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Great pictures Paul.I like the sculptures in the mine.:smile[2]:

yesterday we ended up in santa rosa de cabel, the ride out in the morning took us thru more mountains :clap

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riding thru Pereira you cross an amazing bridge that seems out of place

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Filandia was the next destination, it has a look out tower that boasts THE best view in Colombia, problem was when we were there it was early morning and the dew creates a mist that kind of looked like smog but all the same it is a great view looking towards the town and also towards the snow capped Los Nevados

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this is a close up of the same church as we rode out of town later

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a short ride from here back to the route 29 and south a km's is the town of Salento where we planned to stay...

we got there and found a small hotel in Salento, from here the place EVERYONE heads to valle de cocora, it boast some of the tallest palm trees in the whole world...now at this point in my head i had kind of built this place up and put it on a pedestal, did you ever do that and when you get there, it just wasn't kind of what you were expecting...so i did a very quick video for dramatic effect

OK, so a few things have come up at home i need to deal with so this time around Cuba is off but the RTW is still on...

lets just say its personal and leave it at that - :cry...ask no questions and i'll tell you no lies!!!

other info that might be useful because of this is i got my bike booked to fly from Bogota to Miami for $915 with Lynn Cargo, now thats a deal

so a few emails back and forth between me and throttlemeister and he knew already the Cuba deal was off so i got a "well if thats the case you need to go here then, email..."

i'm come to that in due course, right now sitting in Mediellin, at Casa Kiwi, Al wasn't around at The Shamrock but of course as soon as i check in here i get an email from him, figures...so its off to his place tonight for a few suds - :freaky:freaky:freaky:freaky:freaky:freaky:freaky

getting up with the birds in Salento and going for a walk up to the Mirador (lookout)

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by the time i came down the town was coming to life with some of its brightly colored doors starting to open

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what's your favorite color? :evil

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the bells rang from the church in the main square and the towns dogs went on their daily search for food

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i agree with this...from an ADV standpint

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after i done my walking it was a quick ride to Cali...

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trying to not get run over by the sugar cane trucks, longest one i saw was a SEVEN trailer, empty, and a FIVE trailer full, so if they are 40 footers plus the tractor thats 300 feet to get around before someone else shows up

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in Cali stopped at the Casablanca Hostal, thanks Mike, didn't see you to say goodbye, had a great time

i didn't get to see much of Cali as mainly i was trying to arrange very short notice shipping to Miami (two posts back), but i did get to see this, yummy

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and this above a banks doorway, guess where the profits are going, not back to the customers...:huh

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and a poster on a wall that i played with a little to correct its look - :deal i did see plenty of this on the road but never this full, thats more Guatemalan style

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TM you're up

so TM and i have a few emails going back and forth, he knows Cuba is off so he emails me and said well if thats the case you have to go to Buenaventura and find the old Cali road, he told me he did it from BV back to Cali, as i was leaving and heading north then i figured i would do it from Cali west and come back towards Buga as i wasn't returning to Cali like he did

he sends all the details i need we go back and forth and i find it on the map online, but we agree that its not showing exactly on any may for the garmin, and i have three COLRUT, garmin SA and OSM, Colrut is the closest so he tells me to use that

i get out of Cali and head for dieciocho a town outside of Cali the ride up is amazing views as normal, and the occasion giant cow, the road i am looking for is about 3 - 5 KM's from there

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now at this point, if your Spanish is like the video below then you get bad directions, or understand badly...yes that would be me:lol3:lol3, but i did try,

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4cKGyOE_jOI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

so i looked and looked and looked and asked and got turned around :huh, felt a lot like this :dog and then some of this :ddog with a lot of this :kboom loads of this :baldy and then of course this :hmmmmm because maybe i wasn't asking for the right place - if you see his photos you'd understand why, so post them up TM

i took the main road down to BV and it was a blast in places literally, as they were dynamiting holes in the mountain side. About every 2-3 km's there was a new work crew either working on the road or working on a new tunnel

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when you did get in a tunnel they were long, badly lit, potholed and full of dust

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so on the way down there were lots of military, usually anywhere in Colombia you get a thumbs up, not here they were shaking there heads at me, then i see this, 50 cal's pointing at me

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i tell them i am going to BV, they shake their heads but let me pass, so i wonder what i am heading into, then the rains start, and when that happens i am still 15km's short of the end of the road, i fill up with gas and grab a snack and wait for the rain to subside...it doesn't it gets worse, so at this point i cut my losses and turn around, i simply didn't have time just incase something went wrong to keep searching as i have a plane to catch (one thursday) and a bike to check in first thing monday morning in Bogota...sorry TM...this is one for John Downs to find once he's finished playing Captain Blythe between Colon and Turbo, amongst the other routes i have sent him and his little bike to go check out

so riding back i have the opportunity to take some photos and if this is the road cut into the side of the mountain that he wanted me to go on then i am jealous and somewhat annoyed i couldn't find the entry point just past 18

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after sitting in road works for hours i had to make a judgement call looking at the map to make the most of my last few days riding in Colomba...so i headed for Salento for the second time in a week, know this would leave me with a few good solid days of various mountain roads for those last few days

i found a good dirt road to Salento, that i think was a coffe plantation track and as usual on a big bike rolling down the road creating a big dust clod the locals look at you in total dumfounded awe

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even found a tunnel that seemed so out of place

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i got into town and the Trucha (trout) festival was in full swing every room was sold out, but by chance i bumped into a guy i met earlier in the week and he asked a friend who he knew had a spare room if i could use it (for cash) so he agreed and i handed over $11...sweet

sun was starting to drop so time to walk to the main square and walk thru town to the Mirador (lookout)

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the steps up were full of people heading up to see the sunset

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its quite a unique location, first the sun drops and fills the valley with shades of orange

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then you literally turn around and watch it drop behind the town

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