Driving in Colombia

Up until Colombia, we had happily survived six months of driving in South America. Then a week ago we hit the country, and then I realized all the time we were just prepped for Colombian driving – it is so refreshingly dangerous that it is truly an attraction in its own right.

They say when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So by the same logic, when in Colombia, drive as the Colombians do, I guess? This is Q safely executing one of my personal favorites of Colombian driving techniques.

In case you cannot tell,  it was double-overtaking on the left shoulder. Yes, they drive on the right in Colombia. …at least it was done over a dotted central line!

Two recipes and Colombian music

Got these two recipes when we celebrated Christmas and New Year’s with friends in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The combination of the first recipe didn’t sound too appealing to me, but I tried it, and I had to admit, it is just amazing! Try it yourself (make sure you have a nice, ripe, preferably Filippino;), mango)!

Rucola, blue cheese and mango salad

Mix

• Rucola leaves (use the stems for the next recipe)
• Blue cheese(cut up)
• Mango (ripe! in dices)

and drizzle with 

• olive oil

Rucola spread

Blend

• Rucola stems
• Cream or white cheese

and use as spread on

• Garlic toast

(or add garlic to the mix instead and serve on bread or toast)

Enjoy those!

This piece of music was played in a salsa club in Cali, Colombia. The whole place shouted and sang with this song, very cool! The title ‘De Donde Vengo Yo’ roughly translates to ‘from where I come’, and it is a local Colombian song, celebrating their ‘Colombianism’ and the diversity of the Colombian people.

De Donde Vengo Yo - Choc Quib Town on Vimeo.

(if you are subscribed to our mailinglist, you won’t see the video above, click here to open it in your browser!)

If I were a Tour Guide for the Aliens

If one day an extra-terrestrial life-form comes to me and asks for direction to the one natural site on this planet, I would most definitely point it to the Grand Canyon in the United States. For those of you who have been there, you can relate to the tremendous shock and awe power it had on me when I first cast my sight on it.

However if the alien asks for the one cultural site on earth, I wouldn’t know where to point it to, until a few days ago when I came across this place unexpectedly - “La Capilla del Hombre” (The Temple of Man) in Quito, Ecuador. The masterpiece is built to house paintings and sculptures created by Oswaldo Guayasamín.

The center of Guayasamín’s work is about the pain and sufferings of indigenous people, but he also draws attention to the warmth and hope for the families and loved ones. His work and words touched me deeply:

For the children that death took while playing,

For the men that weaken while working,

For the poor that fail while loving,

I will paint with the gun scream,

With the thunder potency and

With the eagerness of battle.

(Disclaimer: The above photos are results from google image search.)

I guess the Great Wall in China makes a pretty close competition too, but I feel that the Wall is like us humans flexing our muscles and making ourselves look bigger, whereas the Temple was like that Mona Lisa smile – if you really look into her eyes, the complexity and sincerity will instantly touch your soul and draw you in.

The site is beautifully set against the mountain range of Quito and Guayasamín’s house and burial site.

Not to mention that while in Quito, in addition to the Temple, the aliens can also sample some of the most delicious and rich hot chocolate! Yum, what a treat. You are welcome, E.T.!

The route and photos - UAE

(if you receive this post through our mailing list (same for FaceBook probably), then unfortunately it will not show the way it’s supposed to –> please click here and visit the website to view it!)

We’ve had numerous requests to show you the route we have taken. We also received just as many requests to show more pictures of our trip! Here you are, combined into one! I’ve used the website Everytrail.com to upload our GPS tracks and photos, it has linked the both together and it shows you which route we’ve taken and shows the pictures that go with it!

We started our trip from our former home, the United Arab Emirates, we drove from Abu Dhabi via Dubai to Sharjah, where we took the ferry to cross to Iran. This particular post is quite small, future posts will include more routes and more pictures!

The route that we took:

Click this link to view the route plus the photos full screen.

 

Click here for the full screen slideshow of the just photos without the map.

(seeing that I’m testing this, please let me know your feedback! any problems, suggestions, etc. are most welcome!)

You Asked, Now We Answer! (part I)

Thank you all for posting all your questions, we were swamped with them, both through our blog, mailing list (if you want to receive automatic updates when blog, mail us on this address) and through Facebook!

Tell us about the ARCHITECTURE...  - Anne-Marie & Thijs-Jan
A lot of the architecture in South America is colonial, especially in Argentina what we noticed was the lay-out of the cities, all rectangular, with a square (typically called Plaza de Armas) in the middle. The east coast of Uruguay was quite different, it seemed to be this place where a lot of (Argentinian, it would seem, lots of expensive cars with Argentinian license plates driving around) money was. A lot of modern villa’s with a view of the ocean.

