New Years Eve and Cali is a ghost town. We got up and had a delicious breakfast. I'm in love with Colombian coffee... it's so tasty. We decided to spend the day riding down to Buenaventura on the coast so we stripped the luggage off of Tiggrr and rode two up. Out of Cali we immediately climbed up over the mountains. The traffic was pretty heavy on the narrow road and it was difficult to pass. I thought that everyone in Cali had our same idea and were headed to the beach. That turned out not to be the case as the traffic dissipated as we reached the summit and the ride down to the coast was a spirited, twisty romp. About 40 miles outside of Buenaventura we joined with a divided highway which connects the seaport to the interior cities. It was an impressive road with 12 tunnels. Four of them were over a mile long!

The city of Buenaventura is a major port, accounting for nearly 60% of all Colombian sea imports and exports... but it's not much to look at. The city's economy has been hampered by gang-related activity fighting over control of the port, making it among the most impoverished cities in Colombia. We made our way down to a small tourist area on the coast to have a snack and a cold drink but we didn't stay long as It was uncomfortably hot and sticky. Riding back through the city, we rode through a crowded central market and found ourselves in some sketchy neighborhoods before emerging back onto the main highway. The poverty was obvious in the dilapidated slums along the coast. It was a very different side of Colombia that we had not seen in the interior.

We arrived back in Cali just as it was getting dark. The neighborhood where our hotel was unusually deserted. I'm not sure what people do for New Year's Eve here but most all of the restaurants and bars were closed. We found one small restaurant that was open and they were happy to see us as we were the only ones there. We had an amazing steak dinner to celebrate our amazing adventure in Colombia. As we ate, we recounted our favorite moments as well as the challenges. Fortunately for both of us there were many more of the former than the later.

Tameka flys out tomorrow, back to Washington and I am headed towards Ecuador. It will be a long ride but I hope to reach Pasto, Colombia tomorrow.