Day 29: Colombia to Ibarra, Ecuador

A half day ride through the mountains had us to the border of Ecuador. Getting all of our paper work went pretty smooth, but it still took about 3 hours.

Day 28: The back roads of the Colombia

An outstanding day of riding. We stumbled upon empty gravel roads through the rain forest. Amazing waterfalls, rivers, and mountain passes with little villages.

photo of b. walsh by nickers.






mikey and nickers discussing the road less traveled

Day 27: Melgar to Garzon, Colombia

My new radiator cap came in mid-morning and once the bike was finished, we hit the road. It was a fairly uneventful day of riding until we tried to push on in the dark and Nick came around a corner and almost ran into somebody who was out in the middle road for some reason. After that we stopped riding at night.

Photo of that evenings accommodations by Nickers.

Day 26: Melgar, Colombia

I couldn't have asked for a better spot to break down. A shaded area to work on the bike and pool for discussing possible solutions. After a few hours of turning wrenches and a couple test rides, it turns out the radiator cap had failed. I called the shop back in Bogota, which had the part in stock and sent it overnight.

Colombian Customs

In the US, most bikes get tricked out with various bits of carbon fiber, billet aluminum, and titanium. In Colombia, there are a million of these little 100cc bikes swarming around and the hot set-up is to customize your seat. Check out some these bad daddy examples.



Nickers found "Excited Bath" and it is without a doubt the best. We laughed about this one for days.

Day 25: Bogota to Melgar, Colombia

In the morning we paid a visit to the local KTM dealer. Everyone from the shop was super cool and very professional. Mikey and I each bought a rear tire even though it didn't need to be changed yet, as these can be hard to come by. I had the shop do an oil change. I think this was the first time I let someone else work on one of my bikes. It was unnerving to watch, but we wanted to give the shop some business for helping us out.

Later that afternoon, leaving town was a 2 hour nightmare of some of the worst traffic and driving Ive ever been in (making LA or NY seem very tame) as crazed taxi drivers attempt run you down without even thinking twice about it. We only made it around 80 miles south of town before it was time to get a hotel. At this point my bike also had developed a cooling problem.

Day 24 Bogota, Colombia

While Bogota is closer to the equator, we were instantly relieved by the cooler high altitude climate (around 9000 ft). A trip to the mountain top over looking the city, has you with in arms reach of the clouds.