To Kill A Motorbike
7 September 2005 (Wednesday) – Medellin, Colombia
I woke up this morning, gave Claudia a little souvenir pair of chopsticks (I had brought loads to give away to my hosts), thanked her profusely and bade farewells to Oliver and her. Then, Claudia left for work while I had my breakfast. Oliver started persuading me to stay. “Come on, stay another day! Claudia is a great person to get to know… Medellin is such a nice city too!”
Oh, it’s true. I do find her very interesting and I already miss her! OK, I would stay yet another day in Medellin, I decided. Hahaa…
As I have said, Oliver had been travelling by motorcycle for 1 year and 4 months, going through northern Europe, USA, Mexico, Central America and now here in Colombia. For want of something to do today, I accompanied him to the motorcycle repair shops.
Wow, what a horrendous state the motorcycle is in!!! That’s how you ride a motorcycle to death! The engine parts were totally taken apart. Carlos, the mechanic, showed me all the wear and tear and disgusting bits that had fallen apart. He presented a list of things that needed to be replaced and it was a long, long list. He preferred to have all these parts changed because Oliver had the intention to travel through the Amazonian roads in Brazil to Peru or something. And Carlos wanted to ensure the motorcycle is in good conditions by then. Gosh, but there are crazier people, I am sure!!
I guess, since the publication of Che Guevara’s The Motorcycle Diaries, many people had nursed the romantic idea of travelling through South America by motorbike. Of course, then with the construction of the Pan-American highway and more and more publications of travel books related to motorbike-travelling, done by ordinary people or movie stars, the idea really took off and lots of people are performing the stunt of travelling around South America, from Alaska to Ushuaia, and why not? around the world, or whatever and wherever, by motorbike.
This motorcycle repair shop in Medellin is apparently famous. Oliver informed me there is a close network of motorbikers who travel around and they keep each other informed of good motorcycle repair shops around the world. This repair shop does not charge these crazy bikers for the repair works, just for the parts. Carlos told me the mechanics themselves totally love motorbikes and bike-travelling. So, to them, they are performing a service for fellow bikers who are travelling around the world.
I had a really great time chatting with Carlos. I know nothing about motorbikes or cars! Not a single thing! Never in my life would I have imagined chatting with a mechanic about motorbiking for more than half an hour! It is not just me. It is the superbly friendly chatty Colombians here as well. Each day, I am more and more amazed by the nice people I just happened to run into and ended up chatting with.
He told me about petite Japanese girls travelling alone by motorcycle through South America, an old Japanese couple about 65 years old and above, travelling on tiny Honda bikes, and another couple who used 60 litres scooters for travelling! Oliver also had met a guy speeding to New York from Chile with a bottle of wine, signed by the various town mayors of the towns that he passed through. Oliver had met him in Cartagena. That guy had about 2 weeks to traverse through Central America, Mexico to get to New York by 18 September, including shipping his bike across to Panama. Apparently, the press would be waiting for him! Some form of publicity for the Chilean wine, haha! He had also met people travelling from Mexico to Panama and back within 2 weeks, just for the hell of it!
Unfortunately for Oliver, the parts in the list do not exist in Colombia or in South America as the model of the Suzuki he was using is unknown here. So, Oliver had to try and get them from Germany or USA. We went to an internet shop and Oliver started emailing to Suzuki dealers around Germany for quotes of the engine parts and also to ask for sponsorships, in exchange for the publicity of using his travel photos. He was emailing one by one and there must be at least 500 dealers to write to! I was then roped in to help him with the emailing!! Gosh, we were at the internet place for 3.5 hours!
Although Oliver had been in Medellin 1 week longer than I, he had hardly stepped out to visit the city. First, he was fussing over the motorbike. Then, he had his eye-operation. So I took him to visit the interesting public sculptures all over the city. Wow, I was even surprised that I was navigating around Medellin without a map now, instinctly knowing which way to go and how many blocks to walk.
One impressive sculpture was at Alpurra Administration Centre. As we walked towards the sculpture, named Monumento de La Raza, my mouth was gapping right open. I had not been to this one yet and I was totally floored. Two ladies happened to be walking past me, and they seemed to have an amused look on their face when they saw me. I greeted them ‘hola’, and once again, we soon got chatting about the sculpture, Medellin, etc… They even gave us their business cards.
Back at the Plazelota de Los Esculturas where the majority of Botero’s fat sculptures were, we spotted some students taking odd macro shots of the sculptures. I asked them what they were doing. They were from the University, taking a course on Publicity. They were told to photograph lines and curves of buildings and sculptures that fitted the listed designs. They were lacking two now. I tried to help them, but it was not so easy. But only in a city with such interesting sculptures could one have this interesting assignment!
Tags: 06) Colombia Connection, Medellin
swesn
September 10th, 2005 at 4:05 am
is it mudddy or dusty ?
glad you’re happily roaming again Trish,
you’re always welcome to break bread with us here in the NAtion’s capital, and we do use chopsticks ast our dinner table, our natrual c-sticks when ‘braai-ing’
smooth winds, will be tracking your new dicoveries. . .
headed for Patagonia?, to meet ” …. The founder and driving spirit behind the Patagonia Land Trust is Kristine Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia, Inc. Since her retirement in 1993, Kris has lived in Chilean Patagonia. She knows the region, and South American wildlands conservation work, intimately. . . . . “it’s beginning to warm down south http://www.patagonia.com/enviro/reports/2002/patagonia_land_trust.shtml
October 10th, 2005 at 11:07 pm
Traveling in Mexico and South America on a motorcycle ROCKS!
I just finished almost 2 months traveling in Mexico on a KLR650 with no mods… and even took the ferry over to the Baja to ride it from bottom to top. Also did about 200 miles of the Baja 1000 route before re-entering the U.S. in California… then over to Vegas, Grand Canyon, etc.
I kept a travel journal with photos while I was gone and am posting it here:
http://www.poppinfreshmedia.com/skipmexmc.html
It’s not all up yet, but there’s plenty to start with. Didn’t want to overwelm anyone. Check it out if you get a chance.
April 30th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Really nice photoes and a great read!
December 22nd, 2006 at 2:47 am
hi
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:45 am
nice bike and pic you have there!