La Plata is a busy little town that doesn't see very much tourism. This morning we retrieved our bikes from the parking garage and rolled them around to park in front of our hotel. While I was loading the bikes and strapping everything down, Tameka was up grabbing the last of her gear from the room. A crowd of people surrounded the bikes. They were interested in the usually things like, the size of the bikes and where we were from but mostly they were interested in if we were enjoying Colombia and what we had seen here. Our unusual big bikes elicited many thumbs up from other riders as we waved goodbye and rolled out of town.

We followed the Magdalena River towards the city of Neiva. We were looking to visit the Tatacoa desert which is an arid area north of Neiva. After riding for two days in the rain we thought a desert sounded pretty good. Just as soon as we thought that though, it started raining again.

Shortly after leaving La Plata I was accelerating past a truck and I felt my clutch slip. The engine revved as I felt the bike lose momentum. I feathered back on the throttle and the clutch hooked up once again. I thought, "that's not good". We pulled into Neiva for lunch and I reached out to Ricardo at epiCO for some assistance. He arranged to pick up the clutch parts that I had ordered from the Triumph dealer and have them shipped to a workshop in Ibague which is about 130 miles north. I thought that I would be able to nurse the bike that far tomorrow.

Tameka and I had booked a hotel in a little town called Villavieja which is 32 miles north of Neiva. The road was remote and occasionally unpaved. My clutch protested, losing power more frequently. I started to worry that we might not make it. We did make it to Villavieja but I'm almost certain the bike will not pull through to Ibague (which is another 100 miles). We started looking for alternatives. Again Ricardo provided a solution connecting us to a local man in Villavieja who agreed to ferry me and the bike to Ibague in his pickup truck on Friday. Tomorrow, Tameka and I will ride two-up on her bike to explore the Tatacoa desert and stay here another night. Fingers crossed that all things come together and the Tig can be back on the road come Saturday.