From South to North America

By the time you read this I will be on my way out of Colombia and arriving in Miami, not my chosen port of arrival, but as so often as has happened in this trip, nothing has gone to plan. I had left my bike in Cali, after meeting with a shipping agent and arranging which route that bike would take and I would follow. This being LA, after which I would be back on track after missing out central America and Mexico. But Colombia being Colombia and me being the token gringo, things are never that easy. After 3 weeks of traveling around on a bus and sending the agent information on when i wold be back to pay him and get the bike on a a plane, suddenly the cost has jumped 50%.

So to cut a long story short, I have chosen to save a lot of money and fly in to Miami and make a plan on the hoof when I arrive. I just want to get out of here, I need a blast of western culture, which I am sure I will overdose on very quickly, but for now that is what I need.

After 7 months in the Latin section, I am ready to move on, I leave with some very fond memories, of great people and great places. I have mentioned before that I have become travel weary, so the break from the bike has been good and its allowed me to recharge my batteries and refocus on what Im doing. Something I have come to realise, is that travel in this way, moving around all the time, has become very unfulfilling and at time rather empty. You meet some interesting people, but for every interesting one, you meet 20 that are as dull as ditch water. Now that may seem harsh and perhaps, if you can spend more time with people, then you really find out if they are interesting, but by the very nature of travel, your meetings are very transient and this can conspire to deep loneliness. We as humans need intellectual and physical interaction and stimulation with our fellow humans, just meeting people does not satisfy these needs.

I don't leave South America with any regret. Its been a fun and I have seen some outstanding beauty and had some of the best motorcycling there is to be had in the world. What I find lacking here is cultural diversity, its not bland by any means, it just lacks something, something that only time brings, and relatively speaking this is still the new world. Unfortunately we are now in an age of homogenisation, where we, globally, are becoming more and more alike. Westernisation is seeping in everywhere you look, from coffee shops to burgers bars, clothes to pharmacy's, one town looks just like the other and we all do the similar things. South American countries think of themselves as very distinct and they are very nationalistic, but really its like an "Un-united States of South America". Divided by there politicians petty rivalry and desires for self glorification, but then that is politicians the world over. The difference between the countries, give the area that it covers, I find quite small. In isolation, each country is interesting, but after 7 months I am found them blending in to one.

So would I come back? Im not sure really, to Patagonia certainly and I would say that to Argentina and Chile, yes, but the rest of it, probable not. There is of course the Amazon , which I have not ventured down, but thats an entire adventure on its own, perhaps one day.

So, Colombia

As I mentioned in my previous update, I have been travelling around Colombia by bus, and it has been a welcome break to be off the bike and just sit back, read a book and let someone else navigate there way to the various places that I wished to see. After leaving Cali, my first port of call was Medellin, Pablo Escobar's old stomping ground and once a no go area for the police and army, let alone travelers. But today the story is very different, as Colombia basks in a new found confidence in its self as well as the confidence of outside investors. I only spent a couple of days here, its an OK city, but not as exciting as its history and I found the place rather modern and ordinary, no doubt a nice place to live, but not fascinating to the visitor.

The next stop was Cartagena, a town I have always wanted to visit ever since watching Romancing the Stone. It really is the archetypal colonial Spanish town, with beautiful balconies draped in bougainvillea, shady plazas, and a history of pirates and siege's by good old Sir Francis Drake, who was nothing more than a British government licenced pirate at best anyway (I think we could do with some of these now days, or are the pirates the government?). But he did manage to give the Spanish a few bloody noses in his day and pilfered quite a few doubloons in the process. The town literally is a living museum and in its hay day was Spain's most important port in the Americas and its where the majority of goods where shipped from, and exported to Spain, including the lucrative gold and silver that attracted said pirates. The only draw back of the place is the steaming hot climate, that is stifling, making anything more energetic than a gentle stroll an extremely sweaty experience indeed. I arrive on a Saturday night and the whole of the old town was alive to the sounds of salsa, as various bars and restaurants competed for the lucrative trade of both wealth Colombian and tight arsed back packers. The assumption is, that if your are from the west you have money the throw away, how wrong they can be, at least with a frugal bastard like me.

