Celtic Rover
The community of land rover owners is amazingly strong across the world and in Bogota the heartbeat is strong. As word of my accident spread across my overlanding connections on the internet the local Land Rover club stepped up with offers of support and advice. Within a few hours as WhatsApp group had been set up by Sergio Mederios connecting me with Edgar Gomez and Carlo Ocampo in Bogota. They quickly invited me to the weekend meeting of the Bogota chapter of “The Legion” at Laguna Seca off road course.
Normally I just put the country stickers on my truck but as you can see Nelson is now adopted in the Legion of Land Rovers Colombia. I had a lovely weekend as Nelson was the only pop-roof and long term Overlanding truck at the show so attracted a lot of attention, I am always happy to talk people through the truck so ended up doing regular tours for fellow Land rover geeks for a day and a half.
For many of the folks who are keen on Land Rovers the idea of travelling around the world in one is an aspirational dream, so to have the chance to talk to me and tour Nelson in some way makes that dream more real. I was lucky to have a constant stream of genuinely interested enthusiasts to talk through my trip and the set up of the truck.
Many of the Land Rovers here are the Santana Series type made in Spain, many of them are beautifully restored but they are well used as Land Rovers should be. The meeting was in the centre of a very comprehensive off road course and folks could blast around the track all the time through the meeting for free
Here are a couple of well loved and well used Landys
In many ways the Land Rover show in Bogota was just like the same type of show in the UK, at first it was wet and muddy and we had to shelter from the pelting rain. The big difference came in the evening when the Salsa music started and the beer began to flow, everyone from kids to grandparents was up dancing for half the night with a DJ spinning great salsa music, these folks could teach us a thing or two about partying at car events !
First thing the following morning I was woken up from my dreams by the sounds of Salsa and when I looked out of the truck the first thing I saw was the scene above, a dance class in the sunshine complete with instructor !
Thanks to my new friends some further adjustment to Nelson was completed and I was very kindly given a new hose for my radiator by Carlos so my spares are fully up to date. I also had a very nice barbecue to send me on the way to the airport to pick up Errol my first passenger of the trip and we are now enjoying the buzzing nightlife of Bogota.
Welcome on board Errol
