Day 10 – San Cipriano and on to Cali

Woke up quite early, about 6 am (well, to be honest, woke up at midnight, 2am 4 am and then out of bed at 6am). Hardest bed ever. My friend Geico got tired of me talking to him (probably only understands Spanish) and had vanished. Getting out of bed, I went to the lobby and got a bottle of water (didn’t want to risk brushing teeth etc with the water from the tap). We pack up and prepare to hit the road and by 8am we are on our way. As we ride down the road, my bike starts sputtering. I think to myself that the choke must still be on, but reaching down it seems to be in the right position. A few kilometres in we stop and I check the bike. I try to drain the float of the carburetor to get any water out but no luck turning the screw (toolkit that came with the bike isn’t the best). So we continue down the road, with me sputtering along. Somehow, this seems like karma (not unlike the comment about the baby in the lounge), payback for saying the white bike was faster in yesterday’s blog. We stop for gas, thinking that topping it up might help, but it does nothing. The gas stop was a little nerve wracking, as we are probably in the poorest region of Colombia and very large, shirtless black men are walking past us with machetes. In reality, once you smile and say hello, they were totally accepting of the chubby ginger and his aged friend. Although I did insure that my Garmin locator device was on, in case my body was needed for the insurance payout.

We finally sputter in to San Cipriano and as a tourist helper comes out, I ask him for a taller de moto (mechanic). He makes me follow him down to the launching point of the San Cipriano railway and tells me to wait 5 minutes. A couple minutes later he signals me over and has me park under the shade of a makeshift carport. Within moments, 4 guys are surrounding the bike, working on it, testing it and figuring out the problem. We still aren’t 100% certain what they did to fix it, but it was either water in the carb or the carb was loose. 20 minutes later we are running fine again. I asked them how much and they asked for $7.50. I gave them double. We also paid the older fellow who had the carport to let us leave the bikes there for an hour or so while we caught the famous San Cipriano railway (YouTube it!)

We walked over to the railway and purchased our tickets. Cost was about $2 each way. The railway is small carts on rail wheels, powered by a small motorcycle dangling off the back with the rear will friction powering the ride. The reason this all happened was that the town used to be connected only by rail, but when the train was decommissioned, the already poor town became virtually nothing. Then some dude came up with this method of transport and started bringing tourists for rides to the town and the beautiful swimming river nearby. Once it started, the whole thing has taken off into a tourist thing. About 20 of the carts exist to scoot you on the 20 minute ride each way. With no jobs or economy in the area, most people earn a living some way or another from the railway. One of the coolest experiences I have ever done, and I am so glad not to have missed it as we did the last time in the area.

Once we had finished the rail, we headed back up the road, stopping at the hotel and checking out while also packing the rest of our stuff. On our way to Cali, we stopped for lunch (we never had a breakfast included this time). We also tried to find a Finca (guest house) that had been recommended to us, but it looked like it may have been closed. We continued on to Cali, winding down out of the clouds and drizzle of the surrounding mountains and found ourselves a hotel. After Medellin started getting back on track and the crazy violence died down, Cali for a few years took over as Colombia’s most dangerous city. In recent years it has seen massive improvements, and we are in a pretty decent area of town. Right across the road from Parque Del Gatos, which is filled with sculptures by Cali’s most famous artist (and the only one I know the name of), Hernandez Tejada.

We had a nice coffee at a genuine Colombian cafe. Damn was that good. A really potent and small late, and only $1.50. Some of the pricing in this country is spectacular. Then we found a small grocery store and bought some road snacks. I looked at the mayonnaise and chicken flavoured potato chips and decided that I just couldn’t do it. Maybe later in the trip.

Back at the hotel, we mention that our room doesn’t have the beds made up yet or any towels. Our nice reception guy, Giovanni, had us wait in the lobby while he took care of it. At first, he was going to switch our rooms, but then he decided to have ours prepared. Then he became a little more indecisive and went to go talk to the maid. About 20 minutes later he told us our room was all ready. Stuff like this seems to happen a fair bit in Colombia, or even in all of Latin America. You just have to roll with it.

Dinner was at El Gringo, an American based restaurant. I went for the New York steak with puree potatoes drizzled in cheese, chris had some crazy loaded hotdog and fries. total bill $35 cdn. Spent the rest of the night cruising the small area of Cali we are in.

If you are reading this, your comments are appreciated.