On The Condor Trail: Back to Bogotá, the first flights and Geo's arrival

A bit of music to start with:

After a strenuous stay in Medellin I took the bus back to Bogotá where Geo, my travelling buddy for the rest of the trip, was arriving. The bus journey between Medellin and Bogotá has been a nightmare. As the main bus was full I had to take another company which was cheaper, but definitely less classy. I had the only seat that couldn't lean, the bus got into a minor accident just outside Medellin that got us to wait for the police to come for about 3 hours, the aircon was leaking on my face and to finish it up the girl on the seat in front of me threw up. Anyway, that's the joy of travelling.
Waiting for Geo I went for my first flight just outside Bogotá in a site called La Calera. There I met up with Jeisson, a local pilot that also happens to be the U-Turn (glider brand) retailer. He arrived with the radiator of his cars in his hands saying that it might be difficult to drive up to the flying site with his ride. Jeisson has been a great help and straight away gave me loads of contacts and usefull information.

Geo, Jeisson and some local pilots

I didn't think the day would work out as the wind looked strong and some showers were passing, but after two hours and a half chatting at the petrol station another car arrived and offered to drive me and a local pilot to the site. The end of the walk on foot made me realise quickly that we were at some altitude (about 2800m) as I was strugling to go at my usual pace. Arriving at the site the wind was good and despite of the menacing sky we took off. We quickly climbed over the take off and discovered the view over Bogotá.

Bogotá{s view from La Calera

The flight was good, but we had to dodge the drops! It was raining everywhere, wich doesn't seem to bother the local pilot that was doing all sorts of acro tricks on his old ran down glider.

Flying in the Rain

Rainbow from above

Happy Pilot

Geo arrived in the afternoon fairly late. We went for another flight straight away the next day on the same spot, but with a bit less rain.

Geo Flying in La Calera

For the next days, we just visited Bogotá and partied quite hard. We had a very funny night where we ended up in a salsa club that looked like a second hand shop or a Souq. Full of stuff. Stuffed animals, old TV's, cutlery and anything you could imagine. The owner, Arturo didn't even had space on the bar to serve beers.

Mathilde with her new friend

At some point Arturo's mum, a short woman dressed in pink and glitter stop the music to sing folkloric songs. It was great, "una chimba!", as they say here. At the end of the night (around 6 a.m.) after much more dancing and different places we ended up in a flat were one of the Guys was offering haircuts. A shame that Geo didn't had the money at the time as he really wanted to refresh his haircut.

But as things always happen very easily here, we bumped into the very guy the next day and he offered to cut Geo's hair in his flat.

Geo during his haircut

After these few days in Bogotá we decided to head up north as some friends that I had met in La Guajira (Alex and Felicity) very kindly offered to invite us in their Finca (which means farmhouse but is used for a house in the counrtry side).

Bonuses: