We spent New Year's Eve in Panama City. We didn't do anything special, just stayed in our hotel and at midnight we watched the fireworks from our bathroom window. A couple of days later, we visited the Panama Canal and got to see a couple of ships go through the locks. We were surprised at how small the canal was in comparison to it's importance as a major shipping channel. It appeared to be the width of a two-lane highway. The ships were huge, weighing hundreds of tons and completely filled each lock.

Panama Canal

On January 3, we road our bikes out to the cargo terminal outside Panama City and dropped them off at the air freight company. Even though we had ridden with the gas tanks on reserve, they insisted that we remove the remaining gas from the tanks. Since the gas tank is below the seat, the only way to get the gas out was to siphon it with a hose. After that was finished, we paid $450 each for the shipping to Bogota and then stopped at the customs office to finalize the paperwork. After that, we stopped at the passenger terminal to purchase tickets for ourselves on Copa Airlines at a cost of $241 each. We took a taxi back to our hotel for one last night in Panama.

The following morning we flew to Bogota, arriving at mid-day. It was easy getting the bikes out of customs. When we arrived at the Girag cargo office, we had to wait about 45 minutes for the women to return from lunch. She gave us paperwork to take to the customs office and we had to wait while they held a birthday party for one of their co-workers. We went back to the Girag office and the customs officer arrived, checked the vehicle identification numbers and signed our paperwork. We were free to go. Getting the bikes off the loading dock would have been a chore as it was a five foot drop to the parking area below. Instead, we stood back while several workers walked the bikes through the building and down a flight of stairs out the main customer entrance.

Unloading in Bogota

A taxi driver recommended a hotel and gave us directions to get there with a comment that it was a little tricky to find. The traffic wasn't as bad as we had expected for such a big city. We stopped a few times to ask directions, getting a little closer each time. Finally, we found a hotel that was not the one we were looking for but did have secure parking. It was actually quite a nice hotel with a doorman that wore a fedora and tux with tails. It was over our budget but they gave us a big discount so we decided to splurge.

Our first day in Bogota, Dave was sick in bed with flu-like symptoms but it could have been the abrupt change in altitude since Bogota is a mile and a half high and earlier that day we had been at sea level. Deb asked if there was a store nearby to buy water and snacks and the doorman walked her to the store. Our second day was spent site-seeing. We visited the gold museum which has probably the largest collection of gold artifacts of any museum in the Americas.

Artifact from the Gold Museum in Bogota

Deb had spent alot of time in Bogota about ten years ago and noticed that the city seemed much safer than in the past. There were more people in the plazas and streets and not as many guns visible. We felt quite safe walking around, however there was evidence that all of the violence of the past has not been forgotten. In the evening, we walked next door to a restaurant and the door had to be unlocked to let us in and then locked immediately after we were inside.

On the morning we left Bogota, the porter couldn't find the keys to the fenced in area where the motorcycles were parked so he got a maintenance man who broke the lock in two seconds. So much for secure parking! We rode west out of the city and south into the mountains. As we climbed in elevation, we rode into the clouds and saw nothing for the next two hours. At one point, the fog was so thick Dave said he couldn't see his handlebars (just kidding). We were off the road by 4:00 pm as recommended by everyone we spoke to. The next day we had to cross another mountain range. Just as we reached the summit, we had to stop because a large truck had broken down in a steep curve and only one lane was open. As we sat there waiting, we watched the fog roll in. When it was time to go, the fog was so thick we were a little nervous as the road had the tightest curves at the top. We had to ride very slowly and use our brakes alot to make sure the cars behind us could see us. At times, visibility was down to about 15 feet. When we broke through the clouds, the vista was beautiful with cultivated lush green valleys. We eventually reached the Pan American highway snaking its way through a valley of sugar cane fields. We saw large vehicles called "trenes canas" or "cane trains". They are large tractors pulling four very large trailers filled with sugar cane.

Pan American Highway

Cane Train

In one small town, we got stuck in a traffic jam. The road was clogged with trucks filled with young revelers, cars and motorcyles all covered in what looked like white paint. They were celebrating something called the "Carnival de Blancos and Negros". The festival's origins go back to the time of Spanish rule when slaves were allowed to celebrate and their masters showed approval by painting their faces black and the slaves painted their faces white. The people in this town were throwing a white powder which could have been either flour or talcum powder. Deb put her visor down so it wasn't so bad when she had a fistful thrown in her face. Dave wasn't as lucky and was temporarily blinded by the white stuff. We must have looked a site when we rolled in to the next town of Palmira with a coating of fine white powder over the mud on our clothes from our travels.

