Tricky Spanish names

Nov.17

Today’s plan was a quick trip downtown to the Gold Museum and then head to Zipaquira. We were doing fine navigating until the route was closed for a rather large bike race. This caused us to zig and zag our way downtown until we were diagonally just one block from the museum. This turned into a bunch of circling on one way streets and yes more blocked streets for the race. Finally we just found a parkade and walked to the museum. As it was Sunday it turned out to be free entry into the museum, and it was an awesome display and history lesson rolled into one very expensive display.

 

 

 

 

Once we had reached “info overload” we left the museum and Bogota. We headed North to Zipaquira, not a very long trip but we wanted to see the Catedral del Sal (Cathedral of Salt). Zipa is only about 50km from Bogata so we took our time and got used to the bikes on the highway, it had been a while since we last rode them and with the travel luggage it made a very slight difference in how the bikes handled. We checked into a nice hotel and quickly got into our routine of checking emails, charging the electronics, spraying the boots (geesh only a few days and they already reek), then hitting the town for a snoop and some photos. We found a great “Centro” park lined with lounges and restaurants, there were actually two central parks to explore this time. We planted ourselves at a roast chicken restaurant and while we ate supper we watched the locals mingling and going about their routines. Then a parade came by. It was really a whole bunch of soccer fans having a bit of a pep rally and it must have helped because the national team won their game that night. We made an early night of it doing some writing and planning for the next day.

 

 

The next morning we packed up and headed to the Salt Cathedral. We proceeded into the tunnels to see the numerous crosses that the miners had constructed by carving into the walls of the mine.

They also carved huge pillars to act as supports, but mostly just some amazing crosses carved into or out of the  walls. There was an interpretive film at the end that explained how the whole salt mine process worked from the very beginning to modern day. They currently use a process similar to what we use in Northern Alberta to extract heavy oil. I guess SAGD has multiple applications. We wrapped up the underground tour by sitting on a bench overlooking the city and having lunch.

Then it was off again farther North to Chiquinquira, where we also found two Central Parks separated by one block of retail kaos. The parks were both a full city block each, which is fairly typical. We walked around and found a place for supper. This little restaurant did not use menus, it seemed that people just knew what to order. So we did our best and ended up with alot of food. Enough for supper and lunch the next day.  We did not really have anything special reason for stopping but are glad we did. They have the most amazing church we have seen since Oaxoaxa Mexico, and according to the sister of the guy who was in front of us at the Bible store, the main attraction to the town is the church.

Yes, I said Bible store. We went in there hoping they had a Colombia Flag sticker. Of course they could not figure out my Spanglish so the guy in front of me phoned his sister, who speaks English. His phone battery died so she just came down to the store, that is when we found out all about the town. The little donkey was waiting patiently to go back to work.

Nov 18

Bucaramanga was our next destination. Ranked as one of the most modern cities in Colombia with the largest middle class population and home to ten universities.  The road to Bmanga was interesting; we started the days ride at about 9am after more great Colombian coffee. We added a few things to our “first time this trip list”, today was the first tanker truck turned over, the first large truck with a wheel off stopped in the middle of the road for repairs, the first pack mules along the highway, one notable from yesterday was a lady milking a cow out in the pasture, the first foreign bike traveller, the first switch backs, and the first semi receiving a new transmission on the side of the mountain. I guess the truck was too big to tow so they just started fixing it right there on the road. They had the old tranny out and the new one ready to go in. We could not get any pictures as we were on the bikes at the time with no safe place to stop.

 

The foreign traveller was Jorgen from Norway; he was riding a Kawasaki KLR650, loaded to the hilt. He had the two side panniers for his clothes and such, and then he had a parasail rolled up into a large duffle, and another pelican case that held his remote control helicopter. He used this for photography and filming, he said it could go up about 1000ft and take aerial photos and video. Not a bad idea but at 30lbs I would not be able to pack it on the G650x. He also informed us of the nasty situation currently in Venezuela, he has a girlfriend in Caracas and she told him not to come into the country for the time being. Apparently there are a lot of kidnappings and muggings of any tourists as the hyperinflation in the country is making it near impossible for people to pay for basic necessities and as such they resort to whatever means needed to make money. This is the second or third warning we have had from travellers and later in the day we decided to skip Venezuela this time. We reminded ourselves that the object of any trip is to make it home, not end up as another statistic.

Jorgen informed us that the rest of the road to Bmanga was very twisty, and we informed him of the same on his way South. Shortly after leaving him to his lunch we found out what he was referring to, not just curves but switchbacks on a 700 vertical meter decent into the valley. And it just kept getting hotter and hotter.