February 21, 2011

Another easy day today. Dad and I just rode to Tyrona (National park) we walked along the beaches and got a couple pictures. Then we came back and relaxed. I met  three girls that were staying at the hostel and they are from Vancouver. I have to say that its really nice being able to talk to someone about your home and they know where your talking about. Apparently these girls always come out to Cultas Lake every summer. So this summer they want me to show them around the chilliwack area. Looking forward to it.

February 20, 2011

I woke up this morning and wasn't feeling too great, but did I ever have a blast last night. So first thing I did this morning was grab a bowl of popcorn and found a hamic. I also had the laptop with me. I went and checked my email and I got an email from my mom saying that one of my old childhood friends passed away on Febuary 10. Dallas Hardy, born December 27, 1991. He was an old friend I used to play with when we had our cabin at pavillion lake. I havn't seen him in years. This was the worst day of the trip by far. Not only am I really hung-over but I find out that an old friend of mine just passed away. So I spent a good chunk of the day looking through Dallas's pictures on facebook. Dallas Hardy you will be missed dearly.

February 19, 2011

Finally I can eat food with flavor. It has been a week now and i can eat greasy food again. I am all up to snuf and ready to party on the Chiva bus tonight. Once dad and I got ready for the day we went back up to Minca. We rode the bikes up to the town of minca and took them on the hiking trail to the falls. We didn't go back to "Pozo Azul" we went to the "Minca Falls". It was a nice ride up to the fall and it was very beautiful. It reminded me alot of home. Once dad and I got back to the hostel we took it easy for the rest of the day and pepared ourselves for the chiva bus. Around 10 we got on the bus and the night was on its way.

February 18, 2011

Today was really nice. Dad ,me and our new friend Eli went to the Simon Boliviar Museum. It was apprently suppose to be the second best museum in south america, I thought it was good but not the second best in South America. But mind you dad and I havn't been to many museums on this trip. But all in all I am glad we went. 5 bucks for an afternoon away from the hostel, was quit nice. Once we got back we just hung around the rest of the night.

February 17, 2011

Today dad and I went with a group of people from the hostel to "Pozo Azul". We also wanted to go to Minca but after we had hiked to Pozo Azul alot of us were really tiered. Anyways we hiked to Pozo Azul. It only took about a half hour. Once we got there we just had to take pictures. It was very beautiful. There was a nice little water fall with a large open pool of water to swim in. There was also a rope swing that you could swing on the little waterfall. It was really fun. Me and the Irish guys jumped numerous times. Once we returned to the little village were we were droped off by the taxi the group split up. A bunch of us retured to the hostel and the rest went hiking to the minca falls. Once dad and I retured we socailised the rest of the night.

February 16, 2011

Lazy day today. Dad and I didn't even leave the hostel. We just sat around and relaxed.

February 15, 2011

We woke up this morning and had some breakfast. After breakfast we were talking with Eli, also staying at the hostel, and said she wanted to go to Toganga. So dad and I invited her along with us. We rode the motorcycles so she rode on the back of dads bike. We arived in Toganga and headed straight for the beach. We soaked up the sun for a couple hours then headed back to the hostel were we just chatted with the other guests and shared stories.

February 14, 2011

This morning dad and I just wanted to get the hell out of this place. I know last night we just took what ever was avaliable but I would have rather tented. This place was nice when you walk into it but the room were gross. Like last night dad had rat shit on his bed. wtf... And it was extremly hot and in order to stay cool you had to turn on this noisy fan. When we got up this morning we both wern't happy campers. So we got out of there and found the Dreamer Hostel. Wow this place is much better. They have daily activities to do, clean beds and they are much cheaper. So I was happy to get here. Once we got settled in dad and I went to the mall close by to get some groceries for the week. We returned back to the hostel and just hung out. Later that night they had a pool compitition. Almost everyone in the hostel entered it was alot of fun. I made it to about 6th and dad was 4th. It was alot of fun.

