Fotos eje cafetera

[islander11]

Thanks Tinto. I recognized you from the photo right away because you were wearin' those same red tights and the sombrero when I saw you in Pereira ;-). And thanks LL for the photo posting info too. I'll give the direct post method a whirl first.

[Tinto]

Those tights drive the women loca! At least I've given them my biannually washing since your return back to la isla.

Don't like attached photos eh? Do you need instructions on doing the "direct" method of posting photos?

[LastLion]

Back to some fotos of the moto road trip.. I am hoping someone can remind me of the name of the tower with the mirador on the high point of manizales ,this is the place.. I am sure it is something simple like EL MIRADOR, hahaha but just cant remember

SUNDOWN in Manizales

[LastLion]

PERIERA, I did not plan on staying in Periera, especially after the incident with the police on the way thru town to armenia.

But occasionally the rain just got to be too much,, it only seamed to rain at the time I needed to be riding.. When I arrived in Pereira, it started up again, so I went up to the Zona rosa area to rest , but after an hour of drizzle I just decided to stay at the Hotel de Pereira, now that is some place, apparently I got a deal at $100 a night, (really not bad) plus thank god they had 24 hour lavanderia cuase most of my clothes were trashed from the rain.. It was definetely one of the nicest hotels I stayed at in all mytime in colombia over the past 4 years

Pereira, actually turned out to be a great spot. The people there were as nice as ever.. I met up with an old friend that wasnt expecting me, and talked in the plaza for hours, wish I had more fotos of their main plaza it is one of the nicest of the 3 town in the eje cafetera.. All I got is a pic of the hotel and the church across the street. But if your gonna get stuck somewhere, Pereira is not a bad choice ..

The Hotel is connected to a large mall, boy if I wasnt already thinking about another gal back in medellin, I would have had a hey day here, the women were extremely outgoing to say the least. I didnt budge a finger and I was welcomed by some very attractive females while I was just looking for a cajero and comcel in the building, as well as on the street my 24 hours there was like a week in medellin as far as sweet smiles from women.. Churro is another word I heard in Periera a couple of times... hahhaah I thought it was something bad..







NOT ME OR MY BIKE, Just the entrance to the HOTEL, most bikers lacked the usual biker comraderity, but I ended up meeting a few cool guys on the road..

[HonkyTonk]

LL, you're killin' me man with those pics! I'm lovin' it! What happened with the cop? You have a pic of the bike with all your stuff on it?

I think the chit chat between bikers there compared to here is that there a moto might be their only form of transportation. Up here it's a hobby.

Then what happened??

[LastLion]

Originally Posted by HonkyTonk

LL, you're killin' me man with those pics! I'm lovin' it! What happened with the cop? You have a pic of the bike with all your stuff on it?

I think the chit chat between bikers there compared to here is that there a moto might be their only form of transportation. Up here it's a hobby.

Then what happened??

You know I dont have pics, I think brent or one of the boys does from when I arrived back in medellin.. The bike was a suzuki 660 bandit. A big bike for colombia.. Belive me when I tell you I wasnt prepared . Not used to the sport bike type nor the heat in medellin when I left nor the rain in the eje cafetera.. You need to be prepared for everytype of climate except maybe snow..

As far as dealing with the police, well they were doing heavy checkpoints in and out of the cities.. Aparrently it was a little more complicated due to all the people going to and from medellin for the feries..

So as I rolled into pereira, they had a stop point and were pulling over every single bike. I saw it coming and said to myself this is when you " no hablo espanol"!!!

Part of the problem is renting bikes, it is very difficult to do in colombia, due to the legals side, and you need special permit like here to ride bikes.. You have to wear the damn license on your back it is lame.. But I got used to it quick.

As I rolled into periera obviously on a bike that costs 10k in colombia, they saw me coming and pulled me over like the rest of the bikers. Although one thing I will never forget about whenever I arrived somewhere is that, when ever i took my helmet off (full faced) most everyone would take a double take, and the police definetely took a double take as I rolled into the entourage of bikes, put the stand down and proceeded to take off my helmet.. There was some kid cop asking me for documentos.. I played to I dont spek spanish thing. Unfortuantely the guy I rented the bike from gave me everything but it was buried in the saddle bag, so I proceeded to unload all my **** on the street.

It really wasnt a big deal at least I thought, but I could tell as they were asking me question and than got the serg over to ask me questions all in spanish by the way, that they had wished they never pulled me over. As my spanish was not available at the time. It was a bit of that movie EUROPEAN Vacation with chevy chase, minus the part I understood most of what they were asking. So they asked me for my license and I showed them my california license, they were asking me about my colombian license, I was like no worries, "mine is from califronia, it is international"

Well by this point at least 4 or 5 groups of bikes had already gone in and out of the check piont. They were frisking everybody and I had that damn mexican smile I see so often here, working for me, you know the one when they dont understand a word of what you are saying?

Anyways, it wasnt much except a waste of time. Obviously I didnt have what they wanted and finally after watching 3 of them talk amongst themselves about me, one guy finally said "go go go gog gogogogogg""

I asked if I could get a foto at that time and got a ****ty look, so I guess that was out, than I said ciao.. And split..

