The paramilitary group didn't rob me

Feeding the hens. Santander, Colombia. 

My contact in Barranquilla, Colombia was the brother of the neighbor of the daughter of the owner of a restraunt that some cyclists in Chiapas, Mexico showed me.

His name is Eduardo and he lives with his wife Erika and his son Johnathan. 

Eduardo.

Erika.

Johnathan. 

Eduardo picked me up from the airport after 24 hours traveling from the US. Immediately we went to a birthday party. His teenage son Johnathan goes to a German immersion school and we celebrated the birthday of his classmate. 

Sleep-deprived at the birthday party. 

After the birthday party we went out to eat. 

Still sleep deprived, eating yummy food. 

I felt amazed that this family I had never met before took me in and helped me so much with everything.

The next day I built a new bicycle wheel because my old rim was cracked. 

New rim, spokes, nipples, tire. 

More bike maintenance - fresh bar tape. 

On the Malecón with Johnathan in the evening. 

Erika fed me delicious Colombian food all the time.

I hung out with Johnathan and his highschool classmates. 

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During my trip to the US I lost an important ziplock bag which contained my yellow fever immunization record. At a health clinic, I explained the situation and showed them my passport and a picture of the lost immunization record. They gave me a new one for free and it only took 15 minutes. This was one of the most surprising things on my whole trip; I thought I would be difficult and expensive the get a new copy of this important legal document. But it was easy!

New yellow fever card.

Thank you Eduardo, Erika, and Johnathan for everything.

28 September 2023 Day 321

Time to keep biking. 

Eduardo and Erika gave me a ride in one of their classic trucks a few km out of Barranquilla.

Along a quiet dirt road I paused to take this picture:

As I was starting to ride again, three men on two motorbikes stop. They indicate for me to stop as well. 

They tell me to take everything off the bike. 

I guess I'm getting robbed? I take a deep breath, feel the adrenaline, and pretend I don't speak Spanish. 

"No hablo español. Tienen tranductor?"

I feign confusion. But I don't feel confused. 

One man carrys a holstered handgun. Another wears a black balaclava. They appear in their 30s. They have machetes. 

"Tienes camera?"

They don't want to be filmed.

"No entiendo, platicamos!" I announce in the worst Spanish accent I can muster. 

They start poking at my things.

"Oh, van a robarme?" I say. 

They tell me to follow them towards a shady area to escape the sun. Their request to leave the public area is a red flag. I feign confusion and put on my sunhat. (Sombra: shade, sombrero: sunhat)

They request my ID. I open my bag to get out my passport. They see my camera and I hand it over. One looks at my passport and learns that I am American while another looks through my pictures. 

Because they wanted me to follow them to another location, I'm afraid that they mean more harm than a simple robbery, so I activate the SOS function on my GPS without them noticing. 

One of them calls their boss(?), and tells them that I don't want to go to the shade. 

During this all, several other motorists pass by, and I shout "me roban, ayudame por favor!" (they're robbing me, please help) The men tell the other motorists to continue on their way. 

Then the men begin telling me that they are actually not robbing me. 

They sift through the tops of my bags and take pictures. They take out my debit card and my local currency. I share some trail mix with them and they say it's tasty. 

They tell me that they are actually authority and they aren't robbing me. 

If they aren't police or military, what authority are they? But if they aren't authority, why aren't they taking my money? I now feel confused. 

They take pictures of me and my passport. 

They give me back the local currency (worth 40 USD), my passport, my camera. 

They tell me to put my things away. Where is my bank card? I ask. They tell me I have it, but I can't find it. Eventually one of them double checks his wallet. He has my bank card. He gives me back my bank card. I genuinely don't know whether he meant to keep my bank card or not. 

If they want me to believe that they are authority, the will have to play the part. So I ask their names and one man gives their names, but the other doesn't want to give their names. I ask if they control the area until the next town. One says yes and another says no. And they say they need to leave now. They tell me not to speak of this interaction, and they are increasingly rushing to leave. I accept their handshakes, and they leave in the direction they came from. 

I cancel the SOS call and stand there in confusion. Why did they not rob me? The confusion is frightening. I feel exhilarated. I ride in the opposite direction towards a nearby town.

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That night I stayed in a hotel with air conditioning (11.5 USD).

After discussing the encounter with numerous local people and friends as well, I reached a plausible explanation:

The men were indeed authority figures of an organized crime/narcotics/paramilitary group (one local man suggested the 'Clan del Golfo' group specifically). They needed to know what the strange man on a strange bicycle on a small road was doing in their territory, and thought perhaps they could rob me in the process. After being exposed in public, encountering a language barrier, and realizing I'm an American citizen, they decided that I was nonthreatening, and that robbing me may be more trouble than it's worth. 

An organized crime group has other income sources, and creating problems with a foreigner could interfere with their business. 

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29 September 2023 Day 322

Restraunt patio

Patacones, egg, berry juice

35°C (95°F) and humid today. 