February 13, 2011

Today we are on the move. We ate breakfast packed up and were on the road for 10. Dad and I got out of town about 60 km when we saw 3 V-Stroms parked at this cafe. So us being the friendly canadians that we are, we stopped and said hello. The bikes were owned by a group for Colombians, and the all spoke english. Anyways after about half an hour chatting with these guys they paid for our drinks for us and invited us to join them for  a ride. After about an hour and a half ride we stopped and they asked if we would like to go to Santa Marta (an hour and a half away) or Barranquilla (5 minutes away) So dad told him about the problem with the mac and they took us to the mac store in Barranquilla. They took us to the mall. Tow of the other riders then said there good byes but the other rider with his wife (Jorge and Mary) came with us inside the mall and showed us were the mac store was. Once we were finished there they took us to the food court and ordered our food for us. These people were absolutly great. There wasn't enough they could do for us. We then said our good byes to them and exchanged emails. After we were finished our lunch we rode for another hour into Santa Marta. By the time we got into this town it was getting dark. We just grabbed the first hotel we could with parking. Tomorrow we will go look for the "Dreamer Hostal"

February 12, 2011

Another day in Cartagena. I woke up this morning and took my pills. Dad and I went and looked for a bland breakfast for me to eat. Im only allowed to eat bland food for the next week. This sucks. Anyways after breakfast we got a taxi to Bocagrande. We walked around and explored the newer part of Cartagena. We ruturned back to our hotel after about an hour cruis'n the town. We then decided to go and walk "Old Town" for the second time. During our adventure dad and I found a Hard Rock  cafe, so dad decided to have a beer while I just ordered some water, due to my stomach issues. Once our drinks were finished we just roamed the town a little more till we decided to go back to our hotel.

February 11, 2011

Today kinda sucked big time. First thing this morning, after breakfast, dad and I hopped on our bikes and went exploring the town. Our adventure was shortly ended, about an hour into it. Apprently every second friday of the month you aren't allowed to ride your motorcycle in Cartagena. Don't ask why thats just the way it is. We got pulled over and were told we can't be riding. But the cop was nice enough to let us take our bikes back to the hostle because we were only a 3 minute ride away. So once we got back to the hotel we went to the Hospital. They reason why we went to the hospital is because over the past 3 weeks I have had some digestion problems. 3 weeks was too long to be having this problem so we thought I should go and get checked out so we know for sure it isn't anything serious. So for the rest of the day we were at the hospital. We met a fellow vancouverian who was riding a bike there as well. We talked with him and exchanged emails. Danny left, the fellow vancouverian, and we waited for another 2 hours. After being in the hospital for 7 hours I was finally given some pill and set free.

February 10, 2011

Dad and I went on a bit of an adventure today. After we had breakfast we grabbed our caneras and walked over to this castle near by. We got tickets to get in and this electronic tour guide thing. It was pretty cool. We spent almost 3 hours walking the castle learing about it and exploring the tunnels that ran through it. After we had our national geographic for the day we walked over the "Old Cartagena" which was the original town that was built behind a wall. There are all sorts of resturants and tourists things over there. But we just explored the streets. After our walk we went back to the hotel and took it easy.

February 9, 2011

Today, we were going to Cartagena. So we had breakfast, packed and paid our bill. Which was more the expected. We got on the road and only had about a short, 2 hour drive to Cartagena. One the way to Cartagena, dad and I witnessed at motorcycle accident. It was bad.  What happend was this little motorcycle, that was front of me, couldn't stop fast enough and instead of rear ending the truck in back of this truck he swerved around  and hit head on with a semi truck head on. He wasn't going very fast because the trafic had slowed down for a speed bump ahead. But at the end the motorcycle was underneath the front right tire of the semi truck and the rider maybe got away with a broken foot. He was lucky he wasn't the one under the truck. Dad and I just kept carrieing on because there wasn't anything we could do. Plus there was already lots of people helping within seconds. Anyways dad and I made it to Cartagena with no problems. We found a hotel and went to go see if we could get a earlier boat. But we learned that the Stahle Ratte is the best boat for transporting bikes because it is the biggest. Oh well, now we have to stay in Cartagena longer, life is rough.

February 8, 2011

Another day just soaking up the sun, and walking on the beach. Man life is hard.

February 7, 2011

Today was a hard day in paradise. Dad and I just soaked up the sun ordered beers and swam. This time i put on sun screen so I was burnt at all just nice and tan for the ladies ;).

February 6, 2011

Dad and I didn't end up getting on the road till 11. Dad wanted to get some stuff downloaded on the computer before we left. Anyways we left late so we got to our next desination late. We made it all the way the the top of columbia on the atlantic ocean. We were able to get a 3 bedroom apartment at this resort on the beach for 70 bucks a night. Wow what a steal! So we said we would stay 3 night :D

February 5, 2011

Dad and I were on the road at 9:30 this morning. Geting into Medillen, the next largest town, around 3. We didn't realise how big it was till we got there. And on top of it we didn't have any gps maps to help navigate us to a hotel. We we just said "screw it" and we carried on to santa rosa. A much smaller town. We found a really nice place for a great price. Dad and I we getting hungry so we went out and bought some apples and a computer. Yes a computer. We were walking around and we stopped at this electronic store. They had this little samsung laptop. Dad thought about it and he ended up buying it. It just saves so much hastle for us and we'll sell it when we get back. So anyone want to buy a laptop? We go back to the hotel and dad started to enjoy his new computer.

