Chat Zone for The Big Big Trip Journal!

[chriswoody]

Hobbes, I've not had chance to catch up with your last few posts, but I will soon. Thanks for all of the wonderful writing and photos you've posted this year and I wish you a happy and contented Christmas wherever you happen to be at this moment in time.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Hobbes, I've not had chance to catch up with your last few posts, but I will soon. Thanks for all of the wonderful writing and photos you've posted this year and I wish you a happy and contented Christmas wherever you happen to be at this moment in time.

Thanks Chris😊
I'll be looking forward to reading about your adventures in the new year too!

 

[cwskas]

the smallest room ever - just big enough for a bed. No towel, no soap, no toilet paper and no toilet seat. Luxury!

I just had to give that quote it's own space!

 

[cwskas]

I'm thinking you haven't read the last post?

And right you were!

I got bitten by a dog last night. . . . My first reaction was surprise but they swiftly got close and weren't backing away. One rounded behind me and got me in the back of my right leg behind the knee.

Yikes! That is one of the things which is a bit worrisome when I ride, since I am low to the ground. However, I have not been bitten so far.

The danger is rabies, something I have been vaccinated for but the treatment requires several shots spaced out over time. Rabies is not a nice way to die so I'd like to prevent it, if possible.

The vaccine and the prevention both sound like wisdom to me! I am glad you had the supplies for instant attention as well as the opportunity to get the shots immediately.

 

[cwskas]

At one such break a character showed up armed with a shovel. Deep potholes on both sides of the road had been filled in with gravel and he set about shovelling gravel from one hole to another - once. The rest of the time he spent taking the coins out of his pocket and counting them over and over then thrusting his cap out to passing traffic. Because of the tendency for traffic to arrive in packs he was doing no business whatsoever and I took a certain pleasure in that. It wasn't that he was doing practically nothing it was the fact that he was making the situation even more dangerous by standing in the middle of the road waving his shovel about.

That is a funny story.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Yikes! That is one of the things which is a bit worrisome when I ride, since I am low to the ground. However, I have not been bitten so far.

The thought did cross my mind when we were whizzing around Austin on your trikes. There's a head/facial vulnerability that I noticed.

The vaccine and the prevention both sound like wisdom to me! I am glad you had the supplies for instant attention as well as the opportunity to get the shots immediately.

I have a small but well stocked first aid kit. For all my impulsiveness/foolishness (delete as appropriate) there is some semblance of preparation 😊

You know it never crossed my mind that the hospital wouldn't have the shots. If I had been a bit more switched on I could have asked about that. The good news with the rabies shots is that I have a couple of more opportunities to ask!

It was strange going through my yellow "Vaccine passport" to see that I had received my original three shots in December/January 5 years ago (in preparation for a March departure - which never happened). I checked the lifespan before I left this time.
There is some method to my madness

 

[HobbesOnTour]

That is a funny story

He really annoyed me!
I've passed people doing this before and thought it amusing. This time not so much. I think it was the fact that he did nothing to improve the situation and probably made it worse.
Five minutes with the shovel would have sorted it. Too lazy to do even that.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

A more professional approach.....
Bikepacking The Andes - A Colombian Gravel Epic:

View: https://youtu.be/x0s3GSm25Us


It's an hour and a half long but worth it. Listen out for the alarm birds! And laugh out loud at his comment about riding fully laden.

 

[Alex321]

A more professional approach.....
Bikepacking The Andes - A Colombian Gravel Epic:

View: https://youtu.be/x0s3GSm25Us


It's an hour and a half long but worth it. Listen out for the alarm birds! And laugh out loud at his comment about riding fully laden.

Definitely worth watching.I have a GCN+ subscription, so saw it months ago and enjoyed it. I like most of the ones they do with Jenny Graham, though I could never ride the sort of distances she does.

I was wondering whether to re-watch it after reading your Columbian experiences.

 

[Alex321]

So, if the Equadorian border is now open, are you considering continuing your journey?

 

[HobbesOnTour]

So, if the Equadorian border is now open, are you considering continuing your journey?

I am continuing my journey......
Just not in a southerly direction.

 

[Scoosh]

It doesn't sound as if you had a particularly "Happy" Christmas.
Being away from "home", not knowing anyone around, being a recovering pin-cushion and in a rather crappy town doth not a Happy Christmas make.

Hope you and 'it' gets better by the time 2022 comes around ...
Meanwhile, from all of us – and maybe even !

 

[HobbesOnTour]

It doesn't sound as if you had a particularly "Happy" Christmas.
Being away from "home", not knowing anyone around, being a recovering pin-cushion and in a rather crappy town doth not a Happy Christmas make.

Hope you and 'it' gets better by the time 2022 comes around ...
Meanwhile, from all of us – and maybe even !

No, it wasn't the happiest Christmas ever but that's the way when travelling, no?
Last year in CDMX my plans to get away camping for a few days were shot down last minute by a lockdown but I could still wander around. The year before in Texas was very pleasant - a home from home.
It's all jigs and reels, spins and roundabouts.
The shots didn't help this year either.

If it wasn't holiday season I'd be on the road and no doubt enjoying that more. As it is being off the road at the moment is no bad thing - The news last night was full of stories of gridlock. 75,000 people stranded in the Bogotá bus station. The local paper (Calí) yesterday was covering the worst day of traffic congestion.... Ever - on the day that I arrived

Things could be a whole lot worse!

As it is, I've a few days to explore Calí, take it easy and do a few things to Roccado. Coffee country is just up the road.

 

[Shadow]

I am continuing my journey......
Just not in a southerly direction

Might you elucidate just a teeny weeny bit sometime after tomorrow? (Merely to keep a few of your loyal readers out of suspenders suspense!).



I have been thinking about this for a wee while:
I would like to nominate a CC'er for going way above and beyond the call in assisting our nomadic correspondent in an hour of need. It would be a virtual medal, maybe a green star, for humanitarian endeavour to a (almost total) stranger. That person would be Willie, aka @cwskas, for his wondrous hospitality back in Austin. I salute you, sir. 🌟☘

 

[HobbesOnTour]

Might you elucidate just a teeny weeny bit sometime after tomorrow? (Merely to keep a few of your loyal readers out of suspenders suspense!).

I thought I already did

Day 798, Friday, November 19, 2021

Instead, I'm going to ask the Colombians to extend my visa (straightforward, I believe) and pass another couple of months here then head back to Europe, probably Spain.

Of course, that was pre fifth wave Covid.
That plan still stands but my travels in Spain will be different and I don't think I'll be keeping a Travelogue.

I have been thinking about this for a wee while:
I would like to nominate a CC'er for going way above and beyond the call in assisting our nomadic correspondent in an hour of need. It would be a virtual medal, maybe a green star, for humanitarian endeavour to a (almost total) stranger. That person would be Willie, aka @cwskas, for his wondrous hospitality back in Austin. I salute you, sir. 🌟☘

I'm fully in agreement but I have a sneaking suspicion that Willie doesn't see it as above and beyond anything - just simple, Texan hospitality.
He's probably the most prolific contributor to this chat thread too, another thing I am grateful to him for.

Not to undermine your intentions but the kind folk back in Aporo really kept the show on the road in the early days of the Pandemic.


Oh, I nearly forgot.....
The artists from Pasto....
Alicia Viter Valencia
Jano Buscallo
Carolina Zambrano
Jairo Buesaquillo
Juan Carlos Jurado
Andrés Latorre Ruano
Happy Googling!