15-20 Jan, Colombia days 27-32: For the second week of our BMW Explore Colombia tour with Moto-Hub, we travel from Cartagena back to Bogota via several wonderfully preserved Spanish colonial towns: Mompox, Barichara and Villa de Leyva.
Sunday 15-Jan: Cartagena was one of the stops where we had a day off the motorbike, and we joined the group on a boat trip to nearby islands. Yes, us, paying for a boat trip! And precisely the sort of tourist boat we would normally swear-at, with their inconsiderate wake, blaring rubbish music and drunken dancing cargo! But we decide to try the experience from the other side of things. The islands are 50km away, downwind. Normally the sea here is flattish, but today the wind is blowing hard, the waves are already 2m high, and some people are hanging on not looking happy! If they think going out is bad, wait till we have to return against the wind and waves!
First stop is La Piscinita, in the lee of a small island for a quick swim and the second stop, for lunch, at a place that can only be described as completely nuts … crazy … wild! The kind of place you have to pinch yourself into believing you are actually seeing this. Surrounding a small island with numerous grass roof shelters is a ring of tightly packed tourist boats. Maybe 50 or more, each blaring out its own music and most with people dancing and already high! Our boat somehow squeezes in, and we too join the noisy chaos. We wade in up to our waists and gather around our designated grass shade and the beers start flowing. Lunch is actually very good: fried red snapper eaten in waist-level water and served on a floating table under the leafy shade, along with an ever-increasing banter of Romanian jokes. One of the group declared he’d never before eaten in a restaurant where he could drink beer and pee at the same time!
The trip back to Cartagena was as predicted: a wild ride directly into 3m waves and wind. We all got completely soaked by spray and the people sitting in the bow were often airborne as the boat rode up and over the waves. Smarty-pants Oana and I sat right at the very back! Most were very glad to get off the boat, but all seemed to enjoy the experience. Even us! Thank goodness the ride on Cloudy is so much smoother … generally 😎
Monday 16-Jan: Today we ride south-east from Cartagena through the flat lands, lakes and sprawling rivers of the Magdalena delta. Completely different scenery to the mountains but equally beautiful with cows and horses grazing, sometimes up to their bellies in water.
And midafternoon we arrive at colonial town of Mompox. This was the most inland port that the Spanish fleet could navigate to and the river-front buildings, where the ancient ships would load/unload, are all very well preserved. All now renovated into restaurants and coffee shops making for a lovely evening walk by the river. Our Hotel Dona Manuela was a colonial masterpiece of architecture, surrounding a courtyard with the most magnificent 160-year-old Banyan tree. Its trunk was at least 10m in diameter and it’s super huge lush canopy was full of colourful song bird. We could have stared at it for hours!
Tuesday 17-Jan was a long and eventful day. We had to get to Barichara 460km south. A challenging distance on these roads even when they are clear of obstacles. Midday we came across a traffic jam. We passed several kilometers of stand-still traffic to do our usual Romanian act: going straight to the front of the queue! There we found the road blocked with a large tree trunk placed by protesters at a toll station. Their issue was the station itself. As locals they wanted to be able to pass through without paying. Kind of understandable given the tolls are not cheap by local standards. Our Colombian guide told us the crowd was very angry and trying to pass would be dangerous. Oana was called to duty due to her Spanish skills. She and Cristi discussed with the protesters, “claiming” that we foreigners needed to get to Bogota tonight, to catch a plane back to Europe. Kind of true, even if our flights are actually not for another 4 days 🙂 The protesters said we could pass only if we could show the plane tickets. So one of our group headed off to find good enough phone signal to enable forging a new date on the tickets. But even with that, they decided not to let us pass.
Our final solution was to go across fields, through a farm, and bypass the roadblock. With the farmer paid accordingly we all set off down a boggy grass track that was quite challenging to ride on. But other locals had seen opportunity and soon we were at a wire fence negotiating yet again a (extortion) fee to continue. At 10,000 Pesos each bike we were mobile again. About $2. Nothing for us, but clearly good money for the local entrepreneurs. The tiny farm tracks included 2 river crossings. One across a rickety suspension bridge meant only for walking on, and another through a shallow flow. Then finally, triumphantly, back on the main road, some 2-3Km the other side the roadblock. What an adventure!
