Columbia Cocaine Trifecta with Slides

Riding Columbia :

The Columbia Cocaine Trifecta


My ride to Cali today completed a motorcycle visit to the three most notorious narcotics trafficking cities in South America, quite possibly in the world. What I learned reinforced my belief that newspaper and television-generated fear is irrational. I found some of the very best mountain riding and friendliest people this side of Mexico. I never expected such remarkable motorcycling.

The Columbian portion of my trip started when I flew my V-Strom 650 from Panama City to Bogota. After the typical five-hour paperwork dance with customs I was allowed to proceed. It only cost me $20.00 for the required Columbian motorcycle insurance. I went directly to my hotel in the safe (wealthy) part of the city. I chose the hotel for its location and because it offered secure, underground parking. After setting up my V-Strom for long distance travelling the last thing I needed was for it to be nicked.

If you wanted to ride your motorcycle from Panama City to Bogota, Columbia you would have ride over the famed Darien Gap. No matter who you talk to you’ll be told that it is impossible. First of all there is no road, only a partial path through the jungle and over the mountains. There are many apocryphal stories about those who have tried. Some riders were never seen again. One guy was said to have machete-hacked his bike through the jungle for two months before giving up and leaving it to be enveloped by the jungle growth.

The group I’m riding with opted for the quickest and most expensive way. We flew the bikes and ourselves directly to Bogota.

Another less expensive way is to take a ferry to one of several coastal towns. Some consider this option dicey due to the nefarious shipping out of Columbia, and since boats are only mildy regulated you can't be sure when your boat will sail. You have to weigh your options, as travelers always must.

BOGOTA
The city of Bogota is immense. Its 7 million inhabitants are spread out over the entire shelf between the surrounding mountains. The elevation is over 7,000 feet and the city has an average temperature of 60°F . Perfect for riding! Tonight’s ride from the airport was during rush hour. Columbian drivers are in a hurry. Several taxis tried to push me out of my lane and motorcycles are allowed to ‘filter’ here. So, in a 15 mile rush -hour ride I shared my lane with taxis, small agile Japanese bikes, and one horse-drawn cart (it was actually moving at a nice pace considering he was galloping along on a six lane road). Once at the hotel I decided to get room service and retire early. Tomorrow I’ll explore.

On the list of tourist must-sees are the Gold Museum, the salt mine with its Salt Cathedral inside and the sparkling white church perched atop a Montserrat above the city. I hoped to do none of these. I’m more interested in what makes the city tick. Is it the drug trade? Is it the ornamental flower business? Is it a safe city for the traveler? Our hotel is first rate and in a fancy part of the North side. However, we’ve been advised to walk nowhere after dark. Only take cabs we’re told. I’ve seen only a small part of the city so far and no poverty but I know it is lurking around here somewhere. Like many large South American cities there is surely a large population of very poor and desperate people. Often night brings them out looking for opportunities.

OK I failed. I did go Montserrat for dinner and to have a look around. It required a cab ride to a funicular that brings you straight up the mountain. The view is stunning. Tonight was an especially clear evening and the lights of the city tell a story. First of all the city is enormous. It fills every crack and cranny from Montserrat and the mountains on the East, to the horizon on the West side. The lights also show where the rich live and play. The entire northeast side is full of brightly lit, tall and elegant buildings. To the south and west the lights are dimmer and closer together. It’s those areas we’ve been told to avoid.

BOGOTA TO MEDELLIN
The road from Bogota to Medellin is only 350 miles yet it took me over 13 hours to ride (breaks totaled only about an hour). The main reason it took so long is that the route goes up, over, and down an endless set of beautiful, high and very steep mountains. For nearly 200 of the 350 miles you tuck and twist your way around this Columbian portion of the Andes.

Another reason it took all day and part of the night is that the road does no appear to have been designed by experienced road engineers. Rather it’s as if, to save money, they had it designed by medical school students. They’re smart kids but they have no concept of a properly banked turn. Some of these hairpin switchbacks are banked the wrong way. Instead of helping your vehicle turn toward the centerline, they tend to throw your bike toward the tree lined shoulder. It’s disconcerting, but adds to the technical nature of this ride.

