I was in a city called Pereira and only had a one and a half hour ride to my accommodation at Donkey Sunrise. We were standing outside the gate of the guy’s house who was interested in buying the bike. His mum and sister came out and said hello. We then went for a quick ride up to the top of a nearby hill to look over the city and have a juice and discuss a few things about the sale. Despite his good English I was still a bit confused about why he was buying the bike. He already had one and was heading to Bogota that night on the bus to catch a flight the next day to Chile where he had just bought a similar bike to mine and he was going to ride it to Ushuaia. It was all a bit confusing, but I had mentally decided that I was going to sell it, as long as he gave me the money, I was willing to do the deal.

I forgot to mention that on the way to Pereira that morning I had to stop for a truck rollover, and as I pulled up for it, my speedo also rolled over. To 50,000 kilometres. In Antarctica when I was planning this trip, I had guessed it would be around 50,000K. I congratulated my bike on a job well done. It looked like everything was okay with the truck but it was causing a lot of traffic to back up in both directions. The cops were there. They always seem to let bikes through and so I ended up with the road to myself. And there was also a few tunnels to drive through on that section of road.

Back in Pereira, I followed the guy to a tyre place so that I could pump up my front tyre which was down a little. He then said he had to go and pack and said he would contact me later and took off. Okay. I rode off towards Donkey Sunrise. It was easy to find and had a big sign on the gate. It was in a small town but on a big block of land. I was shown my room and had a bit of a look around. It’s well set up and a nice place to get ready for a trip down south. I had a wander around town. It was small. Just like the church. And the Eiffel Tower replica?

I met a couple of other people who were staying there and we all rode into the nearby town for dinner. I’d had a couple of beers when they said we were riding somewhere for dinner and my bike was only half unpacked and so I jumped on the back of another guys bike. First time I had ever been on the back of a big bike. A bit weird. Dinner was nice and we got along well. Everyone was interesting.

Next day the potential new owner of my bike contacted me and said his sister would do all the stuff regarding the sale and gave me her number to organise it. He was boarding a plane. I contacted her and she also spoke good English which was a bonus. We agreed to meet on Friday in her town of Pereira. I was due to fly out from Medellin (a 7hr bus ride north) on Sunday night.

I took the day off and unwrapped my package from Bogota and found a few treasures amongst the tightly packed bundle. I also took my bike into town for a wash and started sorting out my stuff to take home.

The following afternoon we all went for a bike ride for a few hours which was nice. I had never ridden with a group before (except for the midnight ride between ferries in Chile). I think I did okay. After the ride one of the guys who is a doctor, said he was following me and could see I was holding my body stiff to protect my arm and shoulder and suggested I should get another injection when I get home and do some more physio. It’s been just over 6 months now and they told me 1-1.5 years for it to come good. So I feel it’s going okay but I will probably be doing what he suggested anyway. We also went into town for a feed on another night. The place I was staying, had an opt out group breakfast and lunch each day. It was good healthy food and a nice social occasion. And they had some weird fruit on one of the trees. It tasted okay.

I was initially going to go and meet the sister of the bike buyer on Thursday morning but she messaged and postponed it until the afternoon. So on the Thursday morning I said goodbye to a couple of American guys on bigger bikes and then it was my turn to leave Donkey Sunrise and I rode off the 1.5hrs to Pereira.

I had booked into the Olaya Plaza Hotel as it was just around the corner from where I was due to meet the sister at 2:00pm. A nice enough place on top of a motorbike mechanics. It had a narrow entrance up a very steep tiled staircase and was a bit of a pain to carry all the gear off my bike up there. It did have parking just down the road, but I was hoping to do the deal and not need the parking. I took several last photos of my bike all loaded up.

We met up as planned, although neither of us remembered what the other person looked like. She told me to park down around the corner and then instead of going into the Motor Registration place we went into some shop nearby that did paperwork for vehicle sales. She said that the guy they usually deal with was away and so they were dealing with a guy he recommended. Or something. She also said we needed to do two copies of all the paperwork and that she would pay for one and I would pay for the other. It was about $5AUD. The guy in the shop had to use carbon paper and tape to do rubbings of my bike frame and motor details. They are hard to get to and it took him a few goes.

I think the sister was a little on the spectrum and very open and direct. She said she needed two copies so that it made it easier for her to sell it. It was also a bit funny when she said not to worry about some thing because they would make so much profit on the sale that they would cover the cost of that. I briefly thought that I made a big mistake in selling it so cheap but as we continued on the sale journey, I was glad to be just following along and signing stuff. She led the way.

