Day 0 & 1: Arrive Cali

Arrive Colombia

I will be flying into Cali and will have a day to see the city, get the bike setup, my luggage strapped on, etc. it was a snowy day in Boston. This is the view from the plane as we waited our turn after de-icing the plane. It was 23 degrees.

Here is a pic as we were landing in Cali. Those are sugar cane fields, a major crop here. It was 80 degrees, a nice change.

Day 0 was arriving in Cali about 5pm. Tomorrow a few of us will do a guided food walking tour. Then we head to Ricardo's, who owns the local tour company and will be guiding the trip. We get the bikes setup, loaded with our luggage, and all that. So, more to come on this page tomorrow.

Three of us went on a waking tour of Cali that focused on street food. We learned a lot. We visited and ate food from street vendors who have been in their location 30 years and more. We had very good pastries, fried banana chips, shaved ice treat, and more. Here are a few pictures from that tour.

After the street food tour we walked to a park that has a famous cat sculpture. We had asked the food tour guide what was the significance of the cat sculpture. He said "nothing, it's just a cat." The cat is about 15 feet tall and weighs about 3 tons.

A number of years ago the city commissioned local artists to paint or otherwise customize fiberglass cats, which are in the park along a path beyond the big cat. There are about 30 of them. They were intended to be temporary. But people liked them so much they are still there. Here are a couple out of the 30+ cats.

After the cats we took an Uber to Ricardo's house. He owns the motorcycle tour company and is our guide. We stayed at his house that night, had pizza for dinner, and packed and organized our gear for a 7am departure the next day. Ricardo's house has these two Honda 50 mini bikes displayed, which was pretty cool.

This is Ricardo's office where we had the safety briefing. This is the office of someone who loves motorcycles. In terms of the safety briefing, see white board below, Let's just leave it that to Colombians traffic laws are merely a suggestion. Stop signs and pedestrian crosswalks would be good examples. Defensive driving is a must.

And finally, the quote from Back to the Future, painted on the wall as you walk down the stairs to his garage, where the motorcycles are kept.