What's the average km you do on a day (and of course also curious to the max you did and the minimum) - Mike
We’ve been traveling for just over 9 months right now, we’ve done 41.000k, which roughly makes 150km on average a day. But of course we don’t drive every day, far from it. We spent 1 month in The Netherlands and Germany waiting for our flight to South America, did 3 weeks in Buenos Aires to learn Spanish, 2 weeks in China to visit a wedding.
I would say we do an average of 400km per day, max around 800km, least, dunno, 0, I guess!

Best and worst CouchSurfing experience – Kun
As you might know, we’re quite avid CouchSurfers, and we surf during this trip as well! One of the best experiences we had was a completely unexpected one in Iran! We had a flat tire in the middle of Iran and we ended up trying to find a new inner tube on a Friday, their rest day, ie all shops were closed and it took us quite a while. It also didn’t help that we didn’t speak any Farsi, but the very helpful and resourceful locals managed to find just about the only guy in town who spoke English, and he was able to help us find what we were looking for. In the end, he invited us to stay with him and we met every member of his family over a wonderful evening barbecue!

Worst? Dirty places, like, really really dirty. Don’t like those… it happened 4 times so far that Shu felt the place so dirty that she started to clean the place, that never happened in our house before!!

Best and worst foods – Kun
Talk about a difficult question, seeing that you *know* that we’re Chowhounds!
Off the top of my head…

Lahmacun in Turkey, wow!

Asado in Argentina. Rodizio in Brazil 

Ceviche in Peru
(or know as Kinilaw in The Philippines)

Worst? Any food that makes either of us sick or go to the toilet in rapid succession several times a day. So far it only has happened twice, once to either of us.
Shu answers: “When we were in Greece, we stayed with a self-sufficient family with their own garden and animals and cheese and bread. We picked up some sardines and crabs from town. Together we had such an unique and delicious meal. Also I have discovered that homemade food are better than bought.”

Place where you would go back in a heart beat, and a place where you will not go back unless you were clubbed over the head and dragged back forcibly – Kun
Eastern Turkey was amazing! Italy has been and always be a favorite. I loved driving Carreterra Austral in Chile, several roads in Bolivia and Cuzco to Nazca in Peru. Too many to describe! The unpaved parts of Ruta 40 in Argentina were among the worst… 
Shu answers: “Brazil and eastern Turkey. Oh, just day-dreaming about them brings big silly smiles to my face. And a few friends´ homes as well: a lovely renovated house in Germany, and a self-built house in Tucuman, Argentina. I would not want to go to the Caspian Sea coastline of Iran. The area was poorly developed and traffic was terrible and dangerous. Come to think about it. I find it such a turnoff to see bad development which are quickly and poorly done, and abandoned soon after. Such a waste of resources.”

Can you please relate for us 3 of the stupidest arguments you've had while on this epic trip of yours?  Please also share any interesting injuries or afflictions – Sonya
Hehe… yeah, we’ve had our fair share of arguments… the ride’s not always smooth when you’re spending 24/7 with each other. One specific one that comes to mind is an argument we had whether or not to laminate copies of our passports… yup. We sink that low… I argued we should do it, Shu argued that the ZipLoc bags that we’re using work quite fine. By now, we have one set that’s still in a ZipLoc bag (which, ironically enough, I carry), and Shu carries the laminated one after hers got wet in the rain!
Injuries. I took it to try out Enduro riding with the son of friends of us in Argentina. I made a spectacular crash trying to go down a hill. The bike was fine, I really hurt my knee, was limping for 2 weeks.

Enduro riding in Argentina

Tell us more about bed bugs!! Did the person who infected you know they were infected? Do they hurt? How can we save ourselves from them? – Sonya
No bed bugs for me! Luckily! But Shu has had them thrice so far, once during a CouchSurfing experience and twice in a ‘hotel’. We would not know who gave it to us, Shu says they do hurt. How to save yourself from them? If you know, let us know, cos we obviously haven’t learnt how to know. The obvious: make sure the room you’re staying in is clean, if it looks dirty, all the bigger the chance of getting them.