After a few days of drinking rum and rolling around the streets with a patch on my eye and a parrot on my shoulder, I headed down to the fishing village of Taganga, which can only be described as Rubbish-on-Sea, the place was an absolute shit hole; there are two reasons to come here - 1 its the easiest place to get in to Tayrone National Park and 2 you want to hang out with brain dead gap year travelers and drink beer and stuff cocaine up your nose. Another negative is that the place is infested with the worst kind of travellers that inhabit the planet - Israelis. The scerge of South America. Now don't get me wrong, Im not anti Semitic, but I have no time at all for groups of hairy faced oiks from the middle east , who act like they own the world and are as rude and arrogant as you can get. OK, Ill get off my soap box and try to be nice.

So needless to say I did hang around long, and due to the fact that I actually thought I was melting, I decided to head back down country for the town of San Gill. From here I was able to get a small bus up to the beautiful little town of Barricharra, which has been meticulously renovated to its former glory, and every house has to adhere to a strict code of appearance. The result is a town that looks like it is stuck in a time warp and if you had the absence of cars you could truly believe that you where back in the 18th century. It was a pleasure to be at a slight altitude again and though sunny, it felt like a warm spring day rather than someone putting a massive hair dyer on you as soon as you got out of your hammock. Next destination was Villa Leyva, such a genuine looking old hill town, that it was used as the set for a production of Zorro for Colombian TV.

Here I did a bit more horse ridding, still the horse was far more in control than I, but I enjoyed it all the same. I was also able to get in a few sessions of yoga and enjoy the beautiful nature that this area has to offer. Kicking back in a hammock while watching humming birds hover around you, takes a lot of beating.

Bogota - For years a bye word for violence, kidnapping and cocaine, Bogota is now a cleaned up city, boasting shinny new hotels built by Hilton, Intercontinental and various cosy boutique hotels that can rival most cities in the world. There is an air of confidence around the place that is say, "remember us? we are back!". I still don't think its on the list of most international travelers, but it is firmly on the gringo trail in South America and I'm sure with time it will attract more and more visitor. I stayed in the historic quarter of La Canderlaria, which is a nice place by day, but is rather close to some unsavoury neighborhoods, that produce some interesting characters as the sun drops from sight, but sometime, quite perversely, I enjoy that edginess. Perhaps I have been traveling too long!

Its is an amazingly cultural city though, and I have over dosed on museums and art galleries, but have avoided the plazas and churches, I am truly over those. One strange thing that I came across, was a whole city block full of shops selling military and police clothing, not fake but the real McCoy, rather worrying in a country that still does suffer from a high rate of crime and many instances of police impersonation. Now this was not hidden down some back alley, this was a stones throw from the presidential palace! I was tempted to kit myself out as one of the Village People, but you will be please to know that I thought better of it.

After a 10 hour bus ride I was back in Cali, the home of plastic surgery and though many people suggested I get my nose done while Im here, it is still its distinctive shape. After the debacle of the shippers, I managed to do precious little, a bit of writing and a lot of reading, its not much a city beyond the plastic surgeons and a few salsa bars, so I have just been sitting a waiting to catch my flight. Im now at Bogota airport, with one hour to go in South America and whilst I am reflecting on the past few months , I am firmly looking at the future and what awaits in North America. First port of call will be to see my cousins in Florida, who I have not seen for an eternity, then I have to decided on my route that I will take northwards, there is nothing like leaving things to the last minute, but its is rare that in life we have such flexibility to just go where we fancy and I will enjoy this while I can. The main priority is to get in to Alaska before the bears start to hibernate and I have to put nails in my tyres to get some traction.

So lets hope all goes well with US customs, Ill keep you posted.