Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Interviewing Mauricio Escobar on Overlanding in Colombia

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Interviewing Mauricio Escobar on Overlanding in Colombia · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
0:07
Speaker 1: host Scott Brady. My co host Matt Scott is not
0:10
Speaker 1: with me today because we have a unique episode that
0:13
Speaker 1: we'd like to share with you. This is an interview
0:16
Speaker 1: that I recorded with a friend of mine, Micho Escobar,
0:20
Speaker 1: from Colombia, shortly after a trip that I did with
0:24
Speaker 1: him in the area. So I had done an earlier
0:28
Speaker 1: trip with Micho where we rode all the way out
0:30
Speaker 1: to the border of Venezuela with another mutual friend, Sinway Xavier,
0:34
Speaker 1: that you can listen to on the podcast as well,
0:36
Speaker 1: and then this second trip that I did down I
0:39
Speaker 1: had actually done a journey down to Lima, Peru and
0:42
Speaker 1: had ridden all the way back to Colombia solo in
0:45
Speaker 1: twenty and sixteen. So this is my conversation that I
0:49
Speaker 1: had with Micho in twenty and sixteen talking about traveling
0:53
Speaker 1: in Colombia. What a beautiful country. This is filled with
0:58
Speaker 1: absolutely wonderful people. So hopefully by the end of this
1:01
Speaker 1: conversation that you listen to with Micho and myself, you
1:04
Speaker 1: have a different perspective on Columbia and maybe it moves
1:07
Speaker 1: up your list. So the audio should be pretty good
1:09
Speaker 1: on this but it is recorded with a couple iPhones,
1:12
Speaker 1: so take that into mind. But I think it is
1:14
Speaker 1: worth listening to thank you for joining us. And this
1:17
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2:00
Speaker 1: Redox Well. I'm Scott Brady with Overland Journal and Expedition Portal,
2:04
Speaker 1: and I am in beautiful Columbia with my good friend
2:08
Speaker 1: Mauricio Escobar from Elephant Moto, and we're going to talk
2:12
Speaker 1: a little bit today about traveling in South America, but
2:16
Speaker 1: mostly about traveling in Colombia, because this is something that
2:21
Speaker 1: many Americans and other people around the world, they're a
2:23
Speaker 1: little bit concerned about traveling to a place like Colombia
2:27
Speaker 1: because of what they've heard about in the past. Now,
2:29
Speaker 1: the one thing I don't want you to do is
2:31
Speaker 1: take Mauricio's last name into account when we talk about
2:34
Speaker 1: safety and traveling in Colombia, being Escobar. But he has
2:38
Speaker 1: no relation to the Escobar of the past, and he's
2:43
Speaker 1: a great ambassador for his country. And we're going to
2:45
Speaker 1: learn a lot about what it means to travel in Columbia.
2:48
Speaker 1: So Maricio, give me a little bit of a background
2:51
Speaker 1: on your travels, your experience not only as a motorcyclist,
2:56
Speaker 1: but a motorcycle trainer, and then briefly what elephant motorcycles?
3:00
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I've been riding motorcycle since I was
3:04
Speaker 2: a little kid, you know, eleven years old.
3:07
Speaker 3: I went through the paces, you know, like the little.
3:10
Speaker 2: Hondas and the farm XR eighties, then XR two hundred,
3:13
Speaker 2: then doing the trips. Then I went to live in
3:16
Speaker 2: San Francisco and that's where I bought my first motorcycle,
3:19
Speaker 2: which is like that first big step for any any
3:22
Speaker 2: motorcyclist and my first street bike, and I started to
3:25
Speaker 2: get into the whole motorcycle thing.
3:27
Speaker 3: You know.
3:27
Speaker 2: First it was like I was younger, so it was
3:29
Speaker 2: more the street bike, superbikes, a type of sport bikes.
3:33
Speaker 3: Type of things, you know.
3:34
Speaker 2: And then my brother he did a trip from he
3:39
Speaker 2: was doing a trip from San Francisco to Washington and
3:41
Speaker 2: Washington to San Francisco and he had an RI eleven
3:44
Speaker 2: hundred s and my dad he was like, well, I
3:47
Speaker 2: think you should do part of this trip with him.
