Home Sweet Home

47,208 km (29,333 miles) later, we finally arrive home.  12½ months on the road.  Quite a trip!

The big picture of our trip.

 

Here are a few more photos of the US portion of the trip as we dodged rainstorms across the country.

Hico, Texas, possible site of the death of Billy the Kid. Or not, depends who you ask.

Spring flowers in Texas.

West Texas road.

Roughing it in West Texas.

Heading in to the Chiricahua Mountains.

Fixing a flat in the Chiricahua Mountains.

In Chricahua National Monument.

The cactus won.

Ocotillo celebrating the recent rains.

Joshua Tree National Park.

Joshua Tree National Park (with fresh snow in the distance).

Home Sweet Home!!

This pretty much wraps up the story, but there’s one more post coming where I’m finally going to get around to addressing some of the questions we heard repeatedly.  If there’s anything you want to know about the trip, toss it in a comment, and I’ll try to address it.

Thanks for reading along!  It’s been a fabulous trip!

Back to the US

After visiting the northernmost point in South America, it was time for us to start making our way home.  There are lots more places to explore, but after 11 months, we were ready to go home.

So we headed for Bogota, which took a few days.  A highlight of that was a stay in Villa de Leyva, a historic town a few hours north of Bogota.

Jugo de mora -- blackberry juice. One of the wonderful things about Colombia.

Villa de Leyva

The central plaza in Villa de Leyva, one of the largest in the world.

Early morning street in Villa de Leyva.

Can't resist the sculpture of a photographer in Villa de Leyva.

We didn’t actually visit Bogota, just the Bogota airport.  After some research, it was clear to us that the easiest and cheapest way for us to get our bikes back to North America was to fly them from Bogota to Miami.  It was very easy.  We arrived to near the airport Sunday afternoon, spent Monday delivering the bikes, and flew to Miami on Tuesday.  The bikes beat us to Miami by about a half hour, but we took advantage of the two days before storage fees kicked in by spending two nights without the bikes on Miami Beach, staying in a deco hotel in South Beach.  Then we picked up the bikes, and headed west.

Miami Beach.

Happy to see the motorcycles again.

Since February/March isn’t the best time to be riding motorcycles from Miami to Seattle, we are taking our time and taking the southern route west.  We spent a few days relaxing on the Gulf Coast between Naples and St Pete Beach.  It was a bit crazy because this is Spring Break season, so things were busy and expensive.  Then we wandered away from the development and to the backroads of Florida.  Cedar Key was so photogenic that we had to stay an extra day.  Then on westward,  along small roads though Alabama and Mississippi.

Watching the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico.

Beach treasures.

The Gulf of Mexico.

Cedar Key.

Cedar Key.

Waiting for the fishermen to catch something and share, Cedar Key.

Cedar Key

Approaching the Cedar Key airport.

Cedar Key

Cedar Key

Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge

Seasonal waterfall along the Natchez Trace.

Backroads Mississippi.

Natchez, Mississippi

Natchez, Mississippi

The mighty Mississippi River at Natchez.

Westward, Ho!

The Northernmost Point of South America

We visited the southern end of the road and the westernmost point of the continent, so it seemed only reasonable to try to reach the northern-most point of South America, Punta Gallinas.

On the way, we spent two days at a fabulous beach resort, Playa la Roca. Lots of things missing: no TV, no internet, no trash, no hawkers, no venders, no loud music. Wonderful.

River near Playa la Roca

Beach scene near Playa la Roca

Our host put us in touch with a guide to help us to get Punta Gallinas. We met up with him in Uribia, a town on the La Guajira peninsula. But it wasn’t going to work out — he had other tourists to take somewhere else. He had arranged other guides for us, but we would have to carry them on our motorcycles. Given all of our gear, and that we were facing 150 km of unknown road conditions, this wasn’t an option. So we declined guides and headed off on our own.

Getting cheap Venezuelan gas in Uribia before heading out.

"Guard birds" at the hotel in Uribia

It turns out, it wasn’t that difficult for us to find our way. We had some basic information on our GPSs which got us headed in the right direction. And, like every where else, there are people everywhere, so we could ask when we needed to.

Heading north.

Driving to Punta Gallinas would not be possibile during the rainy season, but nearly two months after the last real rain, we had no trouble. The biggest issue was all the toll booths. Elsewhere in Colombia, motos are exempt from paying tolls; there’s a special moto lane around the toll booths. But here in the Guajira peninsula, the toll booths are a rope across the road, usually run by a small group of kids. We weren’t prepared with small gifts or candies, but luckily we had enough change to bribe pay our way through.

Toll booth

Getting near the north point.

We made it to the northern tip. After talking with several people, including locals, we decided to camp right there at the northern most point of South America. Lovely to sleep with just the sound of the waves. The biting ants all around made sure we didn’t mistake it for paradise.

The northernmost point of South America

Looking towards Hispaniola

Road to the north.

As one person we met pointed out, this is not Colombia. The Guajira peninsula is mostly populated by the indigenous Wayuu people. They have a fearsome reputation but were welcoming and friendly to us.

Beach still life.

Cartegena

Cartagena is continually described as “the crown jewel” of Colombia.  It certainly is a city unlike any other.

First, it is a busy and bustling city.  For us, that meant over five miles of fighting absolutely chaotic traffic in tropical heat and humidity.  But when we arrived in the old town, we quickly found a hotel that let us park our motorcycles in the lobby.

Good motorcycle parking.

The old city of Cartagena is spectacular.  We spent several days, mostly just wandering around the old city.  (The third part of Cartagena is the high-rise beach resort area south of the old city, which we never did visit.)

