Today in Medellin

I guess I feel more compelled to write a blog posting when something out of the ordinary happens to us. So as everyone knows I´ve been having some problemas with my motorbike ever since we got off that catamaran. Finally today after waiting through the weekend and the national holiday(no idea which one) I was able to leave my bike with the ¨best¨mechanic in Medellin. Clay towed me to the shop behind his bike with the tow strap. The mechanic and owner whose name is CoCo agreed to have a look and turn it around in the same day and agreed to the price up front. I quitely had doubts about his confidence. We left the shop 2 up on the back of Clay´s bike and we carried on down the road the roundabout way trying to relocate our hostel. Just about a block from our hostel as we had finally figured out where the heck we were going again we were pulled over by a police officer. Great!!! I think to myself. He asks for documents, we tell him they are at the hostel. He asks for a passport.... at the Hostel. Asks for ID... um do you accept VISA??? No? um sorry got nothing for you. So we suggest that we all walk over to the hostel to show him the documents. He is having none of it and prompty gets on his cell phone and radio to call in backup. Despite Clay trying to clam me down I tell the officer that the whole situation is crazy. 5 minutes later 2 pig bikes show up each riding 2 up. So now there are 5 Colombian cops and 2 police bikes on the corner of the square. Some broken Spanish and English is exchanged. I freak out again because I don´t understand why it takes 5 cops to look at some documents back at the hostel. Clay gets 2 of the cops to agree to lead us back to the hostel at which point we show them our vehicle import papers and copies of our passports. They chill out and everything is fine. Apprantely guys riding 2up in Colombia is a big No No, the reason they tell us is that many assassinations happen with 2 guys on a bike. I´m assuming a rider and a gunman. Apprantely tho its ok for a girl to ride on the back of a bike and for motorcycle taxis to carry passengers obviously. After the ordeal is over Clay explained to me that I should not freakout around pigs in Latin America because the men down here are really macho and they don´t care if crazy white tourists shout and scream. He maybe correct but I swear my contribution to the situation helped the cops agree to come look at the docs at our hostel :) Anyways it´s not every day your pulled over because your mistaken for potiental assassins. I guess when you think about it; 2 white guys on a modded KLR wearing matching white Arai helmets looks pretty sick and if I was a Colombia cop I would probably think those 2 badasses were assassins, fo sho.
Story telling aside. I picked up my bike this afternoon and it seems to run fine. CoCo gave the motorcycle a different dignosis. He changed the sparkplug, drained the fuel and cleaned the airfilter. Seems I had some contaminated gas. Probably water got into the tank from the boat ride. Seems logical. I will accept this explanation until the next time my bike decides not to cooperate.
A quick note on Medellin. COME HERE! this city is amazing. We have only nicked the surface but everything we have seen is amazing. The Zona Rosa is several square blocks of resturants, bars and night clubs near a park. The whole area buzzes with life after the sun goes down. There is also a great motorcycle culture here. There are little shops all over that sell bikes and do repairs and sell accessories. Really hip stuff. If there was snow here (I mean for skiing you sickos not the other kind of snow) I would move here in a hot second.
Cheers big ears.