Riding to Patagonia

[DuciD03]

On a bit of a different tangent - 

Have you considered doing the Dakar Rally? Its being held in S S America countries now usually just after new years early January (didn't follow it this year; but have others); they've moved it from Dakar after too many hassles, dangers and political unrest. Very high quality international competition where pro off road riders and motor companies are testing there endurance for - 10 days - should be a ride in the park for you; and just think you wouldn't have to ride on a loaded bike!

 

[1.21GW]

You overestimate my riding abilities.  When you fall into a ditch making a u-turn and need a team of Guatemalan good samaritans to lift you out, you're not ready for Dakar.   

[duccarlos]

You don't simply decide to run the Dakar. It is a professional race which you need to qualify for, but you can follow them between checkpoints. You simply take a highway instead of off-road. There are some legs that are really isolated, so finding a gas stop might be a problem.

[1.21GW]

All that said, if I am still here next year during Dakar, I'm definitely going to try to go watch it live somewhere.  Those dudes are nuts!

[1.21GW]

Ok, so I finally make it to Cartagena and spend two days at the port getting my bike out.  It's not easy to get things done across a half dozen offices when everyone takes a three-hour lunch.  But I'm in no hurry, so I sweat it out and enjoy the city while I'm there.


Graffiti and colorful colonial buildings are what most tourists note about this walled port town, but in the end Cartagena is a city ruled by the sun, where the population is tyrannized by its relentless heat and piercing glare.  Locals defend themselves with umbrellas, with newspapers stretched aloft like Roman phalanges withstanding an arrow attack, or sometimes with just a bare hand sacrificed up to Apollo.  Unprepared tourists keep local hat vendors rich or simply resign to burn, a cost of Caribbean travel.  As the day progresses, the sun herds citizens to thin strips of shadowy relief where they dance and twist in awkward passes to avoid stepping out into the sunlight as if it carried an infectious disease.  This makes for humorous people watching: as the temperature rises, the common courtesies of sidewalk interaction slacken in favor of personal survival.  When the heat peaks in mid-afternoon, the shaded side of the street becomes so fat with people and the light side so vacant that it threatens to capsize the city.

[DuciD03]

You don't simply decide to run the Dakar. It is a professional race which you need to qualify for, but you can follow them between checkpoints. You simply take a highway instead of off-road. There are some legs that are really isolated, so finding a gas stop might be a problem.

Hope that was referred to / acknowledged in the original post.;

All that said, if I am still here next year during Dakar, I'm definitely going to try to go watch it live somewhere.  Those dudes are nuts!

... ...

SOOOO ... how do we qualify ...

I  challenge ...


All of U to be there ... and some qualifying!!!


....  ....


 


 .... back to the event at hand. and BTW on topic; national geographic photos.

what camera are you using?

[1.21GW]

(snip...)

what camera are you using?

http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/products/gr/


No zoom lens, but it has an APS-C sensor and it fits in my pocket and it so far has proven durable.

[1.21GW]

From Cartagena I headed east to Barranquilla, which boasts the second largest Carnaval in the world (Rio, unsurprisingly, is first). After meeting three separate people that had lost or stolen phones, I kept my electronics at home so I’ve no pictures to share other than these from the Batalla de las Flores parade:














After four days of Carnaval, which were two days too many for these aging bones, I continued east to explore more of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. In Santa Marta I met up with a Colombian woman I met earlier who had some time off.  We spend the days exploring the area and taking day trips to surrounding attractions: the laid back bay of Taganga, the blue cove of Playa Grande, the waterfalls in Minca, and, most memorable, a rented boat that took us to a series of unpopulated beaches hidden among rocky coastal cliffs.  There I may have found the formula for eternal happiness: six Club Colombia lagers, two bottles of water, one paisa, and zero strangers.  All to ourselves, we began naming the beaches like conquistadors of paradise: we dubbed the panorama below Volcano de Arena due to its mountain of sand, another we christened Playa Marfil because of the veins of marble in the cliffside rocks wherein we took refuge from the sun.

[1.21GW]

Eventually, my friend had to go back to work in Bogota and so I headed east to explore more of the Atlantic coast.  In Palomino, I met some travelers that suggested I visit the La Guajira peninsula, a remote seaside desert that includes the northern most point in South America: Punta Gallinas.  After many weeks in dense urban areas, I was happy to explore the wilderness.

Cabo de la Vela sits in the northwest corner of the untamed La Guajira peninsula, where the asphalt ends and route finding consists of a lottery of faded tracks written in the desert floor.  There, fifty miles from the nearest petrol station, gas is sold to desperate motorists in repurposed plastic bottles hanging like fresh butcher cuts from the driftwood beams of thatched huts.  If you can decipher a path through this wasteland you will discover a vast milky blue sea that is as lifeless as the land.  No sunbathers, no jet skies, no hordes of seagulls pickpocketing tourists, no peddlers hawking local wares.  Just waves lapping against the sand while lonesome boats rock slowly in the tide.

The only activity in Cabo are the kite surfers, drawn to the area's steady breeze, who glide across the the surface of the water like pelicans, occasionally lifted up into the heavens by a rogue gust.  For non-surfers, there is nothing to do but pass the time until the day's psychedelic sunset.  No cell service, no wifi, no electricity during daylight hours.  The whole place is like a hidden land described in some children's fable: a journey beyond civilization where a lost tribe lives under Olympian skies and colorful water acrobats have the power to fly.

[ducpainter]

You're getting pretty good at this writing shit.

[koko64]

The lad's in form.

[Howie]

I do believe 1.21GW should get someone to publish and promote this adventure.  Fantastic writing and photos!

[DarkMonster620]

I do believe 1.21GW should get someone to publish and promote this adventure.  Fantastic writing and photos!

I did tell him that at least 1xday while he was here

[1.21GW]

Thanks guys.  If it were up to me, the trip would never end.  Although Colombia is a making a helluva case for settling down (sorry DarkMonster  ).

[DarkMonster620]

Thanks guys.  If it were up to me, the trip would never end.  Although Colombia is a making a helluva case for settling down (sorry DarkMonster  ).

I know, I ain't going to the wedding . . . Wont hold a grudge . . . you know my thinking about that country and its neighbor . . .