We had to then take the paperwork a few blocks away to a notary to get it stamped and approved. The woman behind the counter asked me a few questions that I didn’t understand and then said she wouldn’t sign and stamp it because I didn’t understand the paperwork. She was probably concerned about the fact that the buyers name and price bits were blank. I had noticed that myself.  So we left there and found another place. The woman there didn’t care as long as we paid the 5 bucks. This had all taken a couple of hours and then next minute her mother suddenly turned up. They had a long discussion and the sister said that was all we could do today and that she would contact me tomorrow. And they left. I went back and found my motorbike and took it back to the hotel parking.

It was still light so I decided that I would walk up to the bus station which was only 15 minutes away and sus out the buses. I needed to get me and all my gear to Medellin. It was a big place with lots of buses going everywhere and it seemed like that whenever I was ready to leave that I only had to turn up and book the next bus and I would be on my way. I returned to the hotel via a stop off to eat a chorizo at a small street stall. That night I had a couple of beers from the shop across the road and went about trying to fit all my gear into two bags. And getting rid of what I didn’t want or what wouldn’t fit.

Next morning I got a message to say that she was going to the bank that morning and she would call me when she had the money and then I could bring the bike to her house. I replied and agreed and said the earlier she could do it the better. I packed up my room ready to go. I had managed to fit everything in. I had one 23kg bag with my panniers (which I had disassembled) and all my other luggage. I then had my carry on bag which was basically full of just my motorbike pants and jacket (which made it nice and light). And then my backpack with my computer and other stuff for a plane flight. There wasn’t really room for my helmet or riding boots but I had already decided that I didn’t need to keep them as they were a bit old and smelly and I had gotten my money’s worth out of them. My flight was cheapish but the carry on and checked luggage took the flight ticket from Medellin to Mexico up to $700AUD and so the less luggage the better.

She called about 10:00am and said she had the money and she would be at her house in half an hour. I felt quite relieved, and for the first time, I felt the sale was going to go ahead. But I was wrong. Actually, I was right, but I just felt like throwing that sentence in there. I put on my motorbike boots and helmet for the last time and rode the 15 minutes to her house and arrived just after she did. I took the bike inside the main gate and parked it up near their apartment.

It was a nice little local apartment and her mum was there, offering me a drink. She gave me the wad of 14,000,000 Colombian pesos and I gave it a quick count. From the looks of the apartment, they seemed very religious and it made me feel like I wasn’t about to be ripped off. I gave them the last of the paperwork that I had and the keys and my smelly helmet, boots and also my tank bag (which I didn’t really want).

We went outside and a I spent my last moments with my bike and took a couple of photos. I did feel a bit sad leaving it there after all the time we had spent together. 50,300 kilometres and 12 months in fact. But tried to console myself by thinking how they would give it a really good clean and some nice person would buy it off them. They ordered me an uber which must have been just outside the gate as it arrived immediately. I like short goodbyes.

I made it back to the hotel before checkout and squeezed in a shower and shave and then lugged all my stuff down the deadly stairs and onto the street where some nice person flagged down a taxi for me. At the bus station I had to drag my heavy bag along the floor which was okay because it was tiles. I was glad I had done my research the day before and was able to go straight to the right ticket office and by a ticket on a bus to Medellin that was leaving in 45 minutes. I grabbed a bit of junk food and a coke and plonked down on a seat.

It was strange to be on a bus. It started off a bit awkward because there was a largish lady was sitting in my window seat that I had booked. She indicated for me to sit in the isle seat but I said I would like to be able to look out the window. And it was my seat. When another passenger pointed out that she was actually in the wrong seat, she apologised and let me in. She spent the first half an hour talking loudly on her phone and then the next half an hour watching TikTok reels with the sound up loud but then eventually fell asleep. I finally had some respite and enjoyed my window and 2/3s of a seat. While the bus felt very safe it was also a bit of a pain as you couldn’t pull over to take a photo or zip back to check out something interesting.

We did pull into a service centre about half way (after 3 hours). It was well organised and I think it was probably owned by the bus company as they had lots of buses there. I’ve just added a wheel photo. It’s not the best example but it shows two things that are very common on trucks and buses in Colombia. They have this weird thing in the middle which I found out was to monitor the tyre pressure from within the vehicle. The other is the big wheel nuts. Some of them are really long and others spikey. They stick out so far sometimes, that I think they would grind the side of my leg when I go past on the bike.

