When traveling, of course things don't always go as you expect. Up until now, everything has been really great, and almost every experience I've had has been seamless. Yesterday was one of those days I knew would come, where things went pretty badly.
I was really excited to try something totally out of my comfort zone, riding a motorcycle to some destinations along the coast. I came across a great moto tour company that had some of the best reviews I've ever read, so I booked a tour with them to Palomino and Minca.
I went to their office on Saturday where I learned how to drive an automatic motorcycle, which was a little scary, but rewarding once I got the hang of things (it's like a mix of riding an electric scooter and driving stick shift). The next day, I met the guides and about 6 other guys for our tour. First stop: Palomino.
The ride there was amazing- getting out of town was a little tricky with the traffic, but once we were on the open road we passed through jungle, farms, and amazing views of the beach.
Amazing lookout point over crystal blue water
We turned off onto a dirt road to head to lunch - the best pizza in Colombia (according to the guide)! Getting a little taste of off-roading was bumpy and fun...until a car turned out from a perpendicular street and knocked right into my motorcycle. The bike knocked over and I flew off. As they say, it all happened so fast, so I don't know exactly how I fell. But I don't think the bike fell on top of me, and also luckily, I fell on dirt road and not pavement. I keep replaying things in my head, and feel extremely grateful that the accident wasn't worse. If I'd been driving faster, or it had been on the highway, or if we were on a different road, I could have gotten injured really, really badly. I guess I understand now why motorcycles have a bad reputation.
The guy behind me happened to be wearing a Go Pro on his helmet, so he caught the whole thing on video. I'm waiting for him to send me the actual video, but here is a video of the video.
It was definitely the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. At first I wasn't sure if I was seriously injured or not, but realized pretty quickly that nothing too major seemed to be wrong. A few English speaking locals/tourists gathered around the scene and helped me get some ice on my leg (the most injured part of me, where I think the car may have hit me), and checked to see if I was okay.
Disappointingly, the guides of the actual tour seemed to have no idea what to do in the situation, and seemed more concerned with whether the bike was broken than whether I was okay. They're pretty young guys, and maybe this has never happened before, but in one of the most terrifying moments of my life, I felt like nobody knew what they should be doing to help. They suggested that I just go to the Palomino hostel and rest, but when I tried to put weight on my foot, it REALLY hurt, and I wanted to go to a medical center to make sure nothing was seriously injured. The tour guys didn't know where the closest medical facility was, and ended up putting me on a bus back to Santa Marta (~2 hours ride) on my own, to meet up with the other company owner, who was still in town. I probably looked like an insane person on the bus because I couldn't stop crying from being generally shook up, injured, feeling abandoned, and also being super hungry (low blood sugar people, it will mess with your emotions!).
I made it to the urgent care center in Santa Marta, where the fun continued. To make a long story short, I was there for about 6 hours, mostly waiting for someone to look at my X-Ray to see if anything was fractured. The good news was, nothing broken! They put an extremely giant bandage around my leg scrapes, and gave me some pain killers and antibiotics. To leave the hospital, you have to have certain paperwork, such as the ownership card for the motorcycle (WHY?) which I didn't have, but the moto tour company did. So I had to wait at reception until the company emailed it to them. At one point I just started crying again because I was SO CLOSE to being done with the situation, yet unable to leave the hospital. And also, still really hungry!
Countless hours of laying here...
I have to admit, I enjoyed looking slightly badass in my giant bandage :)
Luckily, I was able to easily get a large private room at the hostel where I'd left my bags, and FINALLY got some food (two sandwiches and ice cream) and had a beer while trading war stories with some Australians: their bus literally burned down...not sure if that's better or worse than getting hit by a car!
The tour company is also going to refund almost the full price of the tour, they're keeping about $30 (out of $250) which seems fine to me since I got some lessons and part of a day with them. Also- way too exhausted to argue over $30 at this point.
Today I am going to head up to Minca by taxi, NOT motorcycle, which is an area up in the mountains with hiking and relaxation. I'm not sure if my foot is up for hiking yet, but it will be a great place to chill and rest in some cooler weather.
Let's hope this is the last kind of blog post about getting injured, and that there are only happy stories to tell from here on out!