Festival Participants

Sitting at a stoplight in Palmira, Dave asked a guy on a scooter if he could recommend a hotel and he led us right to the door then waited while we checked in and then led us to a secure parking lot. Everwhere we went, we found the Colombians to be extremely friendly and helpful.

Popayan was our destination for the next day. It was only a couple of hours ride and we arrived in town before noon. We stopped for gas and started talking to five other motorcyclists. They told us they were on their way to the motorcycle races and invited us to join them. Deb was hesitant at first but Dave begged her to go so she said ok. We formed a convoy of motorcyles and rode 30 minutes to a small town we didn't get the name of.

Adriano, Adriana, Dave, Alvaro, Fernando, Deb

Our Colombian friends probably didn't realize the burden they were taking on when they invited us along. As soon as we pulled over to park, we were innundated with people asking us where we were from, what kind of bikes we were riding, did we like their country, etc. Our hosts decided to move to a more secure area and the rope was lifted and we were allowed through to park on the main square. We tried parking in front of a church but once again, a crowd gathered around us. As this was a road race, they needed to have the street clear so the police told us to park in front of the police station. We parked there but the crowd followed us. The policemen said they wouldn't be able to watch our bikes because they would be busy so they suggested we park behind their sand-bag bunker. Finally, we found a place where everyone felt comfortable that our bikes could be left unattended.

Secure Parking

Our hosts bought us lunch and introduced us to one of the racers in the main event. After the racing was over, it was time to head back to Popayan but this turned out to be quite a chore. Everyone was trying to leave the small town down a narrow twisting country road. On top of that, they all wanted to stop and talk to Deb. A foreign woman riding a big bike was quite a novelty. Fernando's bike broke down so Dave and Adriano loaded it on to a passing pickup truck for a lift back to town. We eventually made it back to Adriano and Adriana's house. Adriana's sister and mother and two aunts came over to meet us. We ended up spending the night with them after a nightime tour of the city. Over the next couple of days, Adriana and Adriano were great hosts. They even had a friend open his bar one evening when it was normally closed so they could entertain us with music. They also had a friend make stickers for our helmets and side cases.

One of the reasons we felt it would be safe to ride through Colombia was because several people who had done it recently told us the military were everywhere along the road. For us, this was true on the road from Bogota all the way to Popayan. What we learned was that the military and police were out in force during the peak holiday season in December up through the 10th of January. The most dangerous part of the route through Colombia is from Popayan south to the border with Ecuador. We left Popayan on January 12th!

The ride south was spectacular, high mountain passes with sunny weather. At last we could appreciate the scenic beauty of Colombia. The road hugged the side of mountain where we could see peaks above us and deep valleys below. The farther south we went, the better the scenery was. We were in the Andes montains. At one point along the road, we met a group of Colombians that were returning from a trip to Ecuador on motorcycles. We stopped on the side of the road and talked for a while. One of the guys gave us his name and phone number and told us to call if we needed help. After a few minutes, we continued on our separate ways.

Southern Colombia

After spending 10 days in Colombia, we have to say it was a great experience. We have never been anyplace where the people were so friendly, willing to help and concerned for our well-being.

We crossed into Ecuador on January 13. This was the most time consuming border crossing yet. It took four hours to clear both borders. Most of the time was spent waiting in line at immigration. After waiting 45 minutes for the customs lady to return from lunch, she told us she couldn't process the paperwork for our bikes and we had to go in to the next town to get it completed. We were a bit annoyed because two and a half hours earlier, Dave had talked to the same lady and she told us to come back to her after we were finished with immigration. Once in town, the customs people were very efficient and we were done in no time.
The scenery in northern Ecuador was also spectacular.

The vista changed from lush green to arid mountains as we continued south. We spent the night in the town of Ibarra. We found a great 4 star hotel with a spectacular view of a volcano for $24 a night. The next morning we reached the town of Otavalo with its colorful Saturday market. There were many indigenous people from the highlands selling their farm produce and handicrafts.

Market in Otavalo, Ecuador

After a couple of hours, we reached Quito and visited a tourist attraction called Mitad del Mundo, a place marking the equator. We'll have more about Quito in our next blog.

Dave and Deb at the Equator