{"id":8454,"date":"2020-05-19T05:41:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T12:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=8454"},"modified":"2020-05-19T09:50:48","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T16:50:48","slug":"day-3-in-colombia-on-to-la-playa-de-belem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/19\/day-3-in-colombia-on-to-la-playa-de-belem\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 3 in Colombia: On to La Playa de Belem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our Colombian adventure continues…this is the blog from the third day on the road in beautiful Colombia.\u00a0 It was a ride sponsored by CSC Motorcycles<\/a> and AKT Motos (one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers in Colombia).\u00a0 Our destination was La Playa de Belem and it was awesome.\u00a0 Juan and Carlos were taking good care of me, proudly guiding me through their beautiful country, and I was loving every minute of it.<\/p>\n

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They tell me la playa<\/em> means beach in Spanish, and Belem<\/em> means Bethlehem. There was no beach, but I\u2019m getting ahead of myself.<\/p>\n

La Playa de Belem was our destination on the third day of our Colombian moto adventure, and it was indeed awesome. We did a cool 260 miles to get to the evening\u2019s destination, and I have to tell you that 260 miles in Colombia is a long day. What I didn\u2019t realize when we started in the morning is that a good 40 miles of it would be on dirt. And sand. And mud. And I\u2019d even get a chance to play cowboy, except I was mounted on an RX3 instead of a horse.<\/p>\n

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No kidding, folks, those are cows, and they were on the road. This was something new to me. I mean, when you\u2019re on a 250cc motorcycle, how do you make cows get out of the way? Even if you\u2019re on a big bike, what\u2019s the protocol? These questions were on my mind, when like always, Juan Carlos took the lead. Our bovine buddies just kind of moved aside to let him move through the herd. I wasn\u2019t too sure about that, and then a guy on a little 100cc something-or-other did the same. In for a penny, in for a pound. As I got closer, the sea of cows parted, and I was through. Amazing stuff.<\/p>\n

As was the case the day before, it was sweltering, so we stopped to get a juice drink. They have a lot of juices in Colombia, and I\u2019ve been trying them all. I haven\u2019t found one I didn\u2019t like yet.<\/p>\n

This little gal was fascinated by us. She let me take her picture.<\/p>\n

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What I missed getting a photo of were the dinosaurs. No kidding. I looked over at a tree and there were three or four iguanas that were huge. As in 2 1\/2 or 3 feet long. They startled me. We ain\u2019t in Kansas anymore, Toto. I jumped up and fumbled around putting the 70-300 lens on the D3300, but by the time I was ready the lizards were gone. Maybe I\u2019ll see more of them again on this trip. Who knows? Things like that are incredible. I\u2019m enjoying the hell out of this trip.<\/p>\n

Ah, a few more \u201cwatching the world go by in Colombia\u201d photos\u2026all the gear, all the time.<\/p>\n

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After dodging and dicing through traffic (and there\u2019s lots of traffic in these Colombian towns, and it\u2019s mostly motorcycles), we finally hit a highway that ran straight. Yippee! We accelerated up to about 70 mph and cruised, and then Juan pulled over. What he pointed out to me was amazing. Ant hills. Not the little kind we are used to, but big monsters that are as hard as concrete. Check this stuff out, folks.<\/p>\n

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And then, much to my surprise, the animal signs started popping up.<\/p>\n

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Okay, that one was easy. Fox. I get it. I never saw a sign before warning about a fox crossing, but I can wrap my mind around that one.<\/p>\n

What came next\u2026well, that wasn\u2019t so easy to surround with the old gray matter.<\/p>\n

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Anteaters. Wow. The image quality isn\u2019t so great, but hey, we were zooming along and that one crept up on me. And how about this next one?<\/p>\n

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Okay, enough monkeying around. Back to the journey.<\/p>\n

We entered the eastern arm of the Andes Mountains and started to climb. It was a two-lane road, and we rode it for a good 150 miles. It\u2019s like the Angeles Crest Highway, but it goes on forever, and there were construction stops every 10 miles or so. These next few shots were taken at one of the construction stops. Juan Carlos told me we were very close to the Venezuelan border at this point.<\/p>\n

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A shot of Juan Carlos.<\/p>\n

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A Colombian taxi driver.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m seeing medium-sized trucks that are 60 years old nearly every day on these roads. The \u201956 Ford seems to be especially popular.<\/p>\n

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Our next stop was in another Andean town at a cool little restaurant. This was our waiter.<\/p>\n

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I had chicken and mushrooms. It was awesome. I ate maybe half of it.<\/p>\n

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Carlos and Juan Carlos both ordered something in Spanish (naturally), and they were excited to get it. I thought it was beef, or maybe pork. Nope. It was pig stomach lining. Very tasty, according to them. They offered a taste, but I declined.<\/p>\n

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A word or two on the riding is in order, I guess, at this point. It is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. In the cities and towns, it\u2019s a free for all. It\u2019s like one of the YouTube videos you see of city intersections with tons of scooters in Asia. Here, it\u2019s scooters, motorcycles, cars, and trucks. There are few traffic lights, and Juan told me nobody pays attention to the stop signs or speed limits. \u201cThey are like suggestions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m a big fan of the twisties, but in Colombia, they take on a new meaning. The national sport seems to be passing everyone you can everywhere you can. It\u2019s tense. Juan Carlos and Carlos are totally used to it. I\u2019m getting there, but it is unnerving. It\u2019s also weird just how good every rider seems to be. I\u2019m riding at my limits (not the bike\u2019s limits, but mine) too often, and while I\u2019m doing this taking a corner way faster than I ever would in the US, some Colombian will pass me on a 125cc Suzuki cruiser or something with his girlfriend on the back, leaned way over, like it was the most natural thing in the world. They look totally at ease doing it, too. These folks are natural riders, and they\u2019re good.<\/p>\n

We arrived in La Playa de Belem about an hour before sunset, and immediately split for a one of many Colombian national parks. It was kind of like Bryce. I grabbed a few shots there, including one of my AKT RX3.<\/p>\n

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Getting in was interesting. We had to ride a pretty rough dirt road that had a stream running down it because it had been raining. The RX3 took it in stride.<\/p>\n

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So, back to the Bethlehem thing (as I said at the start of this blog, Belem means Bethlehem in Spanish). La Playa de Belem is a beautiful little town dominated by the town square and a magnificent church (like many little towns in Colombia), and it turns out we arrived at a special time. The Colombians start celebrating Christmas nine days before Christmas, and this was that day. The town was buzzing. We hung out and watched kids singing at an outdoor service, we saw fireworks, we watched the service in the church, and then we got to see the vaca loca. I recorded it, so I won\u2019t tell you the vaca loca story now, but if this Internet connection holds I\u2019ll upload the video and tell you about it later.<\/p>\n

Two more quick photos in La Playa de Belem, a video, and that\u2019s all for now.<\/p>\n

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