THE OTHER SIDE….

We have passed to the other side of the world.

WE are now in Ecuador and just passed the Equator!!! We never thought that the equator would be so cold and wet? Since we have crossed into South America is has rained EVERYDAY. Thankfully we have found a couple of hot springs in Ecuador. Heated by the thermals of the surrounding Volcano.

 

This Volcano, yes volcano with snow, is over 20,000 ft. the first snow we have seen. which is why we needed to soak in some hot springs. 

Today we took a wrong turn (still heading south…as long as it is south it is all good)  We found some hot springs in Alausi, Ecuador. WE decided to stay the night and warm our bones. Sometimes it is nice to get lost and end up in a beautiful place like this….                       .

Motorcycle Race Columbia Style

THANK YOU Juilo & Lillian for taking us to the motorcycle race. We meet Juiolo on the road yesterday and he showed us to a super nice hotel in the city of Pasto, Columbia, where we stayed the night. (the nicest place so far) he told us about the motorcycle championship that he goes to EVERY Sunday (he never misses a race) We thought this was right up our Road. So we joined them and they showed us a good time. Thank you guys.These guys road on a Yamaha 115.
(which was in the final race of the day). This little 115 goes fast. I couldn't keep up with them on the highway. The race had many different classes from the yamaha 115, to scooters! to 200 to 650 super motos. Better yet the day we attended was the first day the super moto class included Enduro Racing! With that said the #1 racer in the country came in #2 place.
He had to lean his bike against Pauls because it had no kick stand...It looks like tiny next to the Honda 650 but this bike cruises even with 2 people on it.

They let us into the "vip" section beacuse we were tourist on Motorcycles at the moto race...I mean when you arrive at a MOTORCYCLE race on MOTORCYCLES that you rode from the USA for some reason you can do whatever you want!?!?!?

Have you ever seen scooters corner like this?

South America...69 days and 5985 miles later...

Columbia is a beautiful country......from the People, to the roads, the food to the scenery. everybody helping us with anything and everything from finding hotels to changing our oil. everyone is so curious about our Journey and making us feel very welcome in their country. Columbians claim to be the happiest in the world. I believe it. I have not heard anybody talk negative about anything anybody or anywhere. They all have a Positive outlook on life and it's great to be in a country where the people are not only so beautiful but the scenery is just as beautiful. I think whom ever designed the roads in Columbia must have made them just for Motorcycles. The roads are so much fun and so beautiful. I have never seen anything like it before. It just keeps getting better around every turn, and there are a lot of them... motorcycles do not have to pay at all the tolls on the roads:)

WE have to keep all of our layers close by. It will be raining one minute and then we will drop down and it will be hot and humid and within another 10 minutes we will need our jackets on agian. OH it's good to be back in the mountains. Columbia is in the "foothills" Of the Andes and in the Amazon River Region. If you can imagine such a place. it is Columbia!

The Food is some of the best so far also. Plantains "the potato of the clouds" are used in a lot of dishes.. like a green banana....I love them, Paul not so much. Plantains soup below is served with just about every meal and of course a cold columbia cerveza.

Flying our bikes to Columbia was the best idea. It saved a lot of time and hassle. We were able to get all of our paperwork, for importing our bikes into the country, right at the cargo terminal. once we found the right office to go to (tranlation still is not the best) the whole office was helping me out, unlike any other border crossing so far. They were all smiling and helpful. Thank you columbia.

Columbia- The only risk is that you will not want to leave:)

Peaks and Perks meets Columbian coffee.   Columbia’s coffee National Park.

    

Our bikes and us fly to Columbia:))

 

      We did it!!!  Columbia is everything that we heard it would be. The people are so so friendly.  The mango seller on the street would not take my money for mango.  All he would take was a hand shake and a smile.  Then there’s the story teller that gave me a cd of his columbian stories.  And again would not take money.  then there’s  the place we bought our oil for an oil change.  Yeap they changed it for us for nothing.  They are all very curious of our story and our bikes.  They go out of there way for us for nothing.  Like” follow me and i will take you to the highway.”  As you can see i can’t say enough about the people here.  the nicest that I have met anywhere in this small world so far.

     Then there is the winding beautiful roads that go through the foot hills of the mountains.  The mountains are bigger here than i expected.  8000ft in the valley’s. It nice to be somewhere that the temps. are cool at night, and not very hot during the day.  The flowers and vegitation here is just amazing.  All in all it’s my favorite country that we have ridden through yet. For sure.!!  I love it here and will return some day for a longer stay.3-18-11 Camel in Columbia.

Art of Bogota Columbia

Flying bikes to columbia is mucho $$$

well we have been looking into getting our bikes to south america and it is not cheap or easy anyway you look at it. By boat is 750 dollars for us and the bike. then it leaves is 4 days. is at sea for 4 days then takes about to to get it to shore due to paper work issues. And then more money. Then we went to the airport today to see about flying them to columbia. The one airline that was suppose to be the cheapest turns out there dont do it anymore. So now there seems to be just one airline that does it. The bike cost is $901.25 then another 300-400 hundred for us to get there each. But the paper work is taken care of by the airline. Which is suppose to be easier and quicker. the plane leaves on sun. tomm. is sat. then we can pick it up in columbia on mon. morning. Sounds like we have decided to go for the flying. 1300 bucks is so so much, but we did budget for this as we knew it would cost alot.. Thats it for now. wish us luck and we will write to ya in columbia next. Hopefully. today is 3-11. peace and love to all