Quo Vadis?

It is a very hard thing to do, to leave a great city and a great hostel in Medellin and enjoy a few hours exhilerating riding in a beautiful day on more great Colombian mountains. Then, suddenly to have the front wheel of the bike skid out from underneath you, slide across the road into an oncoming car and end the day back in the same city and hostel facing a repair or replacement bill for both the car and Neil's and what could effectively be the premature end of our trip. Luckily neither of us were seriously hurt, but it was the second accident we had faced in less than 10 days and this one more serious which has almost definitely written off one of our bikes.

The only slightly entertaining element of yesterday's escapades were Fede and Luis, or Flaco y Gordo as they called each other and their ancient Ford F100 recovery truck. The truck, which was a pick, roughly welded onto a ramp and winch recovery trailer was owned by the 2 brother's uncle. Tio did all the discussions and price negotiations with the police. However, as soon as they went, he too disappeared and left us in the hands of the 16 and 15 year old. They drove like maniacs on the mountain roads back to Medellin, stopping suddenly or leaning out of the window to show off to their friends in the villages we passed or to leer at the chicas walking on the roadside. Fede / Flaco, the younger and more reckless of the dos hermanos did most of the driving, although when we approached the peage stations or police checkpoints, Gordo took over driving, without stopping as they slid under and over each other across the ancient upholstered bench seat. This, as it turns out, was because of Gordo's closer resemblence to their uncle and his possession of a feathery moustache, which unlikely as it was, convinced the roadside officials when they were presented with Tio's licence. Anyway, after a scary, shaky ride in and on top of the jalopy, we got back to the Casa Kiwi Hostal and were met by the owner Paul with a couple of cold Aguila beers. We stashed the bike in the garage and contemplated the future as the sun went down on our worst day so far.

Today it became clear that the options we are facing are firstly, whether we can repair Neil's bike and continue, which is dependent on the cost and availability of parts. We had an interesting if inconclusive day trawling around the tiendas and tallers de motos in Medellin. We met a lot of friendly and helpful people who sympathised with us, saw at first hand how almost anything can get repaired here and received endless directions and shuttle lifts to places on the backs of people's mopeds. Now we are waiting for the quotes to come back. Secondly, Neil could dump or sell his bike for spares and then buy a cheaper second hand bike to continue on. Thirdly, none of this may be possible and Neil and maybe me too, would end the trip in Colombia.

The as yet unknown factor in all of this is how much it will cost to repair the Kia Sportage that we slid into. The Garcia family who it belonged to were very nice people who shared the cost of transporting the car and bike back to Medellin, but they will need to be paid for the damage we did to their car. To satisfy the police at the roadside, we gave them a copy of Neil's worldwide health insurance with his UK motorbike insurance stapled to the back, but we are going to have to fund the cost of the repairs ourselves. Frankly, we did consider doing a runner, but it is too risky for Neil as the police took details of his temporary import documents, which also has his passport number on, so he may get detained at the border until this is sorted properly. It is also not fair to the Garcia's.

Tonight we have consoled ourselves by playing pool with Hugh (a fellow traveller we met at Casa Kiwi) and listening to Neil Young and Loudon Wainwright III on the Hostal's sound system, much to the bemusement of the double - bagger student types we are sharing these digs with. The irony is that we have justified our time and efforts playing pool previously as preparation for funding our drinking in North America as well as listening to North American music. It now hangs in the balance whether both or either of us will make it there on this trip. Watch this space as the quotes roll in.