Update 32 (June 2023)
Northern Colombia and Panama
I stayed in Bucaramanga for four nights. The neighbourhood was pretty good so I just stayed around the local area. I have been travelling for six months now and things are starting to wear out, especially when you have a small stuff sack for a wardrobe and keep wearing the same clothes. That probably puts me in the eco fashion camp. But I have been gradually picking up a new set of clothes as I passed through towns. And I believe they are all made in Colombia which is another plus.
So I kept heading north. I was again trying to avoid the main highways and made my way through some interesting country. Some of it getting pretty precarious at times. But the locals were friendly and most motorbike riders would give me a toot as they passed (very few people have a car in this region).
My first stop was the town of Salazar. During the day I had come pretty close to the border with Venezuela which is supposed to be a little sketchy. The area I passed through was quite remote at times but I did not have any concerns.
After arriving I headed out to find a minimercardo and some bottled water. It was a nice town and everyone was friendly, if a little surprised to see me.
My hotel below. It was run by a nice young family, hotel upstairs, restaurant downstairs. I parked my motorcycle in the restaurant at 9pm after it closed. It was an interesting night. I awoke about midnight to scratching under my bed. A little later something woke me and I realised there was a cat in the room. It got just as big a fright and bolted out the window. Earlier when I arrived I’d noticed pet hair on my bed. It wasn’t that bad so I just ignored it. So it turns out the cat can just push the window open and come in (because the window is installed the wrong way around and the latch is on the outside). I gather it comes in to sleep and maybe catch the mice under my bed? I slept with the light on for the rest of the night and that seemed to keep the animals quiet…
I was getting down in elevation now which meant things were heating up and getting humid.
The tone of the locals started to change after Salazar. It became less friendly and more aggressive, almost. The town of Ocaña wasn’t too bad but by the time I reached Valledupar I didn’t feel real comfortable amongst many of the locals. Even my hotel in Valledupar was not particularly welcoming. It is hard to explain and I hadn’t felt this since some parts of Peru (during a period of protests when everyone was a little on edge – story link here).
I was being called a gringo again but not in a friendly way. Street sellers would yell out gringo from across the road. I would just ignore them because it was feeling more like they were calling out to a dog across the street. A local would be able to pinpoint it better but I think people in this northern region were a little less happy and more desperate, and life just took on a more aggressive stance. There were definitely some very poor areas that I passed through. I guess everyone is trying to survive, right down to the gorgeous, 20 something Nina, in her gym gear that approached me in the supermarket with her phone number. I put that one in the too good to be true category. It was like this in all of the northern area and didn’t improve until I got back to Medellin.
Since then I have chatted to an Argentine biker couple that went into that area and they didn’t feel like that, so maybe it was all in mind head or I had a bad run.
I stayed three nights in Medellin in a very nice hotel. Medellin was back to normal and felt like the friendly Colombia, that it claims to be. I found a rear tyre and just relaxed and enjoyed the place. I will now head back to Bogota and start making arrangements to fly the motorbike to Panama.
I was now riding along the Caribbean Sea. It was actually difficult to get a look. Most of the access was private and you needed to pay. Or there were just so many scammers or touts that it wasn’t worth the effort.
Back in Bogota I ended up staying in the same neighborhood as before but in a different apartment hotel, that was closer to my favourite park and got better sunshine and natural light. Bogota has a very stable temperature between about 12 and 20°C year round.
On the way back to Bogota my rear shock absorber started failing. I hadn’t serviced it since new, so 60,000km was a pretty good effort. I took it to N2 Suspension Work who did a great job reconditioning it. I also organised my shipment and flight out of Colombia to Panama. In the end I stayed another 12 days in Bogota.
This is part of the park opposite my apartment in Usaquén, Bogota. I used to come here most mornings to do some exercise. It was very relaxed and friendly, with lots of dog walkers too. This particular afternoon all the local food delivery riders met for a friendly football game. They all get around on motorised bicycles.
Air freighting my Motorcycle from Colombia to Panama
Panama was fairly strict about entry requirements. The bike had to have a reasonable clean before being shipped. This wash was fine.
