Otra Cosas (other things)

Way back when we were in Santa Rosa, on a Sunday afternoon, we heard sirens and shouting coming from the street below our hotel window. We looked down on the street and what it was was the completion of a bike rally and the bikers were being lead into town by police and military and in the midst of the parade were trucks with broken down bikes and their broken down riders. They came from near and far and there was every type, color and description of bike

Not only in parades but we see military transportation like this often. They also have other jobs like stopping our busses and frisking us, keeping the roads safe.
One of the many trucks with broken down bikes and riders.
All the riders congregated in the central park and prizes were awarded for various catagories.
As mentioned earlier, the riders came from great distances and this truck was used to transport the bikes home from the rally. This is the beginning of loading this truck and you can just see the bikles peaking over the sides.
And here they have them heaped up and overflowing. My we chuckled watching them load them. There were many bosses but finally it got finished and they used rope to wrap it all together. This truck had over a 100km to go and it held over 100 bikes. What a puzzle to sort them all when they arrived home.

As soon as we arrived in Armenia. we were hungry so went to the 7th floor of our hotel for a quiet lunch. It didn't stay quiet for long as Nancy was looking out over the city and noticed smoke coming from a building about a block away. It only took a few minutes for it to look like this and we could feel the heat from our open air restaurant. We didnt know whether to run or hang out for the good view. We finished our lunch and paid the bill in case we had to evacuate. We could hear fire sirens from afar but no fire trucks arrived for at least 30 minutes and by that time there was only a shell left.

The building was a bank and the picture below shows how they blocked off the street to prevent any body entering the area. They had 4 different streets blocked off in this manner.

Last year we visited with Javier who has concessions in the Coffee Park out of Armenia. This year we returned to his home and were greeted by two margaritas. It was the first time Nancy and I had tasted margaritas but we no doubt will try them again. They were yummy.



And this is Javier and Ron and Javier's Willys. He gave us a ride from the coffee park to his home and it was pouring rain but he also gave us rain gear so we didn't get too wet. We spent a few very enjoyable hour with Javier and learned lots from his knowledge of Colombia. By the way, he speaks perfect english.

And finally, a blood donor clinic in Colombia. In the central park in Armenia. No need for walls and windows and insulation here.