Lovely old colonial buildings, some well restored, others rotting into the sea air.

Not the prettiest street in town, but the way to our hotel.

Awaiting renovation

Bustling old town.

Very big doors.

Defensive wall overlooking the sea.

Residential street away from tourist central.

We spent most of the time wandering around, but we did do some proper touristing, too, visiting one of the forts,Castillo San Felipe de Barajas.

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

Tunnels inside Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

Flag over Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

Sculpture of the Old Shoes

Full moon over old Cartagena

To the north coast

We were headed for the north coast.  But first, another “shortcut” to avoid Medellin.

Shortcut with no traffic.

Pretty countryside.

Once our little detour was finished, we were on the main road, crowded with trucks and buses.  All over Colombia, there are lots of construction zones, as the country tries to keep its road network open after three years of unusually heavy rainfall.  This means that the traffic tends to clump up.  However, as we zip to the front every chance we get, we use these to our best advantage.  And sometimes, we see interesting things go by while we wait.  Several times we’ve seen “naked” buses  go by.

Motorcycles come big 'round here!

We’ve been lucky with weather — most of the rain has been either brief or at night.  But at the point where the road starts to descend from the highlands to the broad low plain stretching to the Caribbean, we hit fog.  Actually, dense, dense clouds.  Happily, all the traffic slowed to a crawl to navigate the twists and turns.  It was slow going as we dropped 2000 meters to rejoin the Rio Cauca in its long flow to the sea.

Safe to pass?

Slow going.

We spent the night in Caucasia, a town right on the river that seems to be losing ground to the river all the time.

Part of Caucasia losing ground to the Rio Cauca.

Rio Cauca at Caucasia.

From there, it was up to the coast along the Gulf of Morrosquillo.  This is Colombian holiday land, and we stayed a night, but it wasn’t what we were hoping for.  One problem for us is the cultural difference around music and noise.  Walking along the malecon in Tolu, we passed four restaurants, each with huge speakers blasting different music our front.  These restaurants were right next to each other, so the resulting mash of music just seemed to be loud noise to me.  But we did enjoy our first views of the Caribbean.

The coast at Tolu.

 

Washed up on the beach.

It's not all pretty. Here's a "behind the scenes" photo.

 

The coast at Tolu.

Colombian wanderings

Since I’m running several weeks behind in updating the blog with stories and photos of our adventures, I thought I just post a teaser.

Here’s a map of our route in Colombia. I’ll get to the story and photos as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can only imagine…

View Larger Map

Near, but not into, Medellin

By all accounts, Medellin is a wonderful city.  But it is a city, and we were enjoying the countryside too much to fight with the traffic and chaos that comes with any big city.  So, we visited areas that are considered day trips for those city folks, and we made them full stops for us.

Taking the smaller roads takes longer, so it was a two day journey from Salento to Santa Fe de Antioquia.  We found a lovely little “resort” to spend the night in Supia, and there we got good advice about some great backroads to take the next day on our way to Santa Fe.

Local transport leaving Salento.

Spectacular views -- more steep and green.

Typical small town scene.

Fan palm at our resort in Supia.

Zipping along out of Supia.

Views between Supia and Caramanta.

Views between Supia and Caramanta.

Every house has a view.

Downtown Caramanta. Perfect spot for a coffee.

Loading up the chiva, the bus for the back roads.

Awaiting a load.

Closeup of a chiva.

Santa Fe is a lovely old colonial town near the Rio Cauca.  It had been the capital of the region until that title was usurped by Medellin, quite some time ago.  It was very busy Sunday afternoon with day trippers from the city filling the bars and restaurants in the plaza.  Come Monday, we nearly had the town to ourselves.

Santa Fe de Antioquia.

Peeking into a courtyard in Santa Fe de Antioquia.

Street scene, Santa Fe de Antioquia.

Upstairs at our hotel.

The original bridge to Santa Fe across the Rio Cauca was originally built in 1887  and at that time, it was the longest suspension bridge in South America.  Normally, it allows for one lane traffic (no trucks or buses), but it was being refurbished while we were there, so only foot traffic was allowed.

As an aside, we have been following the Rio Cauca off and on since Popoyan, and we will continue to do so much of our way to the north coast.  It has grown a lot since Popoyan, and it still has a long way to go.

View of the Puente de Occidente over the Rio Cauca.

Puente de Occidente

From Santa Fe de Antioquia, we were plotting a route north.  However, we discovered something missing in our luggage.  Oops!  In 11 months of travel, this is the first major “forgetting.”  Oh well.  A couple of phone calls later, and the missing charger was located back in Salento.  So we zipped back on the main roads in just one day, stayed over in Salento a night, then headed north again.

Gold miners along the Rio Cauca.

This time, we avoided Medellin by going to the east.  There was an intriguing little line on our map that would allow us to bypass Medellin altogether.  We asked around to be sure that it went to the right place and that it was safe, and off we went.  It was a shortcut in distance only, because there was a 26 km stretch that took us an hour.  It wasn’t particularly difficult riding, just rutted and muddy and slow.  The people along the way were surprised to see us, so we stopped for a few conversations as well.

Every corner holds a surprise.

Steep and green.

Fabulous riding.

We were headed for Guatape, a small town on the shores of a large reservoir, another day or weekend spot for people from Medellin.  We relaxed there, but headed out before the weekend party scene arrived.  Near to Guatape is a large monolith rock with a viewpoint (and snackbars) on the top.  Tom got some great panoramic shots from up there.

Moto-chivas in Guatape

Approaching The Rock.

Access to the top.

Views and souvenirs.

View of the reservoir from the top.