Peenie Wallie

This town is just about the ideal size, I would say. It's large enough to have a couple of gas stations, at least one ATM (cajero automatico), it has a hotel, a supermarcado. There are lots of police in the streets, but they're nice and they only carry nightsticks. When they saw me on my bike without a helmet, they just make a sign like....put on your helmet. (The population of this town is roughly 50,000 people, if I'm not mistaken.)

I loop back through town on the bike and gas up at my gas station where I dodged the rain storm yesterday afternoon.

Today, I am slightly better prepared than I was yesterday, as I now have a rain-suit to wear riding my bike that cost a whopping $15 USD.

I loop through town on the bike, and get some shots of the cathedral. I think the cathedral was built in 2004? I was thinking it was built in 1704, but I think it was built in 2004, it seems.

Also, people are selling mannequins, and displaying manequins, pretty much everywhere I look. And I can't figure out why.

I roll out of town, heading south. Not really clear where I'm going, mind you, just south. Just heading towards Quito. That's the only plan really.

At some point on the ride, it started to rain hard. Everyone was pulling over, looking for shelter under trees, but I kept riding. With my new raingear on, it was something I could do fairly easily, and, judging from the skies, it looked like I could probably ride out of the storm. And I was right. I went only a few hundred yards and it stopped raining. So, the wet weather gear has definitely paid off in the mountains, where it seems to rain every day, even in the dry season.

The Andes are just amazing. Stunning and green. An hour later, I leave the mountains. Now, I'm driving across a flat level section of Colombia. There are pastures and such. Still pretty, but now we have a 4 lane divide road, much like the interstate, so finally I can make some time.

Three hours later, I'm back in the Andes again. Now, there are less cars around.

Now, I see some people with a mannequin out front and I stop and I'm like... "que significance?"

It turns out that it's in celebration of New Year's, for whatever reason. And everyone has them.

At some point today, I was riding, and saw some billboards that I went back and shot. Basically, they're laying out all of the emergency numbers on billboards. Also, they point out, that towing and ambulance services are all gratis. I'm thinking...wow...for a backwards country, they sure are far ahead of us. Free towing? Genius. We should have that. But we don't.

I finally stop for a late lunch at 3:30 p.m. at Porky's in La Depresion. I'm following Highway 25, apparently. It appears to be part of the PanAmerican Highway, if I'm not mistaken.

It appears to me that the other motorcycle riders have their license plates on the backs of their helmets. I'm guessing that's a law down here? I dunno. Certainly I don't have my plate on my helmet. I don't even have insurance, which is a requirement down here. When you cross the border, normally, they require you to show proof of insurance in Colombia. Because we processed our bikes through Aduana in Turbo, they didn't check, so none of us have insurance.

Now, I'll contine my ride to Mercaderes, Colombia.

For some reason, when I get to my turn-off of Highway 25 to Mercaderes, I decide not to go that way. I think it was because my Garmin said that wasn't the right way to go. So, instead of going to Mercaderes, I just kept riding down highway 25. The only problem is that, eventually, the road gets worse and worse, and I begin to notice that there are pretty much no other vehicles on the road, aside from me.

But I keep riding, and my Garmin is working, since I put the new batteries in it this morning. But the Garmin has another little trick that I'm not fond of. For whatever reason, it occasionally cuts the planned route in half, and says "Navigating to Partial", meaning a part of the original plan, I suppose. So, it's just taking me to a point in the space-time continuum that is, for all intents and purposed, meaningless. Like...it's a spot on the earth, on Highway 25, but it's not in a town or anything. Thanks for that, Garmin. Big help.

But the Waze on the cell phone isn't a whole lot of help either, because I've left my original plan to go to Mercaderes, so now I'm just sort of riding down the road, no real destination planned at this point. Also, I've lost cell coverage. So, basically, I'm just riding down a random highway in the Colombian Andes, low on fuel. Sort of winging it at this point, I suppose. (I'm not a bright man, it seems.)

I keep stopping, occasionally, as I bounce down the pitted road, taking a few breathless shots of the stunning mountains, rivers, and valleys. Beautiful scenery, but I'm always looking over my shoulder for the encroaching bus, 18 wheeler, etc.

But the vehicles have thinned out some, as I've said. And, at this point...I'm really not sure where to go. I'm not too far from the Ecuadorian border. But I've sort of lost focus on my target destination. I'm very low on gas. And, as I'm bouncing down the road, I come upon two other motorcycle riders, stopped on the side of the road.

I pull up to them.

"Hola amigo. Donde gasolina? Necessito gasolina."

The one guy talks to me in perfect english.

"We are not too far from the next gas station. Maybe it is only one kilometer."

"And a hotel? Donde hotel?"

"Yes. Also, there is a hotel in the next town. I can show you. It's a very nice one."

"With Wifi?"

"Si."

And now, I'm following my new-found friends through the fading light. We don't go far, and one of them says he is out of gas.

"Do you have gas?" he asks me.

"Yes. I have gas for you." I reply. Like...maybe they're playing me. Maybe not. But I can ride another 100 miles with the gas I have if I need to.

But his bike starts up, and now it's running OK. We ride now to the next town ... maybe 1 or 2 kilometers.

We stop and gas up.

Then, they point out the Hotel & Balneario Paraiso in the town of Remolino es Narino.

I go check into the hotel. She says the cost is $28,000 a night. Yikes....that's almost $10 USD! Who has that kind of money?

So, I pay her, and then she tells me to just drive the motorcycle into the hotel lobby. Like, we wouldn't want anything to happen to it, right?

So I ride the bike into the hotel lobby, and then through the lobby, and out back, to where my room is. I shower, and then walk across the street for a Diet Coke. As soon as I sit down, it starts pouring rain. Could not have timed it any better. I never got wet today at all, and I rode all day.