Early Sunday morning I headed out for the Cauca Department of Colombia to visit the archeological sites at San Augustin and Tierradentro.

It didn’t take long before the pavement stopped.





















It was around this time I was beginning to wonder if I had somehow missed a turn. The distance markers on the road gave me convidence that I was headed to a town but there was nothing in sight and I hadn’t passed anyone on the road for several hours.
I finally flagged down a guy on a little scooter who confirmed I was on the right road and said I would soon cross a steel bridge.

I was very happy to finally get a landmark I could locate on my map.



It was weird how there would be spots of deep mud. I’m glad this is supposedly the dry season.



I was cruising along thinking I was less than one hour from San Augustin when the bike gets unstable and I hear a big thud. My first thought was another chain problemm but when the bike settled down I looked in my mirror and saw one of my Caribou luggage cases bouncing down the road! Well, it’s better than the chain coming off the sprocket.

I got off the bike after coasting to a stop and looked down the road to see two little kids carrying my luggage up the road!!!

The Caribou rack had simply snapped and sent the case down the road. I was attempting to fix it with JB Weld but didn’t realize the stuff takes 6 hours to cure. I orginally bought a lot of the stuff for the trip but have found it useless. The only thing it has done is break open and get all over my tools. Seriously they need better packaging. And in 6 hours I can find a welder anywhere in Latin America. Eventually I had a jeep taxi haul my luggage into the next town as I followed behind him. This took some time because he drove very slowly and made a lot of stops for his passengers.

I eventually found a welder in San Jose de Isnos and it turned into a big event. I drove all around the town asking for a welder and then when I found one all the local boys came over to hang out and ask how much the motorcycle was worth.

Boys will be boys…



Someone has to work.

Sparks were flying!

The dam abs tube for my tools was always getting jammed. Just one more reason not to do any maintenance ).



I realized one piece was missing from the rack and decided to ride back about 15 kilometers to look for it. Upon arrival I was greeted by the family of the two kids and explained the situation. They then enlisted the whole family to search the roadside for this little piece of metal.

I was invited to sit down and have some home made cheese and coffee. I couldn’t resist because it was around 4 pm and I hadn’t eaten lunch.

Alas, we never found the piece and I headed back to town and loaded up the bike. Then I had my first full meal of the day.

I thought this stuff was ice cream. However, it is made from cow hooves. I forget what they call it. It tastes a little like a mild taffy.

The lady in the back just keeps swirling the stuff around and when someone orders she squeezes some from her hand onto a cone.

A small crowd had gathered around my bike by the time I was ready to leave. I hate to admit this, but I get worried when people crowd around my bike. It is hard to see if anyone has their hands in my luggage or is breaking something. I never say anything because I want to maintain a friendly attitude. I just keep a careful watch out. One day I thought well, if these people think it is okay to claw all over my bike then I will at least get some pictures. In this case it just encouraged more people to run over and get in the picture as I was waiving people to get in close for the picture. This is one of my favorite pictures. What you don’t see is that behind me is another mob of people in the little zocalo, mostly women who were not interested in the bike, who were watching the whole scene.




I was tempted to spend the night in the little town but needed a full day in San Augustin and didn’t have many spare days before I needed to cross into Ecuador.


I arrived in San Augustin at 6 pm just as a regional bingo tournament was getting out.


The next day I took a jeep tour of the sites around San Augustin, but it was disappointing.









The little hospedaje called Posada Campesins (GPS N 01.53.656, W076.16.387) turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Fresh squeezed orange juice and locally grown coffee in a farmhouse where you can have dinner with the family.

The motorcycle was even given priority.
And the best breakfast I had in a long time!


Nothing like seeing the army patrol in the morning after a good breakfast.