We made it into Medellin Southern Bus Station after 6.5 hours. It was okay for my first bus journey. I dragged my luggage downstairs and then grabbed a taxi. It was a 25 minute ride to the 61Prado Hotel. I had stayed here last time that I was in town and liked it. I was there by 8:00pm. I had made it to a place where I felt comfortable that my trip was on schedule and I had some time to relax and reflect a little. And wander down the street and get some nice street food.

I had always thought that I was flying out late on Monday night but few days ago I realised that I was actually flying out at 2:00am on Monday and therefore needed to be at the airport on Sunday night!!!! Almost a rookie error. I asked about a late checkout from the hotel but 10:00pm is too late and so I booked in for a third night. And at $35AUD a night I wasn’t bothered. The hotel is 3 old majestic houses that are joined together. The couple that run it are nice and they had done a few more renovations since I was last there, and I couldn’t help but sneak through a door that was slightly ajar and have a look at the inside of the third house that has yet to be renovated. The façade with the turret had been finished but inside was still raw and exciting. If you like renovating. And this was a cool rimless toilet. I think they are a thing of the future.

I remember that last time I was here I was thinking how nice it would be to renovate some of the old houses in this street. It’s still a bit of a fringe area with some dodgy people around but it seems safe enough in the daytime. I went for a walk and snapped some pics. Here’s just a few.

I still had one more chore to do before I left South America. I had 14,000,000 pesos and I did not want to arrive in Australia with a huge bundle of money, having just come from Colombia. Not just because of the questions but also because it wouldn’t be worth as much if I changed it to Australian dollars. Maybe not even possible? I had thought it would be really easy to just go to a money changer and change it to $US dollars. But it was the weekend.

After quite a search I found a small shop in a crowded mini shopping pavilion. The guy seemed okay and said he had enough money to swap and the rate was similar to the internet bank rate (slightly better). I didn’t have the money with me as there was no way I was going to walk around Medellin with all that cash looking for somewhere to change money. It was a 25 minute walk back to the hotel and then another 25 minute walk back to the change place and I had just over an hour before he closed for the rest of the weekend and my flight was Sunday night.

I navigated my way out of the rabbit warren and considered taking a taxi but decided the streets were so crowded that a taxi might take longer than walking. I made it to the hotel and back again with 10 minutes to spare. Turns out there was a little side door where you could go in and lock the door behind you and do the change privately. That was nice. As was the guy changing the money. About my age and interested in my motorbike trip. I was able to change my thick stack of money for a very thin stack of $3600USD in one hundred dollar notes. The guy then put a little pig stamp on each note and said it was a security thing in case I was robbed and the people brought the notes to him, he would then know they were stolen off me. I think that made me even more uncomfortable. It also made me wonder if it may complicate things later when I tried to change it. I just noticed there is also a little apple stamp on the same note. I left the booth and headed straight back to my hotel with a few diversionary tactics that I used to use when I was changing money in other countries in a past life.

Back at the hotel I took it easy for the rest of the day and also the Sunday. I had my last meal and a couple of beers inhouse and then paid my account and packed up. My prebooked taxi arrived at 9:30pm and I had a comfortable ride to the airport via lots of Xmas lights. Medellin is such a large city with lots of hills and it looks lovely at night. The trip to the airport only takes 45 minutes now due to a new 8.8km tunnel. Unless you are on a bike and you have to use the old road over the mountain because bikes are banned from using the tunnel.

I arrived at the airport well before check in and waited patiently. Check in went well and my bag weighed in with half a kilo to spare. I spent the last of my money on a bottle of water and some M&Ms and then somehow lost the water? My flight left on time at 2:00am and I think I even managed to nod off for a while. It was a 4.5 hour flight to Mexico City and then another 4.5 hour wait for my transfer to Puerto Vallarta which is where I will be spending Xmas. By the time I did the immigration and customs bit and rechecked my bag and had a nice breakfast and walked 10,000 steps it was time to go. There was this cool seating area set up like an asian temple. It was only a short flight but I fell asleep and woke up as we touched down. My bag came through quickly and I walked out to see my mate standing there ready to pick me up.

I think I can now officially say that my one year trip around South America is finally over. And I have now completed my goal to have lived on every continent for more than a year. It was an amazing adventure but probably the last time I will do a trip for a whole year. I have lots of great memories and met lots of lovely people and learned a lot and survived only slightly scathed. Now to unwind over Xmas/New Year and then head back to Australia and be semi normal for a while before the next adventure. I have a few to choose from, but that decision can wait for a few months. I have a couple of little side blogs that I want to post about a couple of things I missed. Hopefully in the next week or so. If you’ve got this far, then thanks for reading along. I have really enjoyed writing it and plus it will give me something to read in the nursing home. Adios Amigos.