Well that was the cop story, the only other story I didn't want to mention but it is probably a good idea, so that people realize its not all peaches and cream in colombia, is this..

Well I had to stop occasionally just to make sure I was going in the right direction. Everyone was usually pretty freindly and helpful, the problem was noone could hear me with the damn helmet on .. So I always had to take it off to talk and ask directions..

Well as I was rolling thru the mountains I realized I hadnt seen a sign in at least an hour and as I rolled thru some of these towns I realize I didnt study the map to know if these towns were in route to manizales.. So as I was coming down this one hill I noticed a little shack of a house with a tienda in front of it.. I was 90% conifdent I was heading in the right direction, but I let the doubt take over and decided to stop, I saw an old campesino and his wife and a small kid there, so I pulled up and took off my helmet, I could tell immediately something was wrong.. They just werent freindly, I though I better buy something. So I asked for a water..

He gave me one of those bags of water.. As I bit off the plastic corner of the bag and started sucking it like a bottle, than the little kid rolled up about 5 years old and said "hola hola hola", I siad hola back.. I was still feeling like I made a big mistake as the old man really wanted nothing to do with me, I smiled at his wife and she kind of shirked and looked away.

Now this house was on the side of the road which was really the top of a mountain ridge, and as I looked down the side of the mountain next to the tienda, I could see that there were some seriously ****ed up house down below.... As the kid was still sayin hola hola hola, I realized he wanted some money too.. I was kind of at this time getting back on the bike I had a mil peso bill in hand, and was trying to get my ass moving, when this teenager about 16 or 17 rolled up and was saying BYE GRING BYE GRINGO,

I should of just left, but I proceeded to ask what, than he started rambling off some **** and up the road that was the only way out of where those ****ty houses were came a couple of enduros, with some really ****ty looking punk as m-f__ss.. I they rolled up behind me about 20 feet and were watching, the pun said give the kid some money, which is what I was going to do anyways, than he proceeded to say I need to pay 10 mil pesos about 5 bucks to pass thru this part of the road.. I really wasn't talking much, but I wanted to ***** slap him like noone else..

Well I was pretty much ready to blast out of there like a rocket, I had the bike's ignition on and was putting on my helmet and watching this punk starting into a screaming session about gringos and money and ****. I went for the money I had in y hands and handed the little kid the 1 mil peso bill turned on the bike and started it up acted like I was gonna I was going into my pocket and just shot out of there like nobody's business.

I could see the kid ranting at the other guys on the enduros in the rear view, but I just blazed out of their and their was no f-n way they could have caught me..

The biggest thing I learned is that you need to stop at the places the tourist buses are stopped, and nowhere else.. Occasionally I would stop on the side of the road to take a piss or a foto.. And I have to admit, I got the feeling there were people out there, but for those of you who know the road, between medellin and manizales it is absolutely stunning and when you are parked on the side of the road, you often are in total disbelief of the beauty, and find yourself lost in it. But after that my stops were shorter and I realized that although I could not hear anything out there, there most likely was someone out there.

Well the funny thing was in medellin I got the roads were clear safe and easy to ride. Which was mainly true. But my friends in manizales when I told them where I was , told me that is kind of an iffy area, there are still problems there.. It was about an hour outside of manizles..

[msolosky]

nice pics last lion

[LastLion]

Originally Posted by msolosky

nice pics last lion

Thannks msol when ya coming down with us..

[Tinto]

A year or so ago a friend and I drove to Manizales from Medellin for the weekend and on our way home late Sunday night we hit a pothole going about 50-60 mph. Kabammmm! The front tire was history. We stopped on the side of the road to change the tire and then discovered that he had no tire iron. We were stuck out in the middle of nowhere about an hour outside of Manizales late and night, pitch black, hungry mosquitos and the occasional truck roaring past us. We were about ready to accept our fate (me more reluctantly so as I was thinking how could anyone trade their stock tires for low profile ones in all places, Colombia AND not have a stupid lug wrench!) when a car slowed down to check us out. They might have thought we were easy pickings and maybe they had a hankering for a late night snack of white meat when much to my relief I saw a grandmother, daughter, mother and father in the car. They all got out of their car, minus granny to see if we needed help. When we explained our predicament and their tire iron was the wrong size for our fancy lug nuts the father was on the phone calling ahead to locate the correct tire iron. Twenty minutes later our angels of mercy returned, wouldn't let either of us change our own tire and fixed us up like new never asking for a penny. We both tipped the father generously for his kindness and help to a couple foreigners caught in a bind. I doubt very highly if I was in their shoes, especially with my entire family, would I stop to help out a couple strangers like they did.

Needless to say, there were four eyeballs like eagles peering into the night all the way back to Medellin looking for any more sinkholes on that "highway".

[John Wayne]

I think LL will agree with me....Ya'll get ya some Photo copies of an expired License to drive, and have it plasticized........Because inevitably some A$$hole SOTB is going to want to take it....

But they are Cornholes......And Have no idea......But they are only looking something to put in their kitchen......