Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Tony blog
Hi Tony. Sitting on Ometepe Island thanks to your excellent recommendation. We are planning our route from Panama to Columbia (South America). our plan was to go from COlon in Panama to Cartagena in Columbia by ship. This means going through Venezuela and Brazil / Amazon basin into Peru from Eastern border. We are wondering what route you took on this section including shipping etc. Would appreciate your inputs. Regards Amigos
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That's great!You arrived in the port on tar but there are some awesome rides in the dirt around the entire island.
Perfect for the KTM's and very rural with local folk scratching out an existence through fishing & farming.
Our original idea re COLOMBIA/PANAMA had been to take a 4 night ship from Cartagena to Colon in Panama.At the time i was still with those other "turkeys " and they suddenly turned off toward Bogota with a view to flying across from there.(i had no idea at the time)
So I fell in with them and we rode an horrific pass between Cali and Bogota which was wall to wall trucks(at least 4 had overturned).
It was on this stretch that Marco had what could have been a serious accident but fortunately just resulted in scratches and minor injuries.
We then flew the bikes @ about $1000 each through GIRAG (they're the best)to Panama City.
Then rushed off to buy our tickets for early the following morning.
They cost about $400 each but the next morning they wouldn't allow us to board as they insisted on a return ticket.We tried to explain that we weren't coming back and had proof of our bikes passage to Panama but they insisted and we eventually had to reschedule our single tickets to that afternoon and purchase another (extra)return ticket each just to show at boarding to allow us on the plane.
We were told that we could claim the return ticket in Panama,at their agent.
We eventually did get most of this back after stuffing around for two days in the city on that side.
In Panama i met Josh who i rode with for two months from there to the States and he'd come across from Cartagena by boat and reckoned it was a great experience.
I'm a little sorry that i followed the "turkeys" and missed Cartagena ,which is supposed to be an awesome port.
Anyway,bottom line :I'd catch the boat if i had another chance.Not sure what you mean about going to all those other places as the boat that i'd looked at went via a bunch of islands to Cartagena.
From there i'd go thru Medellin /Cali/Quito/Lima,then up to Cusko (machu picchu)/La paz and into northern Argentina's winelands (Cafayate).Similar to Stellenbosch there and plenty of great wine!
I see that Henry's sent out an e-mail to the effect that you guys are in Panama now.Last time we spoke you guys reckoned that you didn't need a visa to get in there.
Did you eventually get them??
You're probably gonna find that there's a stack of "red tape" involved now in organising the bikes across.Particularly in clearing through the other side in Cartagena.
There was a german operator with a boat called "STAHL-----?".Google it and get in touch with him.They do the trip regularly with bikes and will probably minimise your clearance hassles on the other side.
Colombias one of my favourite places in SOUTH AMERICA so you've got something to look forward to.
Have you guys ridden off the side of the planet??
I guess you're presently en route on the boat to CARTAGENA enjoying freshly caught fish on board?TONY
R u guys OK??Two weeks since last posting!
Does anyone following this blog have any idea what's happened to these guys in the past 3 weeks??
Seems a hell of a long time to be off the air and I understand that they were making their way to Colombia.
Hi Tony. Apologies for not responding to your comments. Rudolf is busy posting a blog as I type this comment. Basically we went from Carthagena to Medellin where we spent a week repairing bikes and the laptop screen in the process. From there to Cali as you suggested and then to Quito. Now moving onto Lima. We don't know how you managed this without a GPS. From Lima we want to go to Cuzco and then down to Nasca to joing the Dakar Rally for the last two stages and the finish in Lima (again). Thanks for support. Cheers.
Hi Tony. Apologies for not responding to your comments. Rudolf is busy posting a blog as I type this comment. Basically we went from Carthagena to Medellin where we spent a week repairing bikes and the laptop screen in the process. From there to Cali as you suggested and then to Quito. Now moving onto Lima. We don't know how you managed this without a GPS. From Lima we want to go to Cuzco and then down to Nasca to joing the Dakar Rally for the last two stages and the finish in Lima (again). Thanks for support. Cheers.
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