The Old Dear is wearing an enormous smile.

Reminder: All my pix are here.Pedro and Juanita collected me from the hotel yesterday afternoon, on their Virago (the 12GS is in Buenos Aires), and took me to Villa de Lleyva. This is a beautifully-maintained colonial village founded in 1572, to the north of Bogotá. We arrived 8-ish and checked in to a lovely little hotel in one of the colonial mansions, then walked around the village to the strains of a local folk band.

This morning, after another walk around the village, which is really, really beautiful, we rode down one of Colombia's WGBRs* over yet another 10,000-foot pass amid very Italianate scenery to Zipaquirá (I´ll have to vist the Salt Cathedral another day as there wasn't time today), thence back to Bogotá.

It's hard to say whether my smile was bigger than The Old Dear's or vice versa. She's absolutely romping. And it's such a treat having front suspension which works properly - hasn't done that since somewhere in Brazil, and it certainly made the dirt sections very much easier (especially as I'd left the boxes at the hotel in Bogotá). The only rattles are the usual familiar ones (has anyone ever worked out
why the forks on these things clonk?) and she's smooth as silk, handling brilliantly, all that good stuff.

Last night and this morning we talked at length about the astonishingly close historical relationship between Britain and Colombia (and indeed South America in general). The more I find out the more amazing it becomes, going back 400 years.

* World's Great Biking Road