CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
I spent my first day in Cartagena trying to find a motorcycle. It’s not as easy as it was a few years ago, I’ve been told – most of the visitors here stay in hotels on the beach and have little interest in braving third-world traffic.

I set plan B into action – drink a beer on the beach.

I met a Colombian guy named Alex who was absolutely sure he could get me one, so we ran all around the city and talked to about a dozen different people. After two hours we ended up in a cake shop, where the owner put on a huge smile and ushered us into the back yard. The two unveiled their prize moto, but weren’t so happy when I told them it wouldn’t make it up the Andes:

Disappointed but not deterred, I found the motorbike district outside of the center and tried my luck at buying a used one. I found a sweet 100cc Honda for about four hundred dollars, but I don’t speak a single word of Spanish and I was foiled by an inscrutable mountain of paperwork. I’m told it’s easier to find rentals in Barranquilla, the next city up the coast, so I’m taking a bus in that direction tomorrow morning.

All else fails, I’m getting one of these babies.