Day 103

Day 103  2/6/2022

Odometer  34,300 – 34,404  —— 104 Miles (11,704 Miles Total)

Salento, Colombia – Padua, Colombia

We got up at the crack of dawn and met up in front of Dagos hostel. We loaded up the bikes and hit the road. I was leading the way since he didn’t have a phone mount for GPS to get to a city named Manizales where his father lives. It is so nice to be riding with someone finally on the trip, especially someone who is a local and can show me around. We were blasting away on the twisty roads having a field day. He’s got a bike that’s a bit quicker than mine so I was trying to keep up with him. But god damn Dago can ride a bike really well. I was struggling to keep up with him in some of the turns. We stopped for a quick breakfast which was hilarious. He got annoyed because the service took so long and then when we got our food the order was all messed up. I was cracking up telling him this has been most of my experience in Colombia where the food takes so long to get and it’s usually not what I ordered.

We got back on the road and he kept talking about all the storms in the area. It seems like he knows what he’s talking about with the weather patterns in the area but I had a feeling we were going to get some rain. We took a ride over to Manizales to go see a spot to paraglide. On the way there we hit a gorgeous uphill section of twisty roads. We were pushing our bikes to the max the whole way up for about 2o straight minutes. I could feel my tires slipping in every turn. I have never been this dialed in on a motorcycle in my entire life I think. I was so comfortable in every turn leaning the bike over to the breaking point, feeling the tires slipping and playing with it. Dago and I kept passing each other using both lanes like a race track. At one point 3 guys got behind us on crotch rockets and they were barely able to pass us but they did. I was wondering what these guys were thinking about us idiots on adventure bikes almost dragging our panniers in the turns.

We finally got to the top of the mountain and pulled over so Dago can have a smoke. We passed the guys on crotch rockets as they were pulled over as well and they were cheering us on super pumped up to be riding as fast as we were! We finally got to the paragliding launch point but Dago started to have issues with his clutch. It wouldn’t engage. I took my tools out and tried to fix his lever thinking it was the issue but then I took a wild guess and said he had air in the hydraulic line of the clutch. Nothing we could do without any extra clutch fluid. After about an hour he realized if he let go of the clutch lever slowly it would engage. So we decided to ride it to his dad’s place since it was Sunday and most shops were probably closed. On the way there we actually found a block with 15 Moto shops and one of them bled the line and topped it off. it was working perfectly now and it only cost $2. Incredible.

We took a ride to his dad’s place for a little snack and then decided we would ride to Padua where he grew up and had a small apartment he was fixing up. He was concerned about the weather as we had to ride over a huge mountain pass to get there and it was most likely going to rain. Dago pulled out his “rain gear” which was a few plastic bags he put on over his clothes and shoes. I loved it. Poor guys were gonna be soaked by the time we got there. We hit the road and it started to rain straight away. We stopped for fuel and he asked if I wanted to wait out the rain. I said hell no we will be here waiting for 2 days!

We started up the long cold rainy ride. I think we hit 12,500′ in elevation and holy fucking hell was it cold. It was down pouring super hard most of the ride which was 2 hours. Poor dago was probably soaked behind me. The roads were incredible but the fog was thick, the roads were super slippery and it was cold. I wish I could ride this when it is dry and sunny. We stopped at a nice little rest area for a delicious lunch. He was a regular at about 20 minutes from his town. I love these little shops to buy local food for so cheap.

We made it to his town in the rain. It was a tiny town in the mountains. He owned two huge farms. One with cattle and one with coffee beans. He goes paragliding on the as they are literally  on a mountain side and two steep you can barely walk up them but they do! He had his grandfather’s Daihatsu truck from 1960 in the garage that we ended up taking to the farm with the cattle. He has a house on the farm which a family lives in that takes care of the cattle and the farm. We went overthere to check it out. There were about 15 baby cows roaming around living in his truck because they liked the way it tasted I guess. We had some fresh coffee with fresh milk from the cows. His little puppy was ripping around the farm and it was adorable. Back into town we went for some snacks and dinner. On Sundays all the farmers drink all day and night after selling their produce for the weekend so the town was jam packed with people. There was so much traffic so cops were directing all the traffic which was a mess. Dago grew up in this little mountain town and knew everyone. He was like a god damn mayor. Every 30 seconds we would stop to talk to someone.

We chilled out at this house the rest of the night and crashed pretty early. We had another long day of riding tomorrow!

 

Dago on his 1000 Vstrom

Fresh coffee on Dagos farm

His grandfathetrs truck from the 60’s. The fog was this thick nearly all day long.

Dago squeezing the truck through a narrow spot on the corner of his block

Where we stopped for lunch in the mountains

Getting down to the edge on the tires.