February 4, 2011

We decided this morning to spend the day in salento and work on the bikes. We first had to go and get some coffe. We invited the 2 workers, Oscar and Diego, to join us. After we had our coffe we went and worked on the bikes. We go the chain on dads bike with no problems but we had some difficulty with the light strips. So we didn't bother with them. We went and hung around the hotel for a while and visited with our new friends, Oscar and Diego. Later dad thought he would clean up the computer a little, but after 3 or 4 hours of him playing around on it, it now doesn't start. Awesome. Tomorrows taks find a mac shop in the next large town.

February 3, 2011

We got up packed up and had breakfast this morning. We decided this morning to go to salento. Apprently salento is were some of the best coffe is, so its a must go. We made it into Salento with no problems. We had to ask a couple time if we were going the right way. Once we were in Salento we looked for the hotel that a number of our traveling friends had suggested. We found it but dad didn't want to stay there. He thought it was a bit hagard. So we found this other place that had only be open for 3 months. It was this beautiful 220 year old house that had been turned into a hotel. It was very nice. The price was 70 bucks for 2 but we talked him down to 40 bucks for the 2 of us. Great deal! Once dad and I got setteled in we went for dinner. We had a nice dinner with some good scotch.

February 2, 2011

Dad and I got onto the road at a decent hour this morning. We thanked Patric for all his great hosting, and we were on our way. Dad and I didn't go very far today, we called it quits around 1. We found another nice hotel were the people we just fanastic. Once we got settled in dad and I went and walked the streets of Papayan. We found some lunch and headed back to the hotel. I havn't been feeling too hot for the past couple of days so we just relaxed for the rest of the night.

February 1, 2011

Today dad and I had an easy day. Dad was first to update his blog then I. While I was updating my blog dad went out for a couple hours and bought a chain for his bike. He also bought some yellow light strips that we can put on our bikes. Once I was all finished with my blog dad and I went out for some lunch and explored the town. We came back to the hotel and talked with the owner, Patric, for some time. Then we got a cab to this steak house for dinner, The taxi driver was a jerk are ripped us off, but it happends. After dinner we didn't want to take a cab so we walked back to the hotel.

January 31, 2011

Today was the last day in Ecuador. We were up around 8 ish and went for breakfast at this nice place that had american breakfast. After that we packed up and were on the road around 10:30. We made it to the boarder at 1 and were in Columbia at 2:30. The reason why it took so long is because apparently our motorcycle import paper for ecuador was new… The aduana had never seen it before. So they were running around while we got ourselves stamped out. They worked the things out with the bike and we were on our way. We got to the Columbia side and we were stamped in with a matter of minutes. We had to go and get our bike imported which took a half hour because the guy that was typing our stuff in was new. He messed up dads VIN # like 3 times. But it was all straightened out and we were in Columbia. First thing we had to do now was get insurance for the bike before we get ourselves in trouble by the police, and man was that ever harder then it sounds. Long story short we got the insurance after about 2 hours of running around through this little boarder town. Getting insurance showed us how fantastic the Columbians really are. We couldn't get enough help. It was great. After that little adventure dad and I carried on for about and hour to Pasto. Once we got into Pasto a local couple, on a motorcycle, showed us to this hotel, it was great. After we got all settled in we went out for some dinner and had a classic columbian dish, Eggs, steak, beans and rice. YUMMY.

January 30, 2011

We went for breakfast this morning with Simon, Marcas had spanish lessons at 9.Aafter breakfast dad and I said goodbye to Simon. We packed up, hopped on the bikes and headed north some more. We made it to Otavalo. It was an okay little town. There wasn't really much to see other then the local market, which is the largest market in south america every saturday. Dad and I really weren't in the mood for shopping, so we got a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel for a earl night.

January 29, 2011

Yesterday when dad and I we riding into Banos, dads chain was making a funny sounds. So today we went and changed the chain with my old one. My old chain was better off then dads so this chain will get us at least another 1500 clicks. We tried to buy a chain in Banos but they didn't have the right size. After that dad and I took it easy. We rented bikes to explore the town and did some walking to the local hot springs, it was nice. Later that night we met back up with our friends Simon and Marcas. We went for dinner then after dinner dad , simon and I took this party bus up to this look out point. Marcas rode his motorcycle. Apparently thats were you can see the lava bubbling out of the local volcano but we couldn't see anything. On the bright side of things we were able to get a great picture of Banos. We headed back to our bus and dad ,Simon and I, snuck on top of the roof and sat in the roof rack for the ride back down. That was fun.

