So, what I should I start with? The problem with the new motor bike or the fact that my next place of accommodation doesn’t exist. I’m sure I could start with either one. I think I can safely say they both ended up fine despite both issues causing me some anxiety for a while.

The uninhabited Airbnb sorted itself out almost immediately. Just after I saw the house I received an email from my host saying that there was a new address for the Airbnb. She said it was in a nice location closer to the beach and to the airport. Sadly, it was really only around the corner from my current Airbnb. I had wanted to experience a different part of the city. A few days later I wandered past and had a look. It’s a different sort of neighbourhood so that should okay.

The bike. Well, I left the Honda shop and got a few kms down the road to a petrol station okay and filled up the tank. The petrol stations over here are not self serve and there always seems to be a queue of motor bikes shuffling forward to be refuelled. I’m yet to learn the correct etiquette of fuelling up. The annoying thing though is that the fuel is in gallons. I’m not sure if that’s American gallons or imperial gallons. I’ll follow that up. I don’t want to look now as I’ll get distracted and wander off into the internet somewhere. The bike took 50,000 colombian pesos or about twenty bucks to fill. I didn’t stall. Didn’t drop the bike so I’m calling it a win. I think that I read somewhere that the tank holds 13 Litres.

I then headed for home. I saw a nice but old Cartagena sign on the side of the road and thought I’d pose in front of it for a photo. I had to ride the bike up over a highish kerb to do that. I decided against the drop risk and went back up the road where the kerb wasn’t so high and had no trouble getting up onto the path and then rode along it to the sign. I took my pics and then noticed my front tyre was flat. You’ve got to be kidding or words to that affect. I checked it for a nail or something. Nothing. It just looked like a 5km old tyre to me.

In Mexico I’d had the discussion with my mate about punctures. He said I should carry a complete tyre repair shop with me. (He also suggests you only need one tee shirt, one pair of jocks and one pair of socks and just wash them each night. Travel lightly he says). So I had to ring him for advice. Besides finding it funny he said I should ring the dealership and get then to come around and sort it out. I don’t think they do that sort of stuff but I sent them a text. The woman who sold me the bike asked me to send her my location. I did. She text straight back and said I was in a very bad neighbourhood and I shouldn’t be there. Well, that was helpful. She said she would try and find the closest tyre repairer and send me the address.

I decided to just push it down the road in the direction of home. Whenever I’m out for a walk there always seems to be a little tyre place every few hundred metres. And I needed the added experience of pushing a 150kg bike along a busy street in the middle of a stinking hot and humid day. I stopped and asked a young guy where I could find one. He obviously doesn’t speak bad australian spanish so I retreated to charades and he caught on quickly and walked with me a couple of hundred metres and around a corner to a little timber humpy with a few old tyres lying around.

Within a few minutes of being there the young kid had my bike up on a dodgy block of wood and the wheel off and the tube out and filled it with air. He did all this while he was patching a tubeless tyre on a taxi. I then noticed the back tyre was also flat. He put the tube in a tank of water, and it wasn’t leaking at all. We waited a while checked it again. Sorted the taxi and then he put it all back together. He pumped up the back tyre and we waited for a while to check all was well. I entertained myself with the neighbourhood kids who’d gathered around, showing them pictures of things from Australia on my phone. And practising spanish and charades with the older onlookers. It was quite a nice experience. Meanwhile I was getting texts from Honda about my welfare.

We, the onsite tyre group and onlookers, decided that Honda hadn’t put any air in the tyres and they looked fine when I picked it up because they were new and hard but after they warmed up and softened a bit and with some weight on them they became flat. Sounds feasible. I paid the tyre guy 5 bucks and also the young guy who took me there the same and also gave them another 5 bucks for a couple of beers as the Copa America 2024 game with Colombia was about to start shortly. They invited me to stay but I didn’t want to stay and drink beer, I’d already had a big day and I just wanted to get my bike home safely and destress.

My new house is nice but sadly it doesn’t have aircon or flyscreens so it could be a bit of a challenge in this climate. I was pretty spoilt in the old place and probably got a bit soft. I’ve got a long way to go and need to toughen up a bit. The lady who runs it is lovely but doesn’t speak any English so I’m confused about a couple of things which I’m sure I’ll work out as I go. There’s a guy here who’s nice but really difficult to understand and the lady’s son who’s about 15 and I just discovered speaks some shy English. There’s also dogs and cats and a rooster and a tortoise. After a few days I was able to work out that they were renting the old Airbnb and had to move and had set up this one in their new rental only a few weeks before my arrival. They are so lovely that I feel reluctant to move somewhere else with aircon.

I would call the neighbourhood very local. There’s a little store on the corner which is nice for people watching. A small baseball field across from that. I didn’t realise baseball was so popular here. Lots of football fields of varying sizes and then just thong goals on the street and kids playing barefoot. I don’t think I’ve seen any overweight kids now that I think about it. The Copa America 2024 is currently on and is the third largest soccer event in the world. I’ve been watching a couple of matches with my host family which is a bit crazy but fun. A lot of passion. Colombia has made it through to the final tonight with Argentina. While watching the other Colombian games you could hear all the surrounding streets erupt when Colombia scored a goal.

All of the houses here have high fences and locked gates. It’s a bit of a pain locking my way out each time I go somewhere or come back. I guess that I should be grateful that my stuff is safe in my room. I’ve also discovered that they have some sort of vigilante? Every night there’s a guy who sits up on a chair up the corner and keeps an eye on the street overnight. If something is happening outside the house he wanders down and blows a whistle. If it’s normal like a late night takeaway food delivery or an early morning uber then he just blows regular, spaced, short, single bursts on the whistle until the event is over. I’m guessing if its something sinister he blows the crap out of the whistle and everybody comes out? Hopefully I don’t find out. It also makes me very confident about my motorbike security. It just outside my window anyway and locked pretty securely. And we have dogs. Small but yappy.

In this neighbourhood there seems to be lots of security guys like this. My store was out of beer so I wandered down to the next corner which was a much more happening place. Lots of older guys sitting on chairs drinking beer. The vigilante guy there gave me a chair and started chatting. No english but patient. I ended up buying him a couple of beers and practised my spanish. I think they are volunteers? And they were asking me for money?

One last comment about colombian neighbours. They seem pretty tolerant. The guy a few doors down had his monster speaker blasting all day and half the night and no-one seemed to care. Fortunately the music was good. Oh. And the street vendors. They wander past all day from early morning to late at night selling produce or drinks or today even mops and brooms. They have their bells or their clicks or their little speakers that personalise their cart and their wares. Some have really loud voices, others just rely on speakers. It must be a tough life. I always feel that I should but something off them but there’s nothing I need.

I also met this couple on one of the sites I follow about riding motorbikes through South America. They were headed to Cartagena and so I caught up with them. They also have Honda 300’s although slightly different to mine. It was great to meet them and check out their bikes. They have been on the road for over a year from Cananda, Someone had recommended they check out this Colombian restaurant chain. Not my normal cuisine but I was able to have a lovely Thai beef salad and a cold beer so I was happy. I’m sure I’ll catch up with them again somewhere down the road.

My next big challenge is to write a blog about Mompox. And get the bike serviced and fit the panniers so I can get going on this adventure. I’m using the heat as an excuse but it’s pretty draining and not inspiring as I drip sweat all over the keyboard. I’m off now to have breakfast. I’d just love to have a couple of poached eggs on sourdough. We can all dream.