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Pondering a particularly slippery mud track where I’d just lost the rear wheel and went down in a terribly inelegant fashion – albeit at a slow speed – I picked up my rental Honda XRE300, sheepishly walked it over to a section of somewhat drier mud, and took stock. I was somewhere in the Tatacoa Desert, Colombia, except it wasn’t particularly deserty that day due to recent heavy rainfall. What used to be a hard-packed dirt track shooting off the main trail has now become a treacherous mess of soapy, sticky mud, and it was either take the front fender off and fight a losing battle or give up and stick to the main tracks.
Photo: Egle
I was scouting routes for an upcoming tour, so I needed this mission to be a success. The trails had to be fun rather than barely passable, so I decided to remain on the main gravel road. It’s always a fine balance to decide just how much off-road people can handle, what’s a decent mileage for a day, and whether the bikes are comfortable enough yet versatile enough to cover diverse terrain and handle well on tarmac sections; then, there’s the weather, road closures, traffic, washed out bridges, unexpected detours, and a million other things to consider before you come up with an itinerary that’s just right.
Photo: Egle
So why Colombia, and why a Honda XRE300?
Motorcycle Ziplining
I’ve traveled across Colombia several times before, first on a little Chinese bike way back when, and later on my current Suzuki DR650. Ever since, Colombia has remained one of my favorite countries in South America. There’s something about Colombia that’s hard to put into words: I may be heavily biased being a diehard Gabriel Garcia Marquez fan, but there is some of that magic realism in the big sweeping bends of River Magdalena, the quiet of foggy mountain villages, the way people smile in Medellin, and the early morning mists rolling over the green hills in Zona Cafetera.
Photo: Egle
Poetry aside, Colombia is easy to travel. There are a couple of bike rental places in Medellin and Bogota, food, fuel, and lodging are plentiful, and the locals are friendly. And, sure, there are a few regions in Colombia best to stay away from, but if you mostly stick to the Medellin area, the Coffee Region, the Tatacoa Desert, and the Bogota area going out toward El Cocuy and San Gil – Barichara canyon lands, you’re in good places.
My route in Colombia included Guatape, La Pintada, the Coffee Region, the Cocora Valley trail, Tatacoa Desert, River Magdalena lowlands, and the loop back to Medellin. The country is incredibly diverse, but it’s also large, and seeing it all would take a lot more than our allocated ten days.
Photo: Egle
Route-wise, it’s hard to find a straight road in the Western Andes, especially once you enter the outskirts of the Zona Cafetera. Sometimes the twisties are so relentless you still feel an odd swaying motion once you’re off the bike, and as for off-road trails, Colombia is dirt-riding paradise.
My favorite off-road route remains the Cocora Valley Trail between Salento and Ibague: a hundred heavenly kilometers of dirt through high-altitude cloud forest, Cocora Valley palm trees, cowboy villages, and incredible mountain scenery unbroken by electricity lines, roads, or towns.
On the other hand, Colombia is full of surprises, too. What looked like a perfectly legit paved backcountry road from Desert Tatacoa toward Alpujarra and Dolores turned out to be a little problematic as the Cabrera River bridge had collapsed; there was no detour and no way around, paved or otherwise, and we were about to turn back when a local man in a hard hat approached us saying there was a way across. “Right up there, there, see? Cable carril”, the man said pointing at a makeshift metal crate suspended over the river canyon. At first, we assumed the man was joking – Colombians do have a great sense of humor – but he was dead serious. “We do it all the time, no worries. Yes, yes, with the motos, no problem”, he explained, as we watched the locals unload crates of pineapple from the cable carril.
How many crates of pineapple does a Honda XRE300 and its accompanying human weigh?…
Photo: Egle
One by one, we crossed the river by zipline, only to find out the entire contraption was powered by a motorcycle engine on the other side of the canyon. “See, no problem. It’s not the newest tech, per say, but it works,” the man in the hard hat told us. Turns out, he was the engineer working on the repairs of the bridge.
Motoziplining
We shared a pineapple, thanked him, and took off.
One Honda to Rule Them All
The zipline incident aside, there were countless landslides keeping the trails both scenic and interesting, an amazingly twisty tarmac road that was open for motorcycles only (the reason: while it was silky smooth all the way with curves the Swiss Alps could envy, landslide damage meant there was one short section where the road got so narrow only bikes could pass), unexpected road closures resulting in frantic searches for alternative trails in the mountains after dark, fast-flowing desert tracks interrupted by nothing except for sleepy wandering cattle, and roads hugging riverbanks in glorious sweeping bends.
Photo: Egle
If you’re going to do all that, what’s the best bike for the task?
Having ridden a Honda XRE300 in Yucatan, Mexico, I decided this bike would work great in Colombia, too. Colombia Moto Adventures offer Honda XRE300 rentals at reasonable prices, and although the bikes are completely stock, they work amazingly well in a place like Colombia. It’s impossible to find the XRE300’s outside of South and Central America, so it’s hard to compare them to anything we’re used to (a Kawasaki Versys 300 would probably come closest).
Photo: Egle
For me, it felt like a baby GS of sorts – an adventure bike that’s peppy on the tarmac and leans into corners well all while being happy to take on dirt, gravel, mud (okay, maybe not the sticky, soapy stuff out in Tatacoa), and rocks if need be. It’s not very powerful, it’s a bit nose-heavy, but it’s light and agile enough even when loaded, and in Colombia, that’s more than enough.
Alternatively, I hear there’s a new bike rental place in Bogota offering KTM’s. Horses for courses, YMMV, and so on, and so forth, but for me, the little Honda XRE300 is a discovery of the year. If I ever find myself in Colombia again looking for a bike to rent, I’ll pass on the KTM’s.
I’ll probably pass on Guatape, too, as it’s becoming way touristy; instead of Girardot, I’d love to explore the mountain trails above Manizales, and perhaps make it to the Rainbow River at some point.
But most of all, I hope to spend more time in Colombia just riding and exploring: no matter how much I travel here, there’s always something new to see and discover – both magical and real.
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