Riding solo

Sunday, November 21st, 2010

Latacunga

I was lucky enough to have a mechanic at the site where my bike was parked, so I didn't have to ride through the town. He showed me how to tighten the chain, which unfortunatly needs to be changed soon, how to clean the airfilter and we shortened the kickstand, and made the plattform larger and more durable. After that, I was gonna go shopping to get other pants than my running pants. I was so happy to finally have a credit card, and Pow, it doesnt work! So frustrating, but I got money from the Western Union this morning. It did remind me of how it was when I was in Sydney, living in one of the most luxurious hotels in the city, without money for food the next day. But the receptionist of the hostel lent me money in exchange for my passport as security, so I went out with some fun australians.
The next morning, I did some chores and I tried to leave at the same time as Ray and Victor, but I ended up leaving on my own for Banos: first taking a wrong turn that forced me to go a looong way around, and it was raining and eventually freezing. Luckily the roads were wide open without traffic. I decided to stop in Latacunga instead, and I'm so glad for that! Its an amazing little town with surrounding mountains. I found a great hostel: hostel cafe tienda, met some nice people. Walked around the town looking at beautiful churches, the nice market thats every day, got to know some locals while trying out some new food. They give samples here too, and it makes me feel a bit bad when I really don't want to buy it!
I don't mind staying one more day. Banos is only two hours away, and there's a lake to see from the back of my bike. Happy that I left Quito!!

For some reason, I was exhausted this morning, and didn`t feel like rushing around town to see it before hopping on the bike to Banos. I decided to rest my leg and wait till tomororw, when there`s also less traffic. Was gonna go really early, but I don`t know anymore as I met a guy who`s driving up Cotopaxi after an artisan market. It means I`ll be going to Banos late, and I`ll probably get wet n cold, but I`ll go if the weather`s good.
I walked around a bit to take photos, and took Tornado out for a little spin to make sure that everythings alright, as he was a bit shaky when we arrived here. It was only the altitude though, and he`s good now. Rode up to the top of the city to look around, and also go to some areas where I wouldn`t really walk. Went to the market twice today for some fruit and later ceviche. I bought a big bad of strawberries, blackberries, a banana and a mango for 1,5usd in total! After fussing a lot about which movie to choose, we ended up with "the visitor", which was really good!
But yeah.. Really looking forward to Banos tomorrow! Feel bad for Victor, who`s in the hospital with food poisining. That`s one of the things I have to be really careful about. Miss being able to drink the tapwater, as one does in Colombia. Also miss a bit of heat.. brr.. Travelling South America and I`m both freezing and pale(w one blue foot though). What is this? Gotta get down to the coast soon.



Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Baños!

God damn! I like it.
I turned down the offer of a roadtrip up Cotopaxi, as I was more keen on getting to Baños, one of the places that have been very high on my list. It´s the place for thermal baths, adventuresports, trekking, horsebackriding, eating and being a true gringo. It´s very touristy, but I have been so far off the gringo trail for a while that I don´t mind too much. I only mind the "short trip- lonely planet travelling slaves", that doesn´t get to know the country nor the people, at all.
Riding to Baños was great. The sun was shining, I had my mp3 and it was a surprisingly short trip. Unfortunatly, as I stopped to take a photo, my camera appeared to strike! It´s the focus, so I had to accept that I couldn´t take any photos of this beautiful place, just yet. Baños is in a green valley of steep mountains. One which is a volcano that you can ride or hike far up on. Coming in to the town, I saw loads of foreigners, quadbikes, restaurants and hotels. I checked in to Plantas y Blancos, which is a great hostel for 6,50, met a guy from Salento, almost passed out in one of the sunbeds, walked around, had a really good lunch and afterwards a great full body massage with great aromas, hotstones and an included facial: total 70minutes for 15usd...! I had been craving that. I got pampered some more in the hot thermal baths by the waterfall: three pools with different temperatures: 2usd entry. We also went to a good restaurant with great international food and movies showing, called club house. Tomorrow morning are we going to do a kind of "swing" from a 90m high bridge: 15usd. Unfortunatly there is no bungee jump. I can´t do too much with my knee either. Frustrating.. But should heal soon.







