, keyboards, woodwind instruments including a flute, clarinet, and saxophone, and what band would be complete without a drum set. He is self taught and like Brenda’s parents plays music “by ear”.

Armando on the Sax.

We enjoy our time in Pasto and not having the motorbikes with us changed Armando’s plans a bit but did allow us to take a tour of the nearby lake and a short lived dirt road tour looking for his friends house. Aside from that he also took us to the local dirt track to attend the first race of the year. The race was for trucks and the course was a mix of a speed loop and an MX root. It was very entertaining as the competitors are all amateurs and some were using what looked like their family vehicle.  

This is also the track where Armando hold the speed record in the motorcycle 450cc class, as it turns out he was a successful racer until a bit of maturity and fear factor caught up to him. Of course the whole weekend was filled with good food, as Pasto has a diverse selection of restaurants to choose from, and laughs. We teased Armando about coming to Canada for a ride, he is thinking about it.

All this fun and friendship winds down as we once again head to the bus depot for the last overland travel of our trip. The 16hr bus ride from Pasto to Bogota. Our bus is a double decker style with the luxury seats on the lower level and the regular seats on the top level. We bought tickets for the lower level which worked out well as the leather seats fully reclined to allow for a more comfortable sleep after watching a movie on the 46” plasma screen TV. The driver must have nerves of steel driving these mountain roads in the dark, and from what we could see, in the rain as well.

We arrive in Bogota at 1pm and go straight to the airport, we have 12 hrs before we fly out but are not interested in seeing Bogota while packing our luggage around. It is a long wait for the plane after the bus ride but it a nice airport with lots of shops to look through and a few good quality restaurants. Finally we get to check in for the flight and shortly thereafter we are on the plane. Ah crap, we got put in the emergency row which means no reclining seats for a 6 hr red-eye flight. Such a first world problem. Then it is tackling the Houston airport with it’s 5 terminals and train system. From here Brenda goes to Phoenix where her parents will pick her up so they can spend some time together in Yuma. I will be heading straight to Calgary so I can collect the bikes from the airport and get to work for Monday. My summer will be busy this year fixing the bikes in preparation for the next leg of our world tour, wherever that may be.