Sadly my trip has come to an end. After 12.729km and 6 countries we arrived in Bogota. 3 months sounds like a long time bit it definitely isn’t for this huge continent. The distances are very big and in some parts you can only do 180km in a day riding 10h. We‘ve seen a lot and took rest days in between but still we rode a lot and had to give many things and places a miss. I would say for the trip we’ve done 6 month would have been ideal. For entire South America you need 2-3 years at least if you don’t want to just rush through.

So we got the bikes cleaned (valet clean for 4€!) and brought them to Cargorider in Bogotá. Because the process of shipping a bike by ship out of Columbia ist not so quick and cheap Daniel and I decided to fly out the bikes in a crate, straight from BOG to FRA. Thomas will spend another 3 month in South America taking a different route back to Valparaiso in Chile. We took the front wheels, fenders and handle bar off and put two bikes in one crate. The smaller or lighter the crate is (highest number counts) the cheaper it gets. We managed to reduce the crate to 597 volumetric kilos and a net weight of 657kg. The total price was 2980USD and it was much quicker and less hassle than by ship although the Aduana was very slow once again.

I met so many great people, far to many to mention here and had very kind hospitality throughout the whole trip. The landscapes we came through were so diverse and took my breath. We didn’t had any major issues and always felt safe. Of course you have to be a bit more cautious than back home but I also think when you’re open minded, friendly and respectful most of the people treat you the same. I am very greatful I have had the opportunity to do such a trip. Most of the people in South America are poor in comparison to western standards but they are still smiling and seem to be happy with their lives. It made me think how privileged we are in our world and the sad thing is that we keep forgetting this sometimes. We are facing problems from which most of them aren’t real problems if you step back and look at them from a distance. The world is much better than we tend to think sometimes when we only live in our box. Go out to see the world and it will fill your soul!

Now it is time for a holiday :-). Bike free on the Caribbean coast in Columbia in Palomino. Basically doing nothing is high up on my Agenda before I return to Germany beginning of January. Do I really need to work again on the 16th of January?

Thanks South America, I definately will come back again!

Thanks to everyone who was following me here and thanks to Thomas and Daniel for the great company in the last months.

Happy Xmas and a Happy New Year! See you soon!