The Long Goodbye

Well, after a few days of investigating different options: buy a new bike or repair Neil's being principal amongst them, the reality of having to pay for the repairs for el coche de familia Salinas hit home. Despite the friendly ferrying around the workshops of Medellin, either with Paul, only friendly stranger's mopeds or on Shanks's Pony (we had joined the ranks of the Medellin living dead by this point, thanks to our own minor injuries), it became increasingly clear that Neil was going to have to go home.

While we waited for the quotes to come in, we filled a few days cruising the modern Metro and Metro Cable to Avecedo, up to Santa Domingo via Popular and Andalucia in the infamous North - Eastern suburbs, where Luis Perez is the new hero and Pablo Escobar was the old. New stations were announced in the paper on Wednesday as President Uribe opened the new Linea J to Aurora and the Nueva Oriente. This town, and this country, is going to be appearing in a holiday or real estate brochure near you soon, believe me. It was less than 40p for a single journey anywhere on the network, including the cable cars west and east up into the mountain suburbs. Maximum of 8 to a carriage and so the journey facilitates meeting people, who were invariably friendly and helpful and a welcome distraction from Neil's increasingly impending departure. My only criticism is that the ticketing system seems odd, with paper tickets issued for the automatic gates which are swallowed on entry less than 5m away in every case - surely a reusable plastic token woud be better?

New Parque Botanico at Universidad was another good distraction for us - lovely old trees from the original park are in the process of being enhanced by new buildings, softer planting and features such as a butterfly house and desert garden, along with plenty of national jungle species and loads of birds, henna coloured squirrels and some large colourful iguanas, one of which I nearly stood on, startling us both. Once again we remarked how we feel that we are travelling in South America at exactly the right time - the security reputation of some of these countries is no longer justified and they have benefited from a decade or more of relative economic and political stability and yet, with some exceptions, like Cusco, they are not on the major tourist trails, yet.

We also amused ourselves by reading excerpts from "Medellin Turistica" by Legis of Bogota of June 2006 - Welcome to Medellin, subtitled as city of progress and opportunities and part of the comprehensive information pack provided by Paula. In the Survival Guide section there are some choice quotations, including - "visitors are strongly advised to visit only the attractions and places of interest listed in this guide or those suggested by tourist information points. You must not organise individual trips, walk on isolated, unwatched zones or go to non - referenced urban areas" whatever that means. In the Useful Numbers section are listed the inocuous "Civilian Defence 311 25 71, progressing to the "4th Brigade of the Army 152 / 230, Center for the Identification of Corpses - 257 55 55" and finally, "GAULA Antioquia (Anti Kidnapping Unit) 147". This kept us chuckling through our final beers together on our last night out at the Berlin Bar (more weissbeer and Dunkel) on Calle 10.

Eventually the day came, Saturday, for Neil to leave. After a final breakfast together at the Desayundero, also on Calle 10, we went to the airport together. We had to wait around for ages, waiting for the immigration and security section to open and I think he was getting stressed out to see if he could make it out of the country with no problems from the police, but I hung around for 30mins after he went in and all seemed to be fine...... Anyway, arriving back at Casa Kiwi, some compensation could be that I met Hamish and Emma on the way back, outside the Hostal and am going out for a drink with them tonight - they are brits who are sailing from Cartagena to Panama day after tomorrow and then heading to Houston to return to the UK for his sister's wedding at the end of June. So I'm sure we will hook up at some point in the rest of our journey onward and they seem like a nice couple.

ALSO, a Colombiano called Felipe had heard from Maurizio via Paul or Hamish (?) that Neil wanted to sell what's left of his bike for a million pesos. He was well into enduro and off - road riding and apparently races a GS1150 (?). He turned up on a brand new unregistered CRF 250, so he obviously has some cash and likes to ride. I negotiated with him (lying that I was in no rush to leave and would wait for a better offer and we wanted to cover the 16million cost of the accident) and eventually we agreed to sell it for 4 million pesos, which is 2,200 USD, mas o menos. I was pleased and I think Neil will be too, as we thought he would get nothing for it and we would have to pay to get it dumped.

The banks were shut by then, so I agreed with Paul and Felipe that he holds the bike until Monday and then he will come back and pay Paul. Paul can keep the cash until the labour bill comes in and then confirm with Neil on email what the balance is. That is also the same as the estimate for the outstanding labour bill, so I thought that would tidy things up nicely, get Neil something for the bike and not leave Paul with a wreck in his garage. At least it was some good news for you all in an otherwise sad day. At least I was cheered up by the beers and a chat with Hamish and Emma, returning to a full blown (literally) party in the Casa Kiwi where all of the powdered and crystalline products Colombia is infamous for were available in profusion, before retiring to update the blog and then get up tomorrow to get back to Quito and pick up my bike before heading north again. What other direction could there possibly be dear readers - motociclistacondoscojones signing off - hasta luego!