3:49
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, you know that across my
3:51
Speaker 2: mind he was doing it. It wasn't something that I
3:53
Speaker 2: was into at the moment. And I had a Honda
3:55
Speaker 2: super Hawk at the time, and I was like, well, sure,
3:57
Speaker 2: let's do it. So I went with my brother on
3:59
Speaker 2: the on the super Hawk obviously the bad choice of
4:03
Speaker 2: bike for the trip, but I got into. That was
4:05
Speaker 2: my first long distance trip. It was maybe like ten days,
4:08
Speaker 2: you know, we went from I went, I did the
4:09
Speaker 2: section from Washington to San Francisco, and I could see
4:12
Speaker 2: him on his big on his RI eleven hundred. You know,
4:15
Speaker 2: he was comfortable, he was okay with doing something, you know,
4:17
Speaker 2: forty miles an hour, just chilling and I was hunched
4:20
Speaker 2: back on the on the super Hawk, and that got
4:23
Speaker 2: me into it. That was the thing insparred you for travel.
4:26
Speaker 2: That was the thing that got me into adventure travel,
4:28
Speaker 2: you know, long distance travel on motorcycles.
4:31
Speaker 3: And I started doing trips. Every time I could, I
4:33
Speaker 3: would do trips. You know.
4:34
Speaker 2: I did the Continental Divide and we went from Canada
4:36
Speaker 2: to Mexico the dirt roads. I went to China for
4:40
Speaker 2: a month and with a buddy, we rented a motorcycle
4:43
Speaker 2: with a sidecar and we were just riding around for
4:45
Speaker 2: like a month and you in Morocco and yeah, and
4:49
Speaker 2: then you know, with the time, those were like the
4:51
Speaker 2: first initial trips and then and then I went to
4:54
Speaker 2: Michigan and that was like another click in the life.
4:58
Speaker 2: I was like, I couldn't ride motorcycle days. The win
5:00
Speaker 2: was tough and I got a little bit antsy, so
5:03
Speaker 2: I said, you know, I got to get out of here.
5:05
Speaker 2: So I decided to quit my job that I had there.
5:07
Speaker 2: I came back to Columbia and I started to consider,
5:10
Speaker 2: you know, motorcycle touring as a business or as a
5:13
Speaker 2: career path for me.
5:14
Speaker 3: As a choice.
5:15
Speaker 2: And my first step was to go and do some
5:18
Speaker 2: work with other companies that were doing it at the time.
5:20
Speaker 2: And I did, and I went and worked as a
5:23
Speaker 2: motorcycle guide for a company that was doing tours in
5:25
Speaker 2: South America. And I went, you know, in Argentina, perub Olivia, Chile, Brazil,
5:30
Speaker 2: doing tours during eight months, learning how it's done, you know,
5:33
Speaker 2: what needs to happen. And then and then I came
5:37
Speaker 2: back to Columbia and I started a company in Colombia.
5:39
Speaker 3: And that's how Elephants got it started.
5:42
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a certified BMW instructor, I'm a certified
5:48
Speaker 2: BMW tour guide. And what we do, what we like
5:52
Speaker 2: to do, Elephant is more than than just you know,
5:56
Speaker 2: motorcycle tours or rentals. You know, it's experiences for life,
5:59
Speaker 2: stories to tell for lifetime. And we provide our customers
6:02
Speaker 2: the opportunity to one get to know a country, which
6:04
Speaker 2: is awesome. And through the motorcycles, you know, you have
6:11
Speaker 2: these experiences that bring you closer to new people, being
6:13
Speaker 2: closer to a country, and bring you provide you on
6:16
Speaker 2: experience that you don't remember for the rest of your life.
6:18
Speaker 1: And I think for me, That's one of the reasons
6:21
Speaker 1: why I really wanted to do this fireside chat with
6:24
Speaker 1: you is because my experience in Colombia has been amazing.