The rest of the ride was climbing back up into the mountains on winding roads and spectacular gorge passes. Just a pity we were now short of time and the light was fading.
Predictably we arrived at the cobbled streets of Barichara in the dark, totally exhausted. And our Hotel Misión Santa Barbara was again set in a wonderful Spanish colonial building.
Wednesday 18-Jan: Today is another day off the bikes here in Barichara. Allowing us to soak up this beautiful town set in countryside that is said to be the Tuscany of Colombia. The town itself is UNESCO heritage. And it is clear why so. All the streets and buildings are original Spanish colonial, even better preserved than we saw in Mompox. Set on a steep hill it’s good exercise walking the streets, characteristic Spanish squares (plazas) and churches. It has the feel that it’s been prepared for tourists, but they haven’t arrived yet. A very quiet and unspoiled atmosphere, almost romantic. After walking the streets, we end up beyond the top of the town where we get a marvelous cliff view down into the steep sided valley below, with a raging river in the bottom. Absolutely stunning scenery. Even better than Tuscany we would say.
We then take a tuk-tuk ride to another small colonial village down in the valley. Not so grand as Barichara but the tuk-tuk ride was an experience, especially as it struggled back up the steep road to Barichara.
Thursday 19-Jan: For our last day on the bikes we travel from Barichara back to Bogota, where the tour ends. More driving through scenic mountains with the highlight being our lunch stop at Villa de Leyva. This is said to be the biggest Spanish Plaza (square) in the world with one of the earliest colonial mansions on one side of the square. While the rest of our biking gang have lunch (food and beer is clearly more important than site-seeing!) we browse the square and have a coffee, soaking in the spectacle of this magical colonial town surrounded by high mountains.
I have to say, ever since cruising southern Spain I’ve started to be ever more impressed by ancient Spanish architecture. And even more so in places like San Juan and now here in Colombia. It has to be said, the Spanish really did develop their colonies, not just plunder them like other European countries. For instance, there is no such architecture on the windward islands, settled by English/French/Dutch, where at best you will find a small fort or ruins of the sugarcane industry. Never impressive colonial towns the likes of what we see here.
The afternoon is a rather boring and often wet (raining) ride back to Bogota with the road getting extremely busy as we approach the city, to the point where we are weaving through stand-still traffic for the last few kilometers, trying not to lose anyone.
And as we drive the bikes back into the hotel parking, all of a sudden the tour is over, and we feel great sadness. It’s been a fantastic experience. Not cheap, but certainly the best way to see Colombia scenery without being in a permanent traffic queue behind trucks, road works or other roadblocks. Not to mention the shear thrill of riding these very powerful and perfectly balanced GS1250 bikes. We think that our 1250RT will now have to be sold. The GS is the bike for us. A real go-anywhere machine, both on road and off-road.
That evening, our farewell dinner is in a Mexican restaurant near the hotel (in the T-zone) where we have amazing steaks and entertained by the best Mexican music we have experienced – better than anything we saw in Mexico itself! At the beginning of the tour, the group was quite fragmented, but during this second week the group has bonded as one. Just a shame I can’t understand Romanian, because their humor is obviously superb. Maybe the Mercedes/BMW/Audi drivers (a category which they ALL fit into) are not all total wankers after all 🤣. Or maybe that’s only the case when they are driving their German “look at me” super cars! As for us, we don’t even own a car 😀
Friday 20-Jan: Today is our flight back to Cartagena. We leave midafternoon while the others fly back to Bucharest at midnight. We say our sad goodbyes and before we know it we are back on Cloudy Bay, which is more than just a little dustier and dirtier than when we left her 2 weeks ago. Such is the downside of being moored in a big city.
Now the holiday is over it’s time for work again. Boaty work. The Volvo guys will be on board this week putting the engine back together. Meanwhile we will be sewing. More canvas work. Just what did we do before we had a sewing machine?