Colombia, Cartagena - The Road to the End of SA

Waking up to a torrential rain, we hide under the grass roof of the hotel, ate some breakfast and watched the latest Columbian news which was interesting to say the least.  After a few hours waiting out the water, we put the rain gear on and headed off.  After about 40km of slick roads, the rain stopped and the cloud cover began and it became humid and hot once again.

Another flat; I am going to stop writing about these; becoming far to often, but it was Derricks back tire, again.  This wasn`t so bad since we got some coke and cookies from the families house we were outside.  After getting back on the road, immeadiatly my back tire came to a halt and skidded for a moment and then I heard a snap and a bump as I ran over something.  Pulling over not having any idea what was going on, I looked around to see one of my bags on the road with a semi approaching.  Trying to hop off my bike quickly, the bike became off balance and fell over onto the roadway.  After collecting my bag and picking up my bike and looked at the damage.  My strap holding that bag on had somehow got tangled in the spokes and tore itself free.  Wound tightly around the hub, Derrick treaded into the long grass and cut out the ratty strap.  Not a huge deal thankfully, just put my bag back on and headed for some lunch.

Thinking we could calm down after all this morning excitment, we sat around joked for a moment about the additional flat and my incident.  Then looking down at Derricks leg I saw a huge spider which had presumably hitched a ride from the long grass.  Most likely unwisely, I yelled at Derrick, he panicked and then I calmed him down, to take a photo.  Sorry Derrick, but that photo was important...

 

We picked up the pace for the last 160 km to town to make it before night fell. Only one short break where I refresed myself with a bag of water, great deal... The landscapes one the way were a beauftiful contrast to the mountain roads; lush plains.  Arriving in traffic we used some of the SA moto tactics and bypassed much of it.  We knew of a hostel in the old part of town and set our sights there.  

 

Only asking for directions once, we arrived within a block.  We had stopped on the side of the road where the police after chatting with us, kindly escorted us to the door.  Beautiful city, sort of reminds me of Vancovuer the way there are bridges everywhere and downtown is on a penninsula.  But a very different landscape and sights.  We will tour around the city more in the coming days, as well as get all the details of the boat sorted out.