What have you discovered on this trip that you didn't know about yourself or your partner? Good or bad – Sonya
Good: I had been thinking of doing a motorcycle trip like this, but one of the things that held me back was that I have zero technical knowledge. ‘What would I do if I have a breakdown in the middle of nowhere?’, was the question that held me back. But I learned to accept whatever happens, and that things will sort themselves out, with the creativity that I have, and that others have. That, and I did take it upon myself to learn at least a few technical things about the bike.

Replacing the front tire

Knowing what you know about what's involved with a trip like this, would you do it again?  I guess you're doing it right now so that answers that... – Sonya
Yup, would do it again in a heartbeat. And if you’re thinking of doing it: JUST DO IT! It’s you who’s stopping yourself from going, no one else. It’s scary to do the first few steps, but it is SO worth it!!!

The rain, so worth it…

More answers to your questions will come soon! Keep sending us your questions!

Are You Ready for a Dirty Story?

Quite honestly South America is a bit like most parts of Asia, with all sorts of toilet facilities that one can imagine. So every time when the nature calls while outside a touristy area, I often find myself debating whether I am ready for another possible surprise.

Today’s surprise came after a delicious lunch at a roadside food shed in a small Peruvian town. While Q paid for the bill, which was a whopping USD$ 6 for two complete lunches including soups and meat dishes - outrageous I know -my eyes quickly scanned the little roadside restaurant for any indication of a bathroom facility.

Definitely nothing obvious that I could see, but maybe in the back behind the shed? Hmm… I wonder if I should just cut my losses and go straight for the Shu-Pee device. Oh wait, but that’s at the motorcycle and I didn’t feel like running across a busy street just to get it. And holding out for a better spot isn’t an option either. Q already gave me heads-up on a long ride ahead. Hmm.

A couple minutes of cost-and-benefit analysis later, I find myself walking up to the lunch crew ladies by the big pots, and asked them if they had a bathroom. I was certain a small part of me was hoping the answer would be “no”.

Surprisingly somehow my question generated quite a bit of reaction from the ladies - I may even use the word “excitement”. Maybe it was because I was one of the few women who have lunch there? Just about all the diners were men when I was there except for me. Anyway, so one lady nodded “yes yes” so enthusiastically it was as if they have been waiting for this question the whole time! She gestured to the second lady who heard my question and was already acting on it. She quickly picked up a big bucket from somewhere, and scooped up some water from somewhere else with it. Then she signaled me to follow her to the back of the shed. Here it goes.

Aha, so there was a area shielded by a couple of weaved bamboo sheets. I was signaled to wait while the lady went in first.

I made out from the small cracks in the sheets that she first dumped the bucket of kitchen water down a what-looked-like a bare toilet seat, then she bent down and proceeded to wipe the seat’s rim clean with her bare hand!

At the moment I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I called her that it was okay. She looked through the sheets and pointed up at the sky trying to tell me - what I believed was – that the toilet got dirty from rain.

It was such a humbling moment. All the time when I looked down on the lunch ladies for what little they had, I didn’t realize how they offer it all with all their hands with outmost kindness. For once in my life, I was grateful for a bare toilet seat.

Back on the road, the question did cross my sanitized mind whether the lady would wash her hands before tending to lunch duties. Then I told myself not to worry since there is no point. Well, at least until the next stop.

The Quest of Unsore Butts

(Disclaimer: The following posting is rather long and may offend animal lovers. But it is fun and I took a great deal of effort documenting it, so please read.)

Q and I have managed to complete almost 40,000 kilometers on Casa – that’s our loyal motorcycle for those of you who are new to our blog. Many asked us,”Are your butts sore?” Well, it turned out both of us are quite butt-aware and were absolutely determined to keep them unsore.

The Exciting Beginning

We had three things done to our motorcycle to make the ride more comfortable while in Abu Dhabi.

First was to replace the original suspension with some Dutch custom super-duper one. I don’t remember how much it was, but it was a lot of money – as most Dutch things are.

Second was to firm up the underlying foam. We bought a cheap memory foam pillow, brought it to a local upholstery shop, and have it shaped to suit our needs. The goal was to raise the passenger seat a bit more so my vision is not just all Q’s helmet.

The last was to get ourselves a sheepskin buttpad, which commercially can cost a fortune. Now you may wonder, where does one go around find one in Abu Dhabi?! The answer was Stephan, who was an motorcycle expat living in UAE for decades, which meant he was very resourceful. Not only he patiently answered all our newbie questions, but provided us with the much-needed sheepskin. Ta-da, problem solved! Okay, the source of the sheepskin is still very mysterious but we knew better than asking questions.

Anyway, back to our butts. And we were ready for the motorcycle journey!