Wednesday, November 24th, 2010


I went to the bridge to bungee with a group of Aussies. I was set on making it as scary as possible, so I went last. Actually jumping from the edge is terrifying, but there was hardly any free fall. When I went with Victor later in the day, he got the second jump cheaper and with a longer freefall(recommend just showing up on the bridge and haggling, as the equipment is already there).
I considered riding my bike up the hills when the others were renting quadbikes, but I had never ridden one before, so I went for it, luckily, as it was great fun! The scenery is beautiful and the roads were swingy and loco. We saw the tip of the volcano through the clouds at one point. After that amount of adrenaline, we needed some time on the sunbeds. Later, I decided to get another massage from another parlour, just so that I could say who to recommend. It was just me being really nice! Unfortunatly, the Chakra massose wasn´t there, and since I had already tried Prana(which is really good as for sents, the bed, hotstones, massage, oils, music and price), I decided to try a recommended chinese place. After a nice conversation with a woman from Urugay, I practiced some of my mandarin words with my massose! I haggled the price a bit, and got one of the worst massages I´ve had... I´ve had quite a few in Bali. It was a depressing waste of money, which you do spend a lot of here.
For dinner, we were disappointingly aware that Casa Hood was closed that day and the next. They have great international dishes! We went to Cafe Good instead. Yes, their names are similar. There´s also a Cafe Hood, to make it even more complicated. I don´t know if its on purpose, because Plantas Y Blanco is a popular hostel here, and there is another hostel with almost the same name, for people that make that mistake.
After checking out a few bars, among one a karaoke bar where I got to sing some, we shut our eyes after a good day. The next one would be rather boring..
I´ve been restless as everyone is doing activities that I can´t. I tried to locate somewhere to buy a new tyre, but I´ll have to do that in Riobamba tomorrow morning. I tried to figure out wether or not to go to Cuenca, as not doing that could save me several hours on the road. But the road down between the mountains are supposed to be spectacular, and I don´t really have anything else to do down south. I´ve been waiting all day for a mail from my modelling agent, as I got word that Exito needed me urgently.
I sent a mail saying that it would be good to know when, as I need to get to an airport in that case. Once again, it´s taking them forever to reply. I´m just struggling with myself a little bit today. I feel really restless, which I didn´t expect at all. Would´ve been different if I could trek, climb and horsebackride. At least I had a good big lunch at my favorite spot: the second floor restaurant at the right corner before arriving at the supermarket from my hostel, which is near the beautiful church.

Hola, Ecuador!

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

We left Popayan earlier than planned for Ipiales, which nearly gave me a heart attack, or at least it gave me an alsure, because I wasn't informed of the change of plan. But oh my God, the landscape! Wow.. The roads were really great too. I`ve improved my riding a lot as for taking turns and standing up whenever its bumpy or there`s gravel. I haggled us into a nice hotel in Ipiales, had a nice shower and POW! It struck me that I had left my passport in Popayan, too stressed to remember that it was in the safe. Our room hadn`t been possible to lock, so I had done that to keep it safe. Should've kept it on me, and learned from it! I did that the day before the border crossing, leaving behind a rather dangerous stretch to do by nightbus! So problem-solving was needed. The amazing hotel owner of our Popayan hotel, Pass home, who had already gone out of his way to be a great host, sent his employee on the bus there. So I had to pay for the bustickets and 100 pesos extra. It worked out, but it was another lesson learned.
We went to Ipiales in the morning. The church is very touristy, very beautiful. We didn`t stay long, but went straight for the border crossing, though I would've liked to stay longer. I was nervous about crossing without a licence(I have a police report saying that I have lost it), but I charmed my way through! The guys were really nice and one of them actually said: its just one girl.
We did encounter some drama in leaving Colombia, however, because they couldn`t find their temporary importation papers for their bikes. So for a moment, it looked like they couldn`t leave with their bikes, and that I would be crossing alone. After a while, they found the papers and we could breathe again. We said our goodbyes to Colombia, welcoming Ecuador and its cheap gasoline.