6:28
Speaker 1: The first trip that we did together that included Sinway
6:31
Speaker 1: Xavier Overland Journal's creative director, we went all the way
6:35
Speaker 1: out through Losianos to a place called Puerto Correno, and
6:38
Speaker 1: we had a proper adventure. I mean, this was an
6:40
Speaker 1: area of the country that you hadn't even traveled, and
6:42
Speaker 1: we got extremely remote, it was very difficult terrain. It
6:46
Speaker 1: didn't feel like a traditional tour at all. And that
6:49
Speaker 1: was one of the things that impressed me most about
6:52
Speaker 1: Elephant and the way that you conducted the trip was
6:54
Speaker 1: that I felt like we were all on an adventure
6:57
Speaker 1: together and it wasn't this highly script experience, and that
7:01
Speaker 1: allowed for a lot of that opportunity for adventure, and
7:05
Speaker 1: for me, I think that that really captured a lot
7:07
Speaker 1: about what people can see and experience in Colombia. And
7:10
Speaker 1: you've shared with me a couple of the other trips
7:13
Speaker 1: that you do. One up into the Peninsula in the north,
7:16
Speaker 1: which is a very remote area, and also you do
7:20
Speaker 1: trips into the coffee region. If people are looking for
7:22
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit more of an on road and
7:25
Speaker 1: mild off road experience. But I think one of the
7:28
Speaker 1: things that's most important initially is to kind of dispel
7:31
Speaker 1: this myth that Colombia as a whole is a dangerous
7:36
Speaker 1: place to travel. My experience now having been here three times,
7:39
Speaker 1: is that the big cities are like any big city
7:41
Speaker 1: in the world. There's places that are very safe and
7:44
Speaker 1: there's places that are less safe. But Colombia doesn't feel
7:48
Speaker 1: any less safe than the other places that I've developed
7:51
Speaker 1: or that I've traveled in Latin America. In fact, I
7:54
Speaker 1: feel for the most part that bogatav for example, is
7:57
Speaker 1: very safe to even walk around in at night. And
8:00
Speaker 1: one of the ways that I always determine that is
8:03
Speaker 1: if you see women and children out and about, So
8:05
Speaker 1: even at eleven o'clock at night, you'll see women walking
8:08
Speaker 1: with their children and families walking through the park. And
8:13
Speaker 1: when you start to see that in an area, you
8:16
Speaker 1: know that generally where you're at is pretty safe. Once
8:19
Speaker 1: you start to see the people go away and the
8:21
Speaker 1: families go away, and you just see the guys in
8:24
Speaker 1: dark shadows, that's when you need to get a little
8:27
Speaker 1: more concerned. But I haven't even felt that at all
8:30
Speaker 1: here in Bogata. And then you and I've also had
8:32
Speaker 1: the opportunity of traveling to these extreme corners of the
8:36
Speaker 1: country as well. When we were in Losianos, again, I
8:40
Speaker 1: never felt even one time that I was in an
8:43
Speaker 1: area that wasn't safe. And then you and I just
8:46
Speaker 1: traveled over the Colombian Death Road on the day of
8:49
Speaker 1: a rather historic vote here in Colombia, and again there
8:53
Speaker 1: were people were smiling and they embraced us with open arms,
8:58
Speaker 1: and other than the dangers of the road itself, I
9:01
Speaker 1: didn't feel like I was in a place that was dangerous.
9:05
Speaker 1: I felt like I was in a place that was
9:07
Speaker 1: coming out of a period of time in the history
9:09
Speaker 1: of the country that maybe things were a little bit
9:12
Speaker 1: more dangerous. But it feels very safe, and it feels
9:14
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of optimism in the spirit of
9:17
Speaker 1: the Colombians.
9:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think Columbia is going through through an important
9:21
Speaker 2: time right now. You know, we've been at war for
9:24
Speaker 2: a long time, and we are also at a moment
9:27
Speaker 2: where people are discovering Columbia. So for me, what I
9:30
Speaker 2: tell my customers is this is the time to come,
9:32
Speaker 2: you know, right now because if you come five years
9:34
Speaker 2: from now, you're going to probably find a very different
9:36
Speaker 2: Columbia in terms of tourism, you know, because right now
9:40
Speaker 2: it's genuine.
9:41
Speaker 3: You know, you're getting the real Columbia. But the good Columbia.
9:43
Speaker 2: It's not the Columbia you see or maybe you've experienced
9:46
Speaker 2: in the news that you've heard about. You know, we
9:49
Speaker 2: went through some rough times, but those times are you know,
9:51
Speaker 2: they're looking promising.
9:53
Speaker 3: You know, it's changing.
9:54
Speaker 2: So is the time when if you go to a
9:56
Speaker 2: small town that like the ones that we've been to,
9:58
Speaker 2: that people they're genuine about their interaction with you because
10:02
Speaker 2: they want you to know that it's safe. You know,
10:05
Speaker 2: they want you to know that it's okay that you
10:07
Speaker 2: should come out here. That they're proud of their country.
