After two and a half month in Colombia it has been very hard to leave this country. What a great start to this South American trip!
It really did tick all the boxes; from paragliding to people, music, nature, cities. If you plan a trip to South Amercia I can only recommend you to go there. And don't hesitate to contact me if you want some info relative to paragliding or just tourism.
We had a last stop in the Andean city of Pasto where we had some trouts and a nice send off night to finish off this page of the trip.
Dios y Futbol
Andean Trout fishing town
Trout time
Famous Las Lajas church before the Ecuadorian border
Just before leving of Colombia we wanted to attempt a last thing; cover some distance over a few days using our gliders and our legs. The best place to do that was the Valle del Cauca due to number of spots and the good flying conditions.
Our plan was to go from Florida (a town just east of Cali) to Ansermanuevo (a flying site north of the valle that we visited 2 weeks before) over 5 days. A total of 200kms. This route was challenging as in this season the wind can be very strong and most of the time North to South, so opposed to our route.
Day 1:
We got to Florida and met the local pilot and site administrator Adrian Villa. We had a nice evening recognition flight dodging the rain drops.
Geo and his new chauffeur
The view from take off
Action Shot
Glider and Campesino
Flying over Florida
Day 2:
That was the first day of the hike and fly. We got to take off with not much hope looking at a black sky giving us a few drops. Finally we took off with the menacing sky and managed to get a small but challenging flight in the good direction (about 10km) The track .
Menacing Sky
Sun Spot: Let's go
Not many options
Landing Zone
Just when we landed the sky seem to open up a little so maybe we could have done a bit more but we were already happy to have left Florida and started the route with such flying conditions.
The next stop was the spot of Piedechinche. We did the biggest part of the way by bus and finally did the climb to the site by foot in order to get a bit of walking in! It is really possible to never walk if you put together the great transport system and the help from locals.
View of the valley climbing to Piedechinche
Day 3:
After a great night close to take off in Piedechinche we were ready to fly some distance. But the weather decided differently. The whole day was cloudy, "frio" as they call it. So no distance was possible. We had a few flights includng a pleasant evening flight and decided to wait for the next day for better weather.
At home in Piedechinche
Take off at Piedechinche
View at the landing
Day 4:
Another day of waiting on take off with no great conditions. This is the joy of hike and fly and more generally paragliding. You can't always be lucky and have great weather.
So we decided to completely change our plan and to head by bus to Roldanillo further north in order to fly back south towards Cali.
Day 5:
The famous flying site of Roldanillo didn't disappoint us. We could see friencly cumulus from 9 in the morning and going up to take off the sky was only getting better. We "only" had to do it!
Going up to take off
Getting ready with promising sky!
We set off towards the southg quite quickly flying together through clouds and over valleys. After the few days of bad weather it was a great feeling to get some proper flying!
Geo following me out of the cloud
After two valleys Geo landed due to difficult conditions and one bad decision that got him grounded near powerlines. An interesting landing I have heard :) .
I continued my route towards the south. On the way I found a nice ridge on which I landed for a pipi stop. It is always much easier to fly with the mind and the body free of this kind of inconvenience.
Nice stop
Then I found myself stuck with strong head winds (no luck, the only day with a southerly). And fought in broken lift a bit lee side. Suddenly I found a big thermal really close to the ground that got me back up to 2700m.
Fighting against the wind
Then I went for the valley crossing that was easier than I thought it will be.
Valley crossing looking at the north
I got to Tulua on the other side of the Valley where I got litteraly escorted by some birds for a good while. It was great as they showed me the thermal and the best gliding routes.
Escort
Getting north of Tulua I did a super low save at about 50m above ground. The thermal got me once again at 2700m and I continued my route into wind towards the south.
Crossng Valley north of Tulua
I did continue for a little bit more over the mountains but the wind was getting strong and the thermals scarce. I finally landed after another 4:20 hours of flight and 60 km done in the good direction.
We didn't manage to do a hike and fly as such. We haven't been helped much by the weather conditions and the great transport system. But overall we had a great few days of wandering through the Valle del Cauca met some cool pilots and tested our equipment for this type of trip (it is hard to keep it light!).
On the Monday morning after the five days of festival in Cali we got woken up by our new French friends leaving the hostel for the Pacific coast of Colombia. This trip wasn't in our plans, but well sometimes you have to improvise. Half an hour after we had our bags ready and sorted out a solution to leave our gliders in Cali. The next hour we were in a bus driving west towards Buenaventura.
As we were a bit too late to catch a boat in Buenaventura to get to the coastal village of Juanchaco we decided to stop in San Cipriano.
San Cipriano is a little town lost in the Jungle inland. One of the main attraction of the place is the transport to get there. The only way to get to the village other than by foot (which would take a few hours) is to use the railway system originally constructed to carry the sugar cane from the Cauca Valley to the Buenaventura's harbour. As there are not many trains passing there the locals developped ingenious vehicles called "brujitas