Eventually it was time to ship the bike. I went with Air Cargo Pack to air freight the bike across the Darien Gap to Panama City, for 1200 USD at the time. I took the Wednesday shipment rather than the Saturday. There were actually six other motorcycles in the same shipment. Four from Brazil (going to a 120 year Harley Davidson celebration in the US), one from the US (going home to Phoenix) and a couple from Patagonia, Argentina (going to the most northern point of Alaska). All really nice people. We ended up spending all of the Tuesday going through the loading and departure process. This was really just clearing it through security and customs, but there was soooo much waiting. But overall I was happy with using them.
This shipment was much more relaxed than the one from Australia to Chile. No packing case and disassembly of the bike. I pretty much had the bike loaded with my luggage as normal. I just took a cardboard box on my passenger flight with my helmet, boots and a few valuables.
The next afternoon I flew the one hour to Panama City, booked into a city hotel and then collected the bike the next morning. If you ever do this shipment, beware of the requirement to prove an onward ticket out of Panama, before you can board the flight out of Colombia. Luckily my fellow bikers had warned me, and I was asked when checking in with Avianca. I used a service called onwardticket.com, which worked fine.
Foolishly I was the first to arrive. It would be 10 hours before I was finished. The Brazilians knew the drill, they arrived about three hours later with plenty of time to spare.
Into the building via a forklift. Waiting for the Policia inspection and X-ray.
On to the other side now. Everyone’s bike was fine after the shipment. Before this we had to pay 75 USD for something, and then walk to the nearby Panama Quarantine department and do some paperwork and pay for fumigation.
Maybe the fumigation was some type of chlorine solution? It didn’t seem to smell at all and the guys from the freight forwarder unwrapped the bikes straight after.
We had our bikes now, but there was more waiting at Panama Customs while we organised our Temporary Import Permit. The Brazilians came through and organised our third party vehicle insurance from here also.
Since moving into Central America there seems to be a much clearer wet season going on. In Panama and Costa Rica there has been a typical pattern of sunny morning and rainy afternoon downpour or storm.
The process was a little better than Colombia and we were finished by about 2pm. I rode back to the same hotel for a second night in Panama City. Panama is one of those countries, like Chile and Ecuador that charge motorcycles at road tolls or peatje. I am not sure if I mentioned it but all the other South American countries I have visited don’t charge motorcycles. They just have a small lane on the right for motorcycles to ride straight through which is a pleasure. Panama City charges motorcycles and only has an automated service so it is easier just to avoid them if you are a temporary visitor.
The next morning I prepared to leave Panama City bound for Costa Rica. I visited the Canal first but otherwise I have definitively realised I am running out of time to see Canada before winter and need to get a move on, maybe, I am still trying to work out my priorities.
My timing wasn’t very good for seeing some action. A ship entered the lock at 7:30am. The Miraflores Visitor Centre opened at 8am. I got a bit lost and arrived at 8:15am to see the ship moving off into the distance. The next ship was 2:30pm that afternoon. They did warn me about this before I paid my 20USD ticket.
They are obviously aware of the inconsistency with ships, so have also built a large 3D IMAX theatre and have a good film narrated by Morgan Freeman that is quite informative and entertaining.
Once that was finished I rode back to my hotel, loaded up and took the main highway towards Costa Rica. About 50km out of David, where I planned to stay, my rear tyre started going flat. At this stage it was starting to get dark and there was no way I was going to start trying to repair it by the side of the highway. So I pumped it up using the little 12v pump I carry and started riding again. I did this every 10km until my hotel.
The next day I rode it to a motorcycle repair shop called Moto Servicio Pamaná, about 4km away. I don’t know what started it all but the tube, valve and the rim tape had suffered a catastrophic failure. Which was weird as I don’t know how it seemed to be holding pressure for a while. Surprisingly and happily the tyre was still okay and they put in a new tube and I was good to go.
I rode back to the David hotel, checked out and made my way to the Costa Rica border crossing at Rio Sereno.
Bogota to Bucaramanga, Colombia
Update 31 (May 2023)
Panama to San Vito, Costa Rica
Update 33 (June 2023)