10:09
Speaker 2: So they come out and they show it to you
10:11
Speaker 2: and they're going to go out of their way to
10:14
Speaker 2: make sure you have a good experience. So we're going
10:16
Speaker 2: through that change, you know, where it's opening up. Not
10:19
Speaker 2: too many people have come yet a lot of more
10:21
Speaker 2: people are coming, so it's changing, you know. So I
10:24
Speaker 2: think in terms of tourism, unfortunately it tends to corrupt
10:28
Speaker 2: or the world is rough, but it can prostitute the country,
10:34
Speaker 2: you know, because people they start to see advantage in
10:37
Speaker 2: the foreigner, so they know they can take money, so
10:39
Speaker 2: they maybe start charging more, or they'll swindle you out
10:42
Speaker 2: of something. You know, they'll start they know that the
10:45
Speaker 2: tourist is an opportunity. But right now we're not at
10:47
Speaker 2: that place. We're at a place where please come, you know,
10:50
Speaker 2: check it out. This is my country is beautiful. We're
10:52
Speaker 2: not all wire, we're not all violence. You know, we're
10:55
Speaker 2: good people. So it's a very good moment to come
10:57
Speaker 2: and see it. And I think it's important and.
11:01
Speaker 1: I can see that for the most part, Colombians they
11:04
Speaker 1: really have this pride in their country, and there's some
11:07
Speaker 1: great examples I think I can give. One of the
11:10
Speaker 1: things that stands out almost immediately is there's much less
11:13
Speaker 1: trash on the road in Colombia then you'll see oftentimes
11:17
Speaker 1: in other countries in Central America and South America. There's
11:21
Speaker 1: also this pride of ownership. If you look, even though
11:24
Speaker 1: their house, their home may be simple, they take good
11:27
Speaker 1: care of it. It has flowers out front, it's recently
11:30
Speaker 1: been painted that there's not trash and weeds and everything
11:33
Speaker 1: in the yard, and even though their vehicle may be older,
11:36
Speaker 1: they take pride in that you can see it's been
11:38
Speaker 1: painted and that they tried to fix the dents. And
11:42
Speaker 1: for me, I think that that says a lot about
11:43
Speaker 1: the future of Colombian It says a lot about the
11:45
Speaker 1: spirit of the spirit of the Colombian people. And then
11:47
Speaker 1: I've also found that writing here is a lot more
11:52
Speaker 1: safe than other developing countries. In fact, I find that
11:56
Speaker 1: the Colombian drivers are some of the better drivers that
11:58
Speaker 1: I've encountered in some South America. And you know, I
12:01
Speaker 1: always I always use a way to gauge drivers. I'll
12:05
Speaker 1: I'll rate them is either you know, competent, neutral or incompetent.
12:09
Speaker 1: And I'll either rate them is as calm, neutral or aggressive.
12:13
Speaker 1: And like for example, when you go to Peru, you
12:15
Speaker 1: encounter aggressive and incompetent, whereas I find I find that
12:20
Speaker 1: that in in Colombia they're pretty neutral. They're they're they're
12:24
Speaker 1: not overly competent, but they're also not incompetent. They're not
12:27
Speaker 1: overly aggressive, but they're not also calm. I find that
12:30
Speaker 1: the truck drivers are very professional. They give you some space,
12:33
Speaker 1: They for the most part, they try not to kill you,
12:36
Speaker 1: And I think that that's a great example of another
12:38
Speaker 1: reason to come and ride in Colombia, because you have
12:42
Speaker 1: relatively new roads in many cases, and you have pretty
12:46
Speaker 1: considerate drivers, and that makes for some fun writing. And
12:50
Speaker 1: there's also this this little tinge of lawlessness in the
12:53
Speaker 1: sense that that the police infrastructure isn't that well developed
12:57
Speaker 1: and they're not everywhere, So if you're back on some
12:59
Speaker 1: road in Colombia, you can actually let it hang out
13:02
Speaker 1: there a little bit and have some fun on the bike,
13:04
Speaker 1: which are things that I've really enjoyed traveling in Colombia.
13:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a country that has it all,
13:12
Speaker 2: you know, from a geographical standpoint, from a cultural standpoint
13:16
Speaker 2: for motorcyclists. In this case, you know the mountains, they
13:19
Speaker 2: provide twisty's endless twisties, and you get a super cool
13:22
Speaker 2: combination of if you really want dirt an adventure, you
13:25
Speaker 2: can do it, you know, off roading. But if you
13:27
Speaker 2: want paved and you like you know, the paved roads
13:30
Speaker 2: and good paved roads and twisty roads, you can do it.