In the evening I asked to use my tent at a truck stop. They said it was not permitted. But a hotel room with AC was only 9 USD. A trucker overheard my conversation and offered to pay for the hotel room. Wow, so generous, thank you. This sort of thing makes me a little uncomfortable because I can afford it, but I'm just stingy. And I know that 9 USD represents more work for that guy than it would be for me in the USA. 

Hotel room.

In the evening the trucker comes knocking on my hotel room door and offers me a ride in his truck the next morning. 

I don't normally accept rides, but because of the horrible weather, highway riding, lack of camping, and security risks, I said yes. 

30 September 2023 Day 323

We left at 5AM.

I was sandwiched between the trucker and his work partner in the bumpy truck with no AC for the 8 hour drive. 

We stopped for lunch and he paid for me. 

Then he dropped me off at a highway interchange where he was going west and I needed to go east. 

As I'm readying my bicycle I start chatting with a girl my age on the street corner. She is waiting for a motorbike to pick her up to go to a soccer game. She will compete in the game and it's the finals of an annual tournament. 

So I decided to go to the soccer game instead of continuing my route.

It turns out that it's not only a soccer game but also a party with live music and hundreds of people and a fair. Then within two minutes a woman invites me to her house for food. 

This woman invites me to her house. Her name is Negra. 

Negra feeds me meat and plantains and agua de canela. 

Unfortunately I missed the women's game while at Negra's house. But the girl I met told me that they won! Then we watched the men's game together. 

Men's game.

Party afterwards. 

I get along with this girl and we both end up sleeping at Negra's house after the party. 

We hang out together the next day, but she has to go to a different town to pick up her passport, and I need to continue biking. 

So the biking continues. 

2 October 2023 Day 325

Cool rocks 😎

There is a lot of petroleum extraction in this area. 

Scenery

King-sized millipede. 

Fun-sized snake. 

Taxi on rough dirt roads.

3 October 2023 Day 326

In San Vincente I hung out in the park and played my record. A whole crowd of people came to question me and offer me things.

One man bought me hot chocolate and a tamale. Thank you. 

San Vincente is at about 700 meters above sea level. Chocolate and coffee are very important here. Coffee is more prevalent at higher elevations and chocolate at lower elevations. 

Cocoa pod. 

Man with coffee and ice cream stand on the left. 

He gave me two ice creams and some coffee. Thank you. He also invited me to stay with him in San Vincente, but I decided to keep biking.

Oranges are grown here, too. These ones had fallen off a truck.

I stayed with a family for two nights at 1200 meters, where it was finally an acceptable temperature. 

I helped them chop firewood and install a new-to-them gas 4-burner stove.

She was excited to upgrade from wood to gas for cooking.

This rooster is for fighting. 

Injecting medicine.

The feathers on the legs are removed to help disperse bodyheat during a fight. Fighting roosters is illegal here, as it is in the United States. It is a part of the culture.

Processing coffee. 

Dinner. They fed me delicious food. Thank you for everything. 

6 October 2023 Day 329

At a roadside stop, a man drinking Corona and wearing designer clothes opens our conversation by saying that I could mix races with his daughter and that he has lots of money. 

I tell him that's not his decision and I laugh at the absurdity. 

His companion says: "We are narco bosses. We pay the police and the politicians and carry guns. That's why we have this nice car and can relax and drink beer. Do you do cocaine?" I make small talk and learn that narcotics is a good business for them, and their parents did it before them. 

Eventually they drive off, intoxicated, and another man invites me to stay with his family for the night. He works in the petroleum industry in a different town, but visits his property here when he has free time. 

I forgot his name. (Not a narco boss, I think).

I follow him and his wife to their property and we go on a driving tour of some nearby historic towns with their three kids. 

There are many fossils to be found all over their property. 

I ask if fossils can tell you where to find oil. Apparently the oil is only in the flat lands, because it's a liquid and it flows downhill. So in these hills, there are fossils but no oil. 

7 October 2023 Day 330

I meet up with the girl from the soccer game in San Gil and we enjoy each other's company for a few short days. 

She likes to cook and I learn how to make patacones. 

11 October 2023 Day 334

Again we part ways, and I leave San Gil to the east. 

Finally I can ride at higher elevation, 2000+ meters.

Camped at construction site.

Zipper pull damaged from salt water during my kayak trip.

Coffee drying in the middle of the street. Don't run over it!!

Camped right next to the road. Local people consider this region to be particularly safe, and the road had no traffic overnight. 

This man is playing a game called Turmequé.

Turmequé is the name of the town in Boyacá, Colombia, where the game comes from. It's like cornhole. Instead of a sandbag, players throw a stone disc. Instead of a wooden board, there is a slanted plane of soft mud. Instead of a hole, players aim at a folded piece of paper which explodes upon impact. 

The target.

A piece of shrapnel cut my eyelid.

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Map.

Epilogue:

Later, the girl from the soccer game asked me for a loan to cover unexpected costs involved in her trip to the USA. It pained me, but I said no. People have helped me so much during my travels, I really wanted to help her go to the USA to work. But in reality, we just met, and I was ripe for being scammed. I hope she can still go to the USA.