Colombia - South-west to the interior

I was ready to do some miles. I returned to Meicao for fuel then rode on to Hatonuevo where I lashed out on a nice hotel room and took some time to catch up with some writing. I was distracted in Distraccion the next day 

and found my way to Valledupar. 

I stopped to ask a guy if there was somewhere I could camp in the town and he invited me to stay at his workshop...literally 

Rafa is an electrical mechanic and his family own a bus parking and mechanical repair shop on a long block of land right where I had stopped. Being mechanics they were immediately taken by Ziggy and wanted to know all the ins and outs, but also figured out a lot for themselves.

This was one of those nights where local hospitality takes on a high level and can’t help but humble you. The next few hours I was plied with endless beer top ups, regular shots of Scotch and some local honey liqueur. They bought me takeaway and offered me the use of the pressure cleaner to give Ziggy a scrub; she was still covered in dirt from Cabo de la Vela.

Rafa spoke only a few words of English so I really had to step up with my Spanish. It was a great night, great people, amazing generosity and once again some new friends.

More farewells and I was back on the road...slightly worse for wear.

I put in about 250kms to finish at a little town called Los Palmitos 

and came across a local hospidaje that had a friendly family, a private room with bathroom for $10. Right on budget!! 

It was a hot day riding with the temperature reaching 38.5C and numerous stops at roadworks. Where there were no roadworks, the road was badly in need of repair with undulations, holes, rough sections lasting kilometres. They are gradually building a dual carriageway highway so it will be an easy ride in two years time. Still it was so much fun, I feel like my journey has just begun again. Most of the main arterial roads I have been on have been in great condition although the drivers are still crazy, overtaking across solid lines on bends and taking up my space over the centre line. They are used to small bikes that they tend to push around so I am often grateful to have a large motorcycle to get me out of bad situations.

I’m in the more central small town areas where no-one speaks English and it is great for my Spanish, which is coming along slowly…oh so slowly!! I can say most of what I want but still finding it hard to understand what I’m being told. But it was a fun day with some gravel roadwork sections, dodging trucks going both ways, zooming past the small local bikes, most of which are 125cc and finally after several hours of long straight roads, I was into some bends and actually able to use the outer edges of my tyres again!!

The mountains coming out of Velledupar were stunning on the southern side of the Sierra Nevada. 

Incredibly they have snow less than fifty kilometres from the Caribbean coast. I wasn’t able to stumble across a road to get there though. The rest of the drive could have been in Texas, Mexico or Australia…typically long straight hot roads.

The countryside is brown and dry across this Caribbean region. 

I had been told they were in a drought for the last two or three years and now I could see the result.

As I headed south-west the landscape changed and started looking more like the typical wet tropics. Lush pastures appeared with the range of palms, bananas and leafy tropical trees. The cows were fat and had grass up to their bellies. I passed across the north of a river delta flood plain that was very flat and had still water stretching far beyond the horizon. Here was the opposite extreme, a flood area with cows and horses up to their bellies in water and thick tropical growth. Hour after hour of riding I passed large cattle ranches and it became apparent that beef is a really major industry here. The small towns had cowboys on horseback and they were obviously very rural farming communities. The music was similar to the cowboy, love song swooning that I heard in Mexico.

I passed through a larger town called Monteria where I was astounded by the number of motorcycles and scooters. 

At one point I was riding along a road with no cars, just crowded with bikes. It gave me a taste of what the roads would be like with only motorcycles and no cars…and I liked it!! The little bikes buzz around together in a crazy flow that is simple and works, like a complex rainforest that seems chaotic but has a secret order to it.