i was only in Medellin for the afternoon & night, some people need an urban fix every once in a while, for me living in a city of over 10,000,000 people for years and years i don't need that

i had a quick look around and saw these

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look at the tank area????

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and now my bike the XT660Z is for sale in Colombia

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so leaving in the morning from the Casa Kiwi before Medellin was awake and heading east out of town

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going out of town over the mountain it was 8C or 46F degrees, but felt a lot colder, i headed to El Penol and it wasn't open so i took a couple of shots, i wasn't going to wait for a few hours climb 639 steps and headed on...

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following the lake around i headed to Guatape and its not awake yet either!!!

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as i roll out of town i check the map and see Granada, but the problem its a full mountain range and no obvious way across, i looked at my GPS, i was using three different maps, OSM, Garmin SA and Colrut, none of them showed a complete route, roads just ended and 10-20kms they started again...so in true Throttlemeister style i just said f**k it and rode on hoping it would come out somewhere useful...but keep in mind here i have to be in Bogota in two days to drop my bike off at the airport, OK lets go

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i headed towards San Rafael, in the tiny little town i asked a cop if i could get to San Carlos, he points down the road i'm on and tells me go straight...about 5 kms later in come to split in the road, there's and army check point they ask where i'm headed, i tell them San Carlos and then Granada, they tell me i can go straight, this is the point that i have no roads on my map (any of them consistently all the way thru), i reconfirm and they say sure San Carlos/ Granada, no problem for you...:D

so here it is on two maps the first one is where the checkpoint was and the second was where i was headed, the army pointed me southwest, not along the road to the east

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so if you are headed this way i have a track for you if you want it...but...a few km's later there are landslides

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its possible to ride around them but from here on out its dirt all the way, and amazingly the occasional truck, i figured later they must only go so far then turn around

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small sections are very steep and reminisent of the hancock pass in Colorado, big boulders, full throttle to get up and of course i was having too much fun and forgot to take a photo or two :cry

i make a turn and there is a big army checkpoint and about 20 soldiers surround me, as usual more interested in the bike and where i'd been. Once we are done with the 'short' conversation they want to know where i'm headed, i say "Granada?"

Sure they point ahead, it was the only way other than turn around, i ask if its safe for me, sure no problem, i usually get the opposite answer in this kind of situation! Got me some Throttlemeister luck rolling here

i'm told it could take two hours to get there, but once i can see Granada the road will turn back to pavement

so i head on and hit peak after peak, amazing scenery but one thing stands out every single building is empty for miles, but there is some graffiti so was this possibly a drug running route years back and why so many army guys in such a remote area, even riding along i pass some military just walking along the road?

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hey TM swimming holes...but it was too cold

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so i see Granada and i'm still on dirt...the military were wrong :huh

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/photos/i-zv...zvjRjF5-XL.jpg

then i go around the next corner and the pavement starts...the military were right :lol3

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just before town i find a lady selling empanadas by the side of the road - two please

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so a few posts back i tell you these aren't around anymore

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/photos/i-n8...-n85PjP2-M.jpg

on this day i see seven of them in the Granada area, they must be some of the only old GMC ones left, but everyone comes by me on a blind bend and i never get a good shot in time, so if you want to see the fully loaded old chicken buses in Colombia then Granada is your town

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once i get thru Granada, there is another mountain pass that eventually drops you onto a main road, i make a left, thru a peaje (toll) and then on my left i spot an amazing waterfall on the other side of the valley, time for a break and a few photos

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/photos/i-bG...bGFbJZP-XL.jpg

a family stops to take a photo too and as the little boy gets out of the back of the car he immediately shouts WOW!!!

i turn and look up where he is looking...

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looking back to the waterfall and more paragliders are playing in the thermals

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very cool :clap:clap:clap:clap:clap:clap:clap:clap:clap:clap :clap:clap






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i stopped outside Bogota in a small town called La Vega, reason for that was finding somewhere in the city with secure bike parking, having been to Bogota before i know its kind of crazy with a population around 9 million, New York and Mexico City are the only two cities north of here with bigger populations. So a small town was an easy option

i head straight to the cargo airport and met up with Veronica from Lynn Cargo, she had all my paperwork prepped and ready, just a few signatures from me, my bike waited...BTW i had to get it steam cleaned before i brought it here US customs are getting difficult about dirty bikes being flown in i was told, not as bad as Australia but getting that way, you are warned :deal:deal:deal

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once i was cleared to go into the building i was told to ride thru a door to get the bike weighed, the room i rode into could have been the scene of a very low speed accident that would have caused a lot of damage. The whole floor was cover in rollers, as the tires went over them the bike slipped from side to side, putting my feet down i had no firm footing, and BTW it was a freezer so the floor was a little icy, because where i had to weigh the bike was where the flowers and fruit comes in and out of so its for storage too, about 50 yards long

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you cross the yard to do custom clearance inside the building in the distance

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and this is where the bike is held waiting for a police inspection that happened about 1 hour later, the cop that did it spoke good english and i stood there and watched him open my bags and smell everything, he didn't find the odor he was sniffing for :rofl:rofl:rofl he told me he can smell cocaine :huh, closest i had was coco powder for hot chocolate :evil

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once he was done i paid my money over $880 for the bike to go to Miami (there's a $40 clearance fee at the other end) and hopped in a cab with one of Bogotas Mario Andretti cab drivers and was in the Candelaria section in about 10 minutes and to my new digs for a few days, Hostel Sue 2

Bogota isn't my favorite place in Colombia, big and dirty and the thing you notice around the downtown area is the amount of graffiti EVERYWHERE

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/photos/i-LX...LXPmDrp-XL.jpg

but also there are murals everywhere too, does one breed the other and make them both acceptable????

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/photos/i-wj...wjksHtc-XL.jpg

has anyone thought about doing a RTW on an off road segway?

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/photos/i-6j...6jgB3Qt-XL.jpg

new architecture

http://dmh65.smugmug.com/photos/i-ks...kspnGzF-XL.jpg

old architecture

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cops on horses controlling traffic

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street performers

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but after a few hours walkng around in the smog of downtown my throat was seriously hurting, every street vendor that i heard talk had a croaky voice and now i understood why, on the way back to the hostal i looked up to the church on the hill above the city and you could hardly see it for smog :huh ...thats all for South America for now

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i haven't posted on here for a few years since i stopped riding the 660, back then i had planned on bringing it to the UK but it never happened.

...but life moves on and i'm on xt1200z nowadays, i have covered over 150,000 miles since i started in 2011 and just got a message from Air Canada that my bike has landed at Heathrow, so i will be riding the UK and Europe for the next year or so

Might bump into a few of you, drop me a message if you are planning any rides you think i might be interested in or you want to meet up

My direct email is on my website (sig line), probably easier to get in touch with me that way

https://photos.smugmug.com/RTW-2016/...2018-24-60.jpg

Nice bike. I'm intrigued as to where you actually sit? ;)

Seriously though, it's good to hear from you and that you've finally made it to the UK - even if it's not on the 660.

I have nothing on the seat when I'm riding that's all my gear, jacket, pants, boots helmet