We have had a great time here in Santa Marta this week, but the motorcycle trip has come to its end for Lisa today. She has just left the hotel in a taxi bound for the airport and a long night travelling, with a connecting flight to Bogota, a lengthy wait followed by a flight home to Canada.
After 17347 km of riding 2up through 6 South American countries for 3 months its strange for me to be on my own, you get into the routine with 2 people, loading everything onto the bike without having to discuss about where things go, me sorting out the mechanical side of things while Lisa being very organised would get the admin side of things done much much quicker than me biffing around on the netbook trying to find stuff and emailing ahead for reservaions. She has been great, she suffered through torrential rain, hail, snow, freezng cold temperatures at nearly 5000 metres and the worst wind we have ever seen or ridden in, 45 C heat and clinging on as I ride over the endless speed bumps, pot holed roads, the bike fishtailing wildly on sandy tracks and swerving to miss barking dogs and other animals, taxis, crazy bus drivers and the sometimes very bad drivers down here.....she must be as mad as me!!!
Riding the bike 2up has been a challenge for me, Ive ridden quite a lot before this trip, but very little has been with a passenger on the back, let alone with a fully loaded bike and over some fairly difficult gravel/rock/sand/ muddy pistes/tracks on which some solo riders have taken a fall on. Now going back to riding a bike solo is going to be easier and Im sure my riding has improved. Riding with any passenger is a big responsibility - let alone your wife, and I am glad that I got Lisa to the end of the her motorcycle trip in one piece with only one low speed tumble when it was windy in Patagonia, which looking back on it was more funny than painful.
Our plan was to fly Sammy back from Bogota to Canada and we have been sending emails trying to sort this out for the last month - including spending several nights in Bogota organizing a crate for the bike and transport for it to the airport which was all in place....however we heard from the shipping agent yesterday, saying that his contact in Colombia was being unreliable and he could not offer us any shipping services (sea or air) currently....Streuth!
So Grif is currently gong to try and sea freight Sammy from Colombia to the USA and meet up with Lisa's Dad and his partner. Stan is heading South to do a bike trip in the Southern USA with Karen, so if things work out they will meet up somehere and Grif & Sammy will get a ride in a truck and trailer back into Canada, where it is currently -20 C and snowing......Bleh!
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