15-Dec-2009

Neiva, Colombia. Wow, what a day. I don't know how many times I have said that but Wow. Stuff just happens, sometimes we make it happen, sometimes it's about going with the flow, but there are a lot of Wow's. Sometimes it is hard to think about all the events of a single day. So lets see, where did today start. Oh yea, the Sheraton in Bogota. I never got a call about my tires. I tried again to call this morning and got nowhere so we got ready to depart and went to the airport to fight this fight. I think this was at least a 3 hour ordeal, maybe not it just seemed like it. I couldn't go to the baggage area cause it is "secure", so I spent some time trying to find a Delta office and finally did. They proceeded to tell me I needed to go to the Avianca Air counter in international arrivals, that place I could not get into cause it was "secure". They told me, and some others, at the secure door that they were working a flight and would be with us shortly, about an hour later, nothing. This little Colombian girl was getting mad and the next time someone showed up she started in on them. I don't know what she was saying but I was glad it wasn't directed at me. I just got behind her and figured I'd benefit from whatever fallout she created. Good strategy, they let all us lost luggage people in. Security hole, I think so. I was in the secure area with pretty much free reign. After I figured they were going to make me wait a while I started searching the premises for my tires and found them. Yea. I went back to the guy in charge and told him I where they were and he had me sign something and started to escort me out. Almost. Stopped by the military guard that said tires have to clear customs. Sooooo, I go to customs, where after some posturing and wrangling, they told me that there were rules and tires could not be brought into the country. For those of you who really know me, the rest of this may not surprise you. How long have I been trying to get tires? They are in my hands now. I am not going to lose. They told me they had to go back to Avianca. Now, I have a view of the whole scene here. They are telling me to take them back. So, I do, sort of. I can see the military cop, he's busy, I can see the exit door, clear path, I leave their view after leaving the door. Soooo, I head for the door, tires in hand. I fully expect for alarms to go off, someone to say stop or halt or some such crap. But it doesn't happen. I don't look behind me for 300 yards out of that door. Whew, got away with it. Tires in hand, I head for the bikes. What do I see when I get to the bikes? Nick, entertaining 3 cops. Great. So as I am sweating bullets, I go ahead and pretend all is well, say hi to our cop buddies and load the tires on the bike. No problem, but a little high stress.

We head southwest out of Bogota. Feels great to be on the road again. We wind and wind and wind out of Bogota, probably descending at least 6000 feet into a big valley between mountain ranges and it gets hot, up to 100 degrees today. I wish I had an altimeter on the bike, it would be cool to know how much we are climbing and descending. More beautiful country and fun, fun roads. Good roads, too. We seem to becoming more and more of an oddity the further we get away from Bogota. By the time we get to Neiva, it is getting dark and we are getting tired. This is a pretty big place and we are having a tough time finding a hotel. People are just staring at us, like we were just beamed off the mother ship, weird. We go back to our original scheme of getting a beer somewhere and asking for help. (A word here about Colombian beer, I don't know where they get the water for it, and probably don't want to know, but it is awful). We are truly an oddity but it is fun. These 3 girls wanted their pics taken with us and on the bikes. So we just smiled and let them take pics of us with these 3 cute girls. The language thing wasn't working so they just had us follow them downtown to a hotel. Thanks, girls.

Usually when checking in to a place, Nick watches the bikes and I check us in. As I'm doing this I can look out and see Nick and the bikes. Within about 3 minutes, he is surrounded by people. I tried to count, at least 30. I watch for a while in awe as the crowd never thins. Some go and more people come. His 15 minutes of fame, I guess. They just wanted to know about the bikes, the trip, say "welcome to Colombia", etc. When I go out after checking in, we have to part the masses to go to the secure parking. All very benign but strange. We put the bikes away and are of no real interest to anyone anymore. Kinda sad. Maybe we should get the bikes out and sit in the middle of the town square.

More stuff. The seal was damaged on Nick's bike when we replaced the front sprocket and it is leaking oil. Trying to get one shipped to Quito. It is not too bad but needs to be replaced. The tires are still on the back of my bike where they will stay till we get to a good place to replace them. But I'm damn glad to have them. Thinking about the airport escapade, they are probably used to people exporting contraband but not importing it. And Megan, I know you were tired and it was 2 or 3 in the morning as we were driving to SLC to get me to the airport in a blinding blizzard, but I cannot thank you enough for spending that time getting new music for me to listen to on my phone. I really loved it today.

The pics. Cop buddies at the airport, next to the bike loaded with contraband. Bikes ready to make our escape. Whew, we are outta there. Beautiful Colombia. Beautiful Columbia. And more Beautiful Colombia. The coolest bathroom ever. And Nick using the coolest bathroom ever(JK).