13:32
Speaker 2: And if you want a combination, you got it. Oh,
13:34
Speaker 2: and also it's geographicy. Colombia is rated as the second
13:38
Speaker 2: most diverse country in the world. You know, I think
13:40
Speaker 2: I was telling you that the other day, and it's
13:43
Speaker 2: the most second the cell phone went off, most second
13:48
Speaker 2: most biodiverse country in the world after Brazil. You know,
13:51
Speaker 2: Brazil is number one, and Brasil is seven times larger
13:53
Speaker 2: than Colombia.
13:54
Speaker 3: So it says a lot.
13:55
Speaker 2: You know, in a very small piece of land, you've
13:58
Speaker 2: got a ridiculous amount of biodiversity. And you also have
14:03
Speaker 2: you know, in the north, we have deserts, you know,
14:04
Speaker 2: with sand dunes Africa like you know, we've got the Jungles,
14:08
Speaker 2: we got Amazon, you know, we got the andes that
14:10
Speaker 2: when they come here they give us a gift because
14:12
Speaker 2: they come from Peru. While over the Chile everything just
14:15
Speaker 2: one single mountain range, and as soon as they hit
14:17
Speaker 2: Colombia they decided to split into three.
14:20
Speaker 3: You know, So you got the three.
14:21
Speaker 2: Mountain ranges that cover most of the country, and you've
14:24
Speaker 2: got you know, four thousand meters passes, you've got zero meters,
14:28
Speaker 2: you've got rivers, you've got jungles.
14:29
Speaker 3: Everything in a relatively small but big place.
14:33
Speaker 1: So it's it's I was also really impressed with the
14:35
Speaker 1: Tatakoa Desert that we went to after the Death Road.
14:38
Speaker 1: I mean, it reminded me of of my home in Arizona.
14:42
Speaker 1: There was cactus and red earth like in Sedona, and
14:47
Speaker 1: it was really beautiful and there, and there's also pretty
14:50
Speaker 1: good infrastructure. There's clean places to stay that aren't very expensive,
14:54
Speaker 1: but they're they're nice, they're well maintained.
14:57
Speaker 3: The food's good.
14:58
Speaker 1: I've never gotten sick eating the food here in Columbia,
15:01
Speaker 1: so I eat everything from the salads to the meat
15:05
Speaker 1: on the plate, and I've never gotten sick here either.
15:07
Speaker 1: So I think that says a lot about traveling in
15:11
Speaker 1: Colombia and the diversity of it. You can be in
15:13
Speaker 1: Cartagena on the beach in an old colonial's beautiful colonial
15:17
Speaker 1: walled city, and then you can also be in the
15:19
Speaker 1: middle of the desert and sleeping in a tent if
15:22
Speaker 1: you want to. So there's camping available as well. So
15:26
Speaker 1: kind of in to conclude, my experience has been very
15:30
Speaker 1: good in Colombia. Overall, I've never felt unsafe, I've never
15:35
Speaker 1: gotten sick. I find that the roads are really enjoyable
15:38
Speaker 1: to ride, and there's plenty of technical terrain if you
15:41
Speaker 1: want in the dirt, there's a lot of diversity, which
15:43
Speaker 1: means you can kind of kind of do whatever interest
15:46
Speaker 1: you as far as a rider. But to give the
15:50
Speaker 1: viewer a little bit of a summary about how they
15:53
Speaker 1: can travel in Colombia. They can basically do a tour
15:56
Speaker 1: with you or some of the other providers in the country,
15:58
Speaker 1: and you seem to offer some of the more remote
16:01
Speaker 1: and adventure minded tours, but then you also do the
16:05
Speaker 1: traditional on road and light off road stuff. And then
16:08
Speaker 1: they can also rent bikes, which I think in many
16:11
Speaker 1: countries is difficult. So they can actually call you up
16:14
Speaker 1: and rent a twelve hundred GS. So talk to me
16:17
Speaker 1: a little bit about how that process works. What does
16:19
Speaker 1: this person need to do in order to be able
16:22
Speaker 1: to ride at twelve hundred in Colombia.
16:24
Speaker 3: Well, it's fairly simple, you know.
16:26
Speaker 2: I think if it's on a tour, if it's a
16:28
Speaker 2: rental or all that all you need is you know,
16:31
Speaker 2: your driver license it's valid from the country that you
16:34
Speaker 2: come from. They give you up to three months. You know,
16:36
Speaker 2: by law you can drive with your foreign driver license.
