I woke to the sounds of thunder and heavy rain. I thought of my ride yesterday and how different it would have been in the wet. It makes sense though, with so much hot and humid air in the lowlands you are bound to get a lot of precipitation in the mountains. Colombia has three ridges of the Andes forking up from Ecuador. This leaves two major river basins between the ridges. Yesterday I rode down the Magdalena River basin and then crossed the middle ridge. Today I dropped down and followed the Cauca River basin to the city of Cali. Both of these rivers flow north, ultimately joining together near the city of Cartagena and emptying into the Caribbean Sea.

It was dismal day to ride. It rained steadily all day making the road slick and the visibility limited. Fortunately it only took about three and half hours to cover the 110 miles to Cali and I arrived at about 2:00. It was so dreary today that I didn't stop to talk a singe photograph as I could really see much anyway.

My main accomplishment today was stopping at the Triumph dealer in Cali to order a new clutch. Ever since I overheated it in Mexico, it has been slowly fading. Following the extremely slow trucks on the very steep roads of Guatemala, El Salvador and the last couple days here in Colombia has not helped it at all. It's still doing okay but I don't trust it enough to try to ride with it all the way to Argentina. I have adjusted it far beyond the recommended tolerance and there isn't any more adjustment to be had. Now, It might seem pretty straight forward to pull into a dealer and talk to the service manager but you have to remember that I have to do this in Spanish. It's one thing to ask for directions, order at a restaurant or book a hotel room. Talking to a mechanic takes a specialized vocabulary. Last night I consulted Google Translate and memorized several words that I would need. Clutch (embrague), friction plates (discos de fricción), gasket (junta) and headstock (cabezal), just to name a few. I talked with the sales manager, service manger, head mechanic and the office manger. We all consulted Google translate from time to time but mostly we managed to make ourselves understood. It really helps when you can pull up mechanical diagrams on the computer so that you can all agree that you are talking about the same thing. They called their parts distributor in Bogota and ordered the parts. My girlfriend Tameka is flying into Cali tomorrow. She is renting a bike and we are going to spend two weeks exploring Colombia together. When we return to Cali, I will get the clutch replaced and then head for Ecuador... and beyond.