Also slowing me down was the unpredictability of the road. Ordinarily the left and right twists balance each other out. It is logical and you can anticipate what’s coming next. This mountain route is an erratic road that describes a path like one that would be made if a large balloon filled with air slipped from your grasp and spun crazily away. You can’t possibly predict how it will twist and turn, only that it will come down eventually. This road follows such a path.

The final justification for my sloth is the road maintenance, or lack thereof. Fallen rocks were everywhere. One large boulder was as big as a Spanish fighting bull, and even more dangerous. Rather than move it off the road they just put caution tape around it. Potholes are ever-present and deep. Every 3 miles or so is a patch of road under construction. Those stretches usually consist of 300 yards of missing asphalt and the rutted, irregular earth below. After riding Columbia you will come home a much more proficient and confident rider!

The author doesn’t want it to sound as if this wasn’t a great ride. It was marvelous, but is not for the faint of heart. It is very technical and demanding. I felt like I was racing on a TT track and halfway expected Rossi to scream past me, knee scrapping into the next turn. This is not a leisurely jaunt. Cancel the ride if there is much rain and leave Bogota early or you’ll be riding in the dark before reaching Medellin.

The terrain to Medellin, besides being mountainous, was fairly well populated. Small villages with their homes built close together and very near the road were common. I believe they live a mostly agricultural life. Men on horseback are often seen riding along the road. Women and children sell food items such as fruit, or bottled water in front of their houses. The homes themselves are modest indeed. Some are little more than wattle and daub. It looks as if the only builders in town are the Three Little Pigs. Most of the work went to the brother that used brick (though here it is mostly rough block). But the brothers that build with straw and sticks also built many houses. Luckily it doesn’t get too cold here because no buildings appear to be weather tight.

One of the conundrums I found in Bogota is repeated here in Medellin. Both cities are extremely affluent by South American standards. Cars here cost double what they do in the US due to a 45% import duty. I visited the BMW motorcycle dealer to confirm this. New BMW 1200 GS Adventure motorcycles cost $60,000 US. Yet they sell a great deal of them. The same is true at the Porsche, and Mercedes dealers. I’ve quizzed all my cab drivers and they say the drug trade is one of the reasons, but I can’t believe that alone could support a city of 3 million so lavishly. If it does, drug use is much more prevalent than I imagined. We’ll go to Cali tomorrow where I’ll see if that too is a rich city.

TO CALI
The ride to Cali from Cerritos was a little less exciting than the mountain roads from Medellin to Cerritos. We didn’t go high up in the Andes to challenge the twisties but instead opted for more time in Cali. As we couldn’t stop for the night in Cali we wanted to spend as much of the day as possible there by taking the direct route. As I had hoped it turned out to be joyful riding all day. The main road here is the Pan American highway. We’ve tried to avoid the PanAm as much as possible so far on the theory that being off the main routes makes it easier to find biker-roads and to meet the people.

The highway is 40% dual carriage-way and 60% two lane. It is extremely well maintained asphalt and not too busy. We were able to cruise at an average pace of 60 mph when we were not being slowed to a crawl by some hilarious but undersized vehicle. On one steep grade I had to slow to 15 mph to avoid a kid on a 50cc Honda with two dozen long-handled mops tied perpendicular onto his tiny bike travelling on the Pan Am.
For one long stretch we were in a belt of sugar cane farms. It is harvest time and the owner’s use the Pan Am to get the cut cane to the nearest processing plant. They use trucks that pull 5 linked trailers. Each trailer is a railroad car, only with enormous rubber tires and an open top. They crawl along under 20 mph so they’re easy to pass.

The fertility of the land must be mentioned. Everything grows here. The sun, elevation and rainfall are conducive for crops of all types. Since I’ve been here I’m pretty sure I grew half an inch. In fact the speed with which all plants grow causes the highway maintenance boys to spend most of their time trying to keep the roads from being engulfed by long grasses and big leafed bushes. Every couple of miles you’ll pass a gang of about 15 guys wearing yellow or orange overalls, all attacking the greenery with machetes or gas powered weed whackers. It is a lifetime of hard work.