The Broken Pieces

For the first seven months, the sheepskin performed wonderfully and kept our butts perfectly comfortable through some pretty tough terrain. Come to think about it, maybe the expensive suspension has something to do with it too, but what do I know.

Then the rain season started and we failed to keep the sheepskin dry. A couple of times later the sheepskin started to tear apart, and soon we could no longer keep it on the seat. Eventually I picked up the pocket knife and cut it into two pieces, still hoping to salvage it for later.

Let’s just say we are clear now that in South America, there are definitely more rainy days than dry in the rain season. We kept the pieces of sheepskin in storage bag for most of past  month.

Alternative Application

Then we came to the altiplano – 3,500+ m high planes in Bolivia. And boy, it was cold. I miscalculated with my clothes and was freezing on the back of motorcycle. I was so desperate for solution to the whole cold situation.

Should I buy some clothes? But I have plenty in storage! No.

Should I wrap a sleeping bag around me? Q said it would be too slippery.  No.

Should I stuff newspaper in my jacket? The American dude we met in Buenos Aires did it and he did it. Well, not sure if I would get enough newspaper. Another no.

My mind raced through all our belongings. Eventually it occurred to me to stuff the now-two-pieces buttpad in my jacket: bigger one in the front and smaller on the back. Wah-lah!

I know how funny-looking my hairy chest looked. Go ahead and laugh, I don’t care, because I felt warm again, and that made heavenly difference on an eight-hour-ride through rain in high attitude. It was heavenly I tell you.

The Replacement

By now I have officially included the two-piece sheepskin as part of my outfit. So we started looking around for replacement sheepskin. After all, we are in a farming continent and the fat and furry sheep are everywhere, before in Bolivia and now in Peru.

While driving through a small town, we spotted shops with stock piles of sheepskins. We were quick to find a very thick (and smelly) one. The shop owner also made it a point in mentioning the sheep was recently slaughtered, so it is really fresh! What a bargain, only 6 soles (~US$ 2.5)!

Our enthusiasm quickly dimmed out as we discovered that what we bought was essentially thin and crispy rawhide with dirty fleece, which still needs to be cleaned and treated (“tanned” is the techincal word) before it becomes soft and supple leather. And tanning process is quite challenging when we are constantly on the road.

The Replacement – Take Two

By now we have a two-piece sheepskin and a rather-large and smelly sheep hide. Maybe a logical thing would be just to quit searching for a replacement and use what we have.

But then I saw a beautiful black sheepskin in a market stand. I won’t say it’s love at first sight but it was pretty close. 20 soles (~US$ 7) later, we have our third piece of sheepskin.

Next we found a leather workshop and was able to have the buttpad made out of the newly purchased sheepskin: basically cut to shape and attached with elastic straps.

On the way back from the workshop, I stuffed the third and newest sheepskin under my jacket to protect it from the rain. Take that, plastic surgery!

Honey, Do You Smell That?

So at the moment Q and I may have only two shirts each, we now have three sheepskins together. I guess that is a bit odd, but you can see how we got here.

One motorcycle, "two Chinese”, and three sheepskins. Anyway, if we smell funny the next time you see us, you know why.

Forty Kilometers of Dirt Road

After getting ourselves spoilt rotten in Brazil, it is only natural that we were only a little worried and anxious to return to Bolivia. The memories of tough road condition and high-altitude sickness were still too fresh to recount. Well, like it or not, we found ourselves back at Bolivia’s door step.

And we were so not ready.

First, we were told at the border that contrary to our research information, the infamous “death trains” from the border town Quijarro to Santa Cruz no longer take motorcycle cargo. “The rules recently changed.” So they used to, but they don’t any more. Fantastic. So no train break for us, off the road we went.

The road to Santa Cruz turned out to be much better than originally informed: 640 km new and empty asphalt except for only some 40 km dirt road remaining.

We had an early start from San Jose heading to Santa Cruz on our second day in Bolivia, bearing in mind that this is raining season, and we were driving through parts of Pantanal, one of world’s biggest swamp, and a most beautiful one at it.

Off to an easy start…

Dirt road started…

Road condition quickly deteriorated with lorries and mud…

Then there were muddy puddles. Time for Q to shine…

And I enjoyed the pretty scenery…

Then there were rain showers: on and off, on and off…  Quite refreshing!

And of course herds of cows were having their parade.

Just as the end of the dirt road drew close, tragedy striked: we hit a pothole and the impact broke off our right pannier (luggage case) frame…

Luck had it that the closest village didn’t have any electricity, so for the next half an hour, I had a little taste of what Casa bears every day: I sat and held the hefty right pannier on my right leg while Q tried to drive and look for soldering equipment.