January 28, 2011

Dad and I had breakfast and were all packed up by 8:30 this morning. We were over at Tony's shop for 9. He was ready to go, but he just had some last minute running around to do. So we were on the road around 10 ish. It rained all morning on and off. We stopped in this little town for lunch and the rain let off. We continued our accent to a 4200 m pass. We got about half way when is started to get cold and the rain picked up when dad and I said our good-byes to our friend and thanked him for all his help. Dad and I carried on to Banos were we met up with a couple friends, Simon and Marcas. Dad had met Simon on HUBB before we left in October.  We went out for dinner with him and Marcas. It was a fantastic dinner. Simon and I had a fondue night. We had fondue for dinner and desert. It was a good night.

January 27, 2011

Today dad and I just took it easy. We walked around town a little bit and stopped by Tony's shop. Later that night we met up with Tony, Ana, and her friend at the mall. We had dinner then went and watched a movie at the theatre. It was only 2.75 per person to see "RED". It was a really good movie. We all enjoyed it.

January 26, 2011

Today was maintenance day. Tony stopped by the hostel on his little 250 techno and we all rode into down-town Guayaquil. Was that ever an adventure. We were weaving in and out of traffic and going up curbs and splitting lanes. It was fun I enjoyed myself. We got to the down-town and looked for some part. We needed a chain for dad, handle bars for me and some synthetic oil for the bikes. Since our bike are huge down hear it was hard to find any of that. But Tony was able to pick up some stuff he needed, which was good. We wet back to the shop and did and oil change on the bikes and cleaned the air filters, while Tony was out-fitting his bike for a couple days ride with us up through Ecuador. After we all were finished working on our bike we went and had them washed. After getting them washed we went back to the hostel and Tony went back to close up the shop. We were on our own for the night so dad and I just went to McDicks and watch a movie back at the hostel. We were tiered.

January 25, 2011

Man am I ever burnt to a crisp. Im so red I would make a lobster jealous. Its hard to put on clothes, it hurts to have a shower. Using sun screen might have been a good idea yesterday. Anyways dad and I were on the road for 9. We mad it to the boarder around 11. We got to the boarder crossing and met a couple of columbian bikers. Funny thing was dad and I were at the boarder crossing for about 10 minutes and didn't get searched at all, and these columbian guys we searched with a fine tooth comb. They had to un-bolt their seats and un-roll their tent. And they guards never asked us to do anything. Anyways we were stamped out of Peru and told our new biker friends we would see them on the other side. So we rode into ecuador and never got stamped in… There wasn't an immigration building or anything. Anyways make a long story short after going into this town and doing some u-turns we found the place to get stamped in and everything was good. We were now legally in Ecuador. So we caught up with the columbia bikers and rode with them for about an hour or so then turned off to go to Guayaquil. We made it with no problems to Tony's shop. It was great to see him and his wife. After chatting with them for a while we headed off to go and get a room at this hostel that was just around the corner from the shop. Later that night Tony and Ana Karina stopped by and we went out for some sushi. And mamma oh man was it good. After sushi they dropped us off back at the hostel.

January 24, 2011

Since dad and I are enjoying the beach some much, and since we have an extra day to kill before we see our old friend tony, we decided to take to day off and relax. So we did.

January 23, 2011

This morning dad and I looked over the map during breakfast and decided to ride a long day. We rode from Huanchaco to Mancora. Once we got to Mancora we found a taxi to take us to a nice hotel or hostel. He took us to this new resort called Kites. We thought it was going to be really expensive because it was brand new, but it was only 15 bucks per bed and we were the only ones in the dorm-room. We were lucky. So first things first was to grab a beer, sit next to the pool and listen to the pacific waves crash along the shore. After our beer we went out to go and get some dinner. We went to a beach hut restaurant. Once we finished we went and explored a little bit then went back to the resort.

January 22, 2011

Today dad and I didn't ride very far. We rode for about 3 hours and found a nice place in the town just outside of Turjillo called Huanchaco. Once we un loaded the bikes we went over to see the Chan-Chan ruins. It was interesting to see how the peruvian people lived a couple hundred years ago. After being out in the sun for 2 hours dad and I were tiered so we had a little bit of a siesta. After that we went and explored this neat little town of Huanchaco.