South America 2008

We arrived in Bogota on Thursday evening around 6pm. I was still pumped up from the great ride we had from Medellin and I called one of my Colombian friends, Martika. She told me that she and her friends were going for a motorcycle ride and she asked if I´d like to come. Amazingly I wasn´t too tired and told her yes.

I met her and her friend, Alberto, a couple of hours later and we met up with several other riders at a nearby motorcycle shop. I was envious as I looked at the other bikes and saw Ducatis and Suzukis and Kawasakis. There was one other dual sport, a KTM 640 Adventure, but the rest were crotch rockets and naked bikes. For the first time since California I would be on one of the smaller bikes.

Martika, Alberto, and I headed to another spot in Bogota. It was a part of a small park and I couldn´t believe my eyes when I saw about a hundred other shiny, flashy new bikes and their riders and passengers hanging out. Thursdays are the nights for bikers in Bogota. They just come to hang out and talk and bullshit. Martika´s group had other plans….

We (about 20 to 25 of us) promptly headed out of town to hit miles and miles of twisties outside of Bogota. Some stretches were pitch black but the ride was cold and there was no traffic. A lot of the guys in this group could really ride and would put me to shame no matter what I was riding. But I didn´t do badly considering that I had ridden for 11 hours that day, had never ridden those roads before, and had a small bike. I was somewhere in the middle of the pack and I felt good about it.

We rode for about an hour before we hit an Italian food joint for some pizza before heading back on dark, cold, isolated highways back into Bogota. Riding in large groups is a lot of fun and I whacked the throttle open to reach my max of 90 mph but I was always playing catch up to the other guys and their large beasts.

We stopped for some coffee (for me a beer) in the ever popular Zona Rosa before I met up with Roar at the hotel for some sleep at 1 am. A long, long day…..

Martika and her friend and their bike

At the pizza joint

Martika and me

The next day, Roar and I did some sightseeing. We went up to Monserrate, an old building and a church at the top of a mountain. I had been there twice before and enjoyed fantastic views of Bogota during the day and at night but today we had no such luck. It started raining like crazy when we reached the top. Roar snapped a couple of photos and we headed straight down.

We hit the Candelaria, the old town of Bogota, for a little bit of sightseeing before heading to the Bogota Beer Company in the Zona Rosa. I have always had a great time there and this time was no exception. It´s a great place to meet new people and Roar and I made some new friends with Colombians that were starting a group to practice their English skills. I also met with my friend, Stefy, and we all headed to a club near Parque 93 called Salto de Angel for a fun night of drinking and dancing.

I´ve been to Bogota twice before and I always had a great time. The people are friendly and fun and the place has a great vibe. The only things I don´t like are the traffic and the cold weather. On Saturday night I met with my friend, Efrain. We caught up since I hadn´t seen him in a year and a half and then we met up with some of his friends at the “En Vitro” club, a newly popular place that was laid back and a lot fun…..

Me and Efrain

The next day, Roar and I headed out of Bogota down south. The current plan is to head straight and steady for Lima, Peru. I am running out of time and I have to be back to work in early May. That gives us less than three weeks to get down to Lima, to sell or ship the bikes home, and to fly back to southern California.

The time in Bogota was too short. We both loved the time we spent there and wish that it could have been longer. But there will be a next time and the trip must go on…..