Shipping the bike means we have a number of things to do. The bike has to be relatively clean for example. We have to run down the petrol in the tank but luckily, this time, we don't have to disconnect the electrics. There are a number of things we can ship with the bike like tools and rain gear, so that we don't have to take them on the plane with us. So we spent a day re-doing our packing and preparing the bike for shipping. As the Harley dealership in Bogota was on the way to our accommodation, we stopped by to say 'hello' and they kindly adjusted the chain and jet-washed the bike for us. Not sure that there are any South American basketball teams...
The following day we took the bike to the shipping agent. In the UK it is a relatively easy thing to do - we take the bike to Motofreight, disconnect the battery and give them the keys. That's it. Here it involved going to the freight agent's office and signing documents. With finger prints. Then riding the bike to the airport facility. Prior to entry into the facility there was a security post with a sniffer dog search from a well- behaved labrador. Well-behaved until he saw our pet squirrel on the top-box when all his training went to custard and he had to be restrained.
Once inside the compound we had to take the bike to the actual people who would be putting it on a pallet and sending it to Panama. They too had a sniffer dog who was not at all interested in our squirrel, or llama for that matter. Must just be labradors? The bike was then weighed before we had to pay a visit to the customs office - which took rather a long time, two to three hours. There are only a handful of pieces of information - passport, bike details and ownership and all these were already on the super Colombian computer system as we had had to input them to get into the country. So why did it take so long? After all that, we could then go back to our accommodation and have a coffee and cake. Another day gone.
Panama is one of those countries that you can't fly into without proving that you are also going to fly out. We are flying in to Panama but have no intention of flying out - our plan, of course, is to ride out. No matter how well we try to explain this to the officials at the airport, it will not wash. So we have had to obtain some 'fake' return airplane tickets. They are real, but only have a 48hr life span and will be automatically cancelled after we get into Panama.
As we have mentioned in previous posts there are Botero sculptures everywhere in Colombia. There is even a free Botero Museum in Bogota which we visited, housing not only some of his smaller sculptures, but also a large number of his paintings and his own art collection which includes a vast number of works by 20th Century 'greats' and some Impressionists. It also had rather a nice cafe. Is it a question of art imitating life or the other way round? Either way there are a significant number of Botero Bottys in Colombia, male and female - must be all that orange coloured deep fried food. With rice. And chips. Even Mona Lisa! The museum is run by Colombia's national Bank - can't see the Bank of England doing a similar thing.
Not only does the Banco de la Repùblica look after the Botero Museum, but it also looks after the Gold Museum, which is perhaps a little bit more appropriate. We have visited a number of museums on our trip so far and most of them have been extremely dull. This one was pretty magnificent. It could have done with a few strategically placed 'helpers' to whom we could have asked questions of, like, 'is all this real?' - we think it was - but that's it. There must be an absolute fortune inside on the value of the gold alone.
We had our free city walking tours, all absolutely brilliant, and delved more into the 'War and Peace' side of things. It is clear than the drug cartels are tolerated to avoid conflict in some sort of Faustian pact. The politically driven guerilla organisations seem to be of a diminishing importance, as do the para-military groups. It is impossible in our eyes to see how this will evolve.
There is a nice European style square in Bogota but beyond that and the museums the city was a bit disappointing. Traffic here is worse than anywhere we have been - Lima did feel particularly bad but we think that was due to the climate; Bogota is at 2,500m altitude and therefore relatively cool. Transport here has always been an issue primarily due to the terrain. The Spaniards thought that El Dorado, the city made of gold, existed nearby after they had seen the amount of gold held by the indigenous people. They shipped the gold to Spain from Cartagena - it took almost three times as long to travel from Bogota to Cartagena by road in those days than from Cartagena to Spain by sea.
In Colombia we struggled a bit with the heat and humidity in the north - it's going to get worse in Central America! We limited our daily mileage in order to deal with that. We also struggled with addresses and we still don't understand fully what is going on with them, as they have more than two components, ie not just a number and a road name. So we can't even explain why we struggled - it just made programming the GPS all the more difficult and led to increased tensions...
Colombia has so many different types of fruit - we tried a different, freshly squeezed one almost every day - mostly not knowing what they were. Translations don't really help. But as well as the natural lemonades and the mango, blackberry, orange, strawberry, pineapple or grape juice we have also had lulo, maracuya, guanabana, granadilla, pitaya, corozo, feijoa, papaya and the guandola drink made from sugar cane and bitter orange.
It's rare that we ever go back to places. Not because we don't want to or that we feel that we have seen it all and do not need to return - but more that there are so many other places in the world to experience, so why return anywhere before we have seen them all? However, in the case of Colombia and Ecuador we might well return as they do have everything from sea to mountains, jungle to desert, hot to cold, interesting villages to cities and it would also be very interesting to see how they move forward from their current situations.
We have really enjoyed our time in Colombia. It's a massive place! If we had not fixed a date for shipping, we would probably have liked to stay longer. We would recommend it as a destination to visit - except for the food - well, you can't have everything!
The long chapter on South America is now closing and with it, stacks of memories. After four and a half months 24/7 we can confidently say we still form a good team despite, or thanks to our differences. However we have one huge thing in common: our love of exploring new horizons on two wheels with often... two sore bums.