Unfortunately there was no photo evidence of my heroic struggle against strong wind, protecting our pannier from getting blown off. But trust me, when we finally pulled into the village, I could tell everyone thought it was impressive.

The mechanic and Q managed to work through lunch and got the frame repaired.

Right after a quick lunch, we were back on the road where the pigs, cows, dogs, snakes, horses and vultures were only too happy to greet us!

Never underestimate how adventurous a trip in Bolivia can be. Even if it is only 40 km of dirt road.

The Fun Game of Border Crossing

Are you a bit curious what the rules are for border crossing by and with a vehicle?

As it turned out, the principle is fairly straight-forward:

Step 1: The vehicle’s Rider and Passenger go through exit country’s immigration office and get exit stamps.

Step 2: Rider unregister/export the vehicle with exit country’s custom office.

Step 3: Both the Rider and Passenger go through entry country’s immigration office and get entry stamps.

Step 4: Rider register/import the vehicle with entry country’s custom office.

Simple enough? But of course that is just the principle, the actual procedures obviously vary from country to country, and often within the same country from border to border.  Let’s not forget the actual execution of procedures would inevitably differ from day to day, officer to officer.

So just a few days ago we were reminded how something so straight-forward can be so exhausting. Here is a photo journal of our Brazil-Bolivia border crossing.

8:23 AM (Timer: 0:00) – Arriving at Brazil border. We made arrangements for this early arrival hoping for a quick exit.

Q quickly spotted a few other overland motorcycles already beat us to it. Turned out they were a group of Brazilians.

8:24 AM – Got shocked from the length of the line for immigration. Q said the line was three times longer previous day. Oh dear.

Is it me or the supposedly single-file line looked a bit chaotic?

9:08 AM (Timer: 44 minutes) Luckily the line moved reasonably fast, and we were done with the exit stamps (Step 1) and Q is onto exporting Casa (Step 2) at the Brazilian custom office. And what do you know, no line – hooray!

9:35 AM (Timer: 1 hour 11 minutes) Just luck has it we got a Custom officer who only typed with one finger at a time. Who knew it was at least ten times slower than with both hands? In the mean while, being exempted from this step, the Brazilian motorcycles were long gone, instead some bus parked way too close for Casa’s personal space.

9:38 AM Finally got our export paper and now to Bolivia. In this case, we were lucky that the two borders were only a few steps away from each other. We have seen some with an hour drive’s nothingness in between. Bye bye, Brazil!

We were a little surprised to have caught up with the Brazilians. I wondered why.

Also surprised to see that there were no lines at the Bolivian immigration.

9:47 AM It took less than ten minutes and it was done. I honestly don’t know what accounted for the difference on both sides. Oh, and for Bolivian standard, this is a very proper immigration office. The last one we had was on Paraguay-Bolivia border and we had to go around a farm-house-like place looking for someone who could stamp our passports.

9:57 AM It caught my attention that the money exchange “office” was set up right opposite immigration. Banks are not always available at borders, so there is a lucrative market for private business.

10:00 AM – The Brazilian bikers finished their paperwork and got their money exchanged.

10:12 AM Q finished his paperwork fairly smoothly, with only a few papers that needed to be copied. Minor details. I thought we were done with the border crossing.

Hola, Bolivia!

10:25 AM Not so fast. Q was told by the Custom officer that he had to get a “transit” pass from somewhere in town. Took us a few wrong turns to figure out the location. It turned out to be the police station.

See the sign on the door that says “Transito"? That’s where we get our paper.

Further down where the women stood in front of was a prison cell. I counted four people lying on its floor in a very cramp and smelly-looking space.

Guess who else were there? It’s our Brazilian friends!

Okay, I didn’t know exactly happened in that transito office, but I do know that the officer typed up some form for each vehicle by type writer, which by the way was almost as fast as the one-fingered computer typer earlier. Some senior police officer had to sign the forms. And we get the paper only if we pay for it first. Aha, here is the cat out of sleeve. We didn’t know if it’s corruption for sure, but we didn’t see any proof of service payment when we asked for it. Anyway, it’s only 50 Bolivianos (~5 euros), so we swallowed the funny taste and paid up.

11:23 AM Three hours later, we are finally on Bolivian road.

So it doesn’t matter how many times we have crossed borders with Casa, every time it will always play out differently. Luckily so far we have passed all the borders and games.