We spent the night in Ibarra, after a delicious meal: lasagna and strawberry milkshake, to great old hits. Finally something tasty!
The landscape in Ecuador has changed drasticly, and its so interesting now that we`ve had enough of the same green scenery. And the mountains.. We went up to lake Cotocatchi in the morning. There`s a beautiful village and the lake is stunning! After that, we had lunch and went to Quito. There was a scary moment where we were following the taxi that was supposed to take us to their spanish school, and the dad, Mike, tried to position himself on the side of the car, when the car was taking a left turn, and he bumped into the son, Sean. The bump caused him to fall on his bike, and he almost got hit by a taxi. He instead slid across the side of the taxi before getting back up again. If the taxi had been a Little bit slower...

The family had arranged a weeks spanish lesson with home stay, in Quito. That`s where my bike is at right now. I`m staying at the Secret garden, where my stuff has been waiting for me for quite some time. It was great travelling with the family. I learned a lot from them. Also a bit of mechanical stuff and mandarin. At least I tought them a little bit of spanish in return. I`m forever thankful for their kindness.
But its also very wonderful to be free and independent again. I can now go where I want to, and they said that I was ready to fly off on my own, skillwise. However slow I`ll probably be driving down to Banos. (That they didn`t say)
I`ve had dinner and met some new people. I`ve been missing the hostel/gringo lifestyle a bit. Its good to relax and heal my knee. Tomorrow I`m taking my bike to the dealer to tighten my chain and chop off 1,5cm of the kickstand to make up for the lowering and extra luggage. Don`t know quite yet what time I`ll be off to Banos. I want to go to Cotopaxi, but not with this knee. I! can decide that now. Victor and Ray are staying in the hostel across the street, actually. We`ve said goodbye quite a few times.

Group riding from Cali to Popayan

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

Still alive!

Today`s riding was great. We got out of Cali at the perfect time to avoid traffic. I had to get used to driving very close to the others, as we were seven bikes sticking together. I was "assigned" to be in the middle, for safety`s sake. It was really great fun to ride like that, because there was so much strategy involved in placement, overtaking, signaling and safety. The first period outside of the city is long flats, before the more normal turns, small villages, etc. As we were a big group, we didn`t get stopped at any of the military checkpoints. There were a Lot of them, and they all gave us the thumb up. The first hour from Popayan to Pasto is however supposed to involve a poor road, and I think the ride itself will be tough. My neck and shoulder are in agony today, so the extra day the others wanted to spend here will probably do me good. I also need to practice a few things like tight turns and picking up the bike without straining my back too much. You can either lift or squat it up.

We found a hostel in Popayan that had a really big indoor parking(that`s the most important thing about chosing a hotel or hostal now), for 18000 a night. The owner and his family took us to eat a good lunch, and showed us around a little bit. Popayan had a big earthquake in 1983, and a whole area just crumbled in the 19sec quake. He also took us to the most expensive hotel here, which used to be a monestary. Seing luxury like that again was a bit strange. There had been a motorcycle ralley in the area, and they all met up in the center square before heading off. After watching the huge bikes pass and talking to some locals, we went walking around the city, up to a church on the hill and down. We met and went with some people that were going to a video conference event, that was going on in Tokyo, New York, London and here. The shortfilm we saw was about the indigenious people of Colombia. Now I`m going to do something useful, and hope to see this nice town in glorious sunshine, tomorrow. It`s "so long" to Victor in the morning, as he`s heading towards Ipiales. We agreed to keep in touch and work on promoting free voluntary work on his website: www.dondeestavictor.com . Bike travelling on a schedule, I`m afraid the website catch up is just going to keep growing if we don`t push each other a bit.