16:40
Speaker 2: You can book it with us, and you know, depending
16:42
Speaker 2: on availability, you know, you can go if you want
16:45
Speaker 2: to rent a motorcycle for a month, you can do it.
16:46
Speaker 3: If you want to do it for five days, you
16:48
Speaker 3: can do it.
16:49
Speaker 2: We do mostly the GSS because it's the right kind
16:53
Speaker 2: of bike for Columbia for the roads in Columbia. If
16:55
Speaker 2: it's a seven hundred, the eight hundred, twelve hundred, we
16:58
Speaker 2: can offer that, and so you book it with us.
17:01
Speaker 2: You got to leave a credit card on file in
17:04
Speaker 2: case of damages. The bikes are fully insured, but you're
17:06
Speaker 2: responsible for the deductible in case of total loss.
17:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, or if you drop the bike damage reserve.
17:14
Speaker 1: About how much does it cost a day to rent
17:16
Speaker 1: a twelve hundred, So the.
17:18
Speaker 2: Twelve hundred is one hundred and sixty dollars per day,
17:20
Speaker 2: and then the rates start to lower if you rented
17:22
Speaker 2: more and more days, you know. So we got to
17:24
Speaker 2: rate from one to five, from six to ten, and
17:26
Speaker 2: from eleven onwards in terms of days, and it starts
17:29
Speaker 2: to lower a little bit.
17:30
Speaker 1: So a person that's a little bit more confident traveler,
17:32
Speaker 1: they can call you up and take a twelve hundred
17:35
Speaker 1: and go off and explore the country on their own
17:38
Speaker 1: or with friends, or if they want to get a
17:40
Speaker 1: little more remote and be a little more supported, then
17:43
Speaker 1: they can also go on.
17:44
Speaker 3: Absolutely we do.
17:45
Speaker 2: We do everything from you know, fully supported tours, you know,
17:48
Speaker 2: with everything included. We pick you up at the airport
17:50
Speaker 2: and you come and you don't have to mind yourself
17:53
Speaker 2: with the time that it takes to plan a trip,
17:57
Speaker 2: you know, to pick you up.
17:58
Speaker 3: We take you on a twelve day too, or fifteen tour,
18:00
Speaker 3: a day tour.
18:01
Speaker 2: And or if you want to, like you said, you know,
18:03
Speaker 2: there's there's those travelers that tours are not that's not
18:06
Speaker 2: what they want, that's not what they're looking for.
18:07
Speaker 3: They're more on their own.
18:09
Speaker 2: They can rent the bike and go off on an
18:12
Speaker 2: ure and we're happy to provide them with the roots
18:15
Speaker 2: hotel recommendations, you know, like tell them listen, if you
18:19
Speaker 2: like this kind of thing, you should go here.
18:20
Speaker 3: If you like that, you should go there.
18:21
Speaker 2: And we also provide those, you know, so if if
18:24
Speaker 2: you're going on the rental and you don't know so
18:26
Speaker 2: much about the country, will give you as much information
18:28
Speaker 2: as you.
18:28
Speaker 3: Want to so that you have a very rich experience.
18:32
Speaker 1: So well, that's great, Mitchell, thank you so much for
18:35
Speaker 1: the time. So as you can see, Colombia is a
18:38
Speaker 1: beautiful place. It's a safe place to travel. A little
18:42
Speaker 1: bit of research and infrastructure really helps ensure that we've
18:46
Speaker 1: got brand new twelve hundred GSS available to rent. It
18:49
Speaker 1: looks like at several different sources throughout the country. So
18:52
Speaker 1: I would recommend that maybe you consider Colombia as your
18:56
Speaker 1: next adventure destination. And then also in the spirit full disclosure,
19:01
Speaker 1: I started off traveling with Micho as a journalist, but
19:06
Speaker 1: Micho and I, Maricio and I have become good friends,
19:10
Speaker 1: so I consider him to be a great friend. And
19:13
Speaker 1: I'm sharing this information obviously because I believe in his business,
19:16
Speaker 1: but I do have that personal friendship with him, which
19:20
Speaker 1: I'm sure does reflect some bias. So make sure that
19:23
Speaker 1: you also research other providers in the country of Columbia.
19:28
Speaker 1: There are other people that rent motorcycles. I just don't
19:30
Speaker 1: have personal experience with them. Get out there and enjoy it.