January 6
Today was a big day. We got up early and taxied out to the Air Cargo Terminal to see if we couldn't get an early start on re-assembling the bike, but today wasn't the day for quick movement. We had forgotten that it was Saturday. Things went very slow and we had several walks around the neighborhood trying to get things in order. The customs office was the biggest hold-up. Saturday just wasn't their rush day. We finally got all things completed by noon and made it to the first gas stop. (We have to have less than 1 litre of gas and disconnect the battery cables for shipment. We didn't bother with the cables and just kept our bikes low on fuel as we entered panama for shipment.)

We hired a taxi there at the gas station to get us across town on the right road to Cali. We didn't want to be too lost in Bogata. The countryside was absolutely full of traffic. It was bumper-to-bumper traffic for at least 100 miles. We couldn't make any headway at all. We rode above the clouds twice and once was above 11000 feet. The temps were 90 at the bottom and 60 at the top. The scenery was nice, but it was way too crowded to enjoy anything. We finally made it to Ibaque by 4:30 which was a fairly large town. It was only 30 miles to the next town, so we decided to push on.

The segment to the next town (Armenia) was by far the toughest and most scenic. The curves would spiral up in down the mountain along very plush greenery including coffee fields on the side of the mountains. We would occasionally see horses loaded with coffee coming down from the mountain. I was unable to get any pictures during this section because we needed to make time and the riding was tough. I had both hands placed firmly where they're supposed to be. It took us an hour and a half to cover that little bit of ground, but it was fantastic and scary at the same time. The roads are just lined with military people.

Once entering Armenia it was getting dark, so I was going to catch the first taxi I could. As luck would have it, we stopped at a Police checkpoint with young enthusiastic policeman that were curious about our bikes. One of them (Jorge) proudly lead us to the nicest hotel in town where they had garage parking underneath. He then, came inside and made sure we had a room and were settled and safe for the night. He said, "Welcome to Columbia". Everyone has been very nice.