So as I said.. I`m alive! No uncomfortable or dangerous situations today, besides Victor almost running over a dog. Doing this, I`m not really taking things for granted.

Becoming a biker

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

A new... twist..

I never felt that I was like other people, and this is probably the biggest proof I have of that being the truth. My heart was so open to everything, ready to jump into every adventure crossing my path. I was already high on life. My decision brought me deep down at times, but also sky high. I will never regret it.

As we came to Salento, we checked in at La Serrana, which was nothing like my simple life finca, but it had parking and it had an absolutely lovely country house feel, and an included breakfast. Victor met some friends from the Panama boat: a couple that was travelling by push bike, and we went out with them to eat. Right after we arrived, we also met a polish couple that had two bikes for sale: a red Honda 225 xl, and the bike that swoomed me: a black Honda 250 Tornado. They say girls fall for guys that are tall, dark and bad for you. Now I can join that club.
The next morning, after talking a lot about practical stuff, we went for a test run up Valle de Cocora's muddy slopes. I rode the red bike up there, and I probably should have ridden the Tornado to realize how tall he was for me. Just how that would effect my riding, I would painfully discover later on.
Our original idea was that we'd find me a bike in Ecuador, but here two bikes were, bought in Argentina, with all the papers ready to be transferred into my name, without spending days arranging a local purchase where I wouldn't know what I'd be getting. The red bike was considerably cheaper, but this if I'm gonna risk my life, then I'm not risking it for something that's second best. It's also a popular bike that shouldn't be too difficult to sell, with contacts, and it's easy to find and fix parts here. South americans are also fantastic at coming up with creative solutions. Bikes and bikers are popular in Colombia. We luckily don't have to pay or stop at checkpoints, which would have made traffic much slower.

On the way down from the Valley, I got to try the Tornado. It immediately felt amazing. To see how it felt, I was in the lead, riding a bit faster than I had, as there was no traffic. But too many things going on in my head, in addition to the surprise of seing a truck on my side of the road after exiting a turn, kept me from being cautious for wet leaves, and on the wet ground I tried to turn slowly. But it was too slow, and I slipped, terrified that I had just smashed Tornado. I could feel that I was alright, even though my knee had taken a hit. No one had thought to lend me knee protectors... I couldn't walk in the beginning, and for the first few seconds, I thought: that was it. No more riding for me. But they were all nice about it, and I realized that no, it wasn't over. We all fall, again and again. I've fallen several times since, but standing still, and learning from it every time. One time was when we all stopped in a hill, one time was just my knee being too weak to stop the tall bike from tipping, and the last time was crawling through the slow rush hour, taking a chance by following others onto the a bit too muddy side road and then driving too slow when going back up on the curve. For that and rough terrain, I´ve learned that you should stand up on the bike, which will make things a whole new deal. It's been tough and it hurts my confidence more than me. Unfortunatly, the one time I just tipped over was right after I had bought the bike, and it was directly on my wounded knee, causing it too swoll up like hell. I had to walk a lot around on it, comparing prices and buying protection, though I couldn't bend it. That, being tired, the fear of not being able to protect my bike and myself from falling, the question if I had just made a huge mistake buying an expensive bike that I have to take responsibility for and sell for less than I bought it for, the fact that I was under a lot of pressure to learn a lot of precautions and technical stuff at once, as Victor is in a hurry to get far down south, made things really hard. All of those things, how much time it took to arrange my stuff, how the red Honda tipped over his KLR, and broke the expensive wind shield, how one of his his specialized luggage straps that he had lent to me got caught in the wheel to cut it into two, and how he worried and felt responsible for me, as he was the experienced one that introduced me to the whole idea, for made our relationship pretty strained. I have learned so much in an extremely short time, and there is still a lot to learn. So many precautions! You never know whats around the next corner: gravel, water, a car, tree, a cow... and riding in the city is serious. You can't drop your bike there. But people do. Its just for the others around you to stop as well and make signal for people that they need to avoid you. Scary as hell, though.

