were starting to get nervous . Then we could hear a vehicle in the distance . It was really quite a miracle as we hadn ’ t passed a single car all day . A big yellow bus came at us at a considerable speed . I was relieved when it came to a stop just a couple of metres behind us . We immediately recognised a familiar face .
“ Que pasa ?”, a local tour guide who had a passion for motorcycles had struck up a conversation with us at the bottom of Cerro Negro . He could see we were in trouble .
The guide helped me get off my bike as I was limping towards his bus . “ What about my bike ?” I asked . “ Jose !”, I heard him call . Jose was towards the end of the bus and came out . They pointed at the bike and asked him to ride it . Needless to say , that Jose had no protective gear and our XS sized helmets didn ’ t help . Jose had never ridden a bike bigger than 125cc . But he was riding sand every single day .
“ Same as yours , just bigger ,” they suggested .
Luckily , Jose was quite tall . The seat height of the BMW F800GS is quite high , and our customised seat raised it by another 2-3 cm . Jose was off and we sat in the bus together with all the tourists who had booked this day trip at their hostel . We were incredibly lucky . Not only did we have a ride back to Leon , but the Bigfoot hostel just so happened to be directly next to our hotel . Jose was already waiting for us and kindly rode the bike up the steps back in the hotel reception . The receptionist who had advised us not to ride to Cerro Negro independently was horrified when he saw us .
The owner of the hotel happened to pass by and insisted on driving us to the local hospital . After a few hours I had my x-ray confirming that I had only sprained my ankle . So , we bought some crutches and accepted that we wouldn ' t be going anywhere in the next few weeks .
It took a month until I felt I could attempt riding the bike again . And although walking on crutches in hot temperatures is always exhausting , I couldn ’ t have wished for a nicer place for us to stay . We moved from our hotel to a cheaper place which had a pool , took some Spanish lessons , and enjoyed this colourful city and its charm as much as we could .
Did I regret riding to Cerro Negro ? Not one bit !
After my foot and ankle healed , I made a conscious decision to gain better off-road riding skills and booked some training in Colombia . I also decided to switch to soft luggage , and this helped us downsize significantly and travel lighter . Yes , it was frustrating to be stuck in some ways for so long in one location . But we made the best of the situation , and it was great feeling local for a little while . SS
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