The scenery is great, as it is Colombia. We didn´t take the Panamericana, but a more scenic road. I heard great things about the state of the Panamericanan highway. The roads in Colombia are pretty alright compared to what I´ll have to expect further south. But there are also highlights that I´m looking forward too, such as stretches in Peru, Salar de Uyuni, Argentina, crazy Bolivian roads, etc. We´re also going up in the highlands more and more now. It should be interesting. Before you reach Cali, you have the lush ground fields and a sudden mountain range, framing in the horizon ahead of you. We entered the city before dark, in rush hour, as I mentioned. Sticking together, finding someone to show us the way, and reaching the Casa Blanca hostel, was Hot in the new geer. The first people we met were a family that were all travelling on motorcycles from Canada to the southern tip of Argentina. Its awesome. The mother rides a big bike and it inspires me. I have lowered the bike and when we went touring today, we found me some trekking shoes for 1/3 the price of back home, to make me taller and dryer. Cali isn't bad. I was surprised today when I found out that it was a saturday, though. I should be out salsadancing right now. Things changed drastically again: After getting to know this great family, the circumstances changed to me travelling along with them down south and on the eastern side of Ecuador, which I was bummed out for missing if we'd go straight to Montanita. I´m going to be functioning as the spanish speaker and teacher, which will be nice. Hopefully I can get the recipe on how to become a travelling family one day. So far I got the tip: start early.
After our little downtown tour, I was invited to dinner with some locals, and I walked some more. Tired now. So... yeah. Now there's a totally new travelling! And I guess I kind of said screw modelling, for now. They called me two days after I left, saying that Chevignon wanted to meet me the next day, and went "what, have you left??", even though I had told them repeatedly. After that, she said she'd call. This time I'm not surprised that she still hasn't. The company is probably bancrupt or was never a real one from the start. Just puzzles me that the girl from Laura's school was one of their models. The agency's website is shut down, now. Strange...

Riding to Manizales, on the back of a motorcycle

Monday, November 8th, 2010

The departure was put off for a few days, as the motorcycle nor Victor functioned properly. I was crashing at Nicole`s place. If I haven't mentioned Nicole, she's an american girl I really got a long with while volunteering with little kids. We went to see "The Road", in the cinema, the other night. - Brilliant movie!
We did some outdoor yoga, exploring, cooking, silly- movie-watching, went to a small cafe with a thursday night jam session and book exchange(near casa kiwi), where we hung out with some other girls from the volunteering. One of them was supposed to teach me how to drum. I played beachvolley with some locals my last day. Felt goood!
Today, me and Victor were finally on the road towards Ecuador. The bike, Olga, was Packed and it was really tight. I feel really bad for him as he is hurting. - Further motivation for me to pay for all of the gasoline, as it also is his bike. The landscape is B-eautiful, and we were lucky with the weather. Not so lucky with the policemen that fined him for driving above 102 km/hr, when that isn`t possible with that heavy load. I was also watching the meter a few seconds before, and no way. But we were nice, didn`t offer a bribe, and kept on going. Because he was tired after no sleep, sickness and a crammed bike, plus rainclouds ahead, we decided to spend the night in Manizales before going to Salento.

Manizales was a nice surprise! I really like it. We checked in to the pitstop hostel, and I went straight to the Enforma gym, where I paid 8000pesos for normal excercise and an inzane rumba-class. Met some nice locals there, and other than that.. It`s weird to be back in the hostel-life, although I`m not very often staying in dorms. We had a late night after a relaxing jacuzzi session, some Delicious chocolate fudge(trust me, we appreiciate such tastes after some time here) and good conversations.

Victor slept in this morning while I went with some other guys for breakfast. We`re taking it slow before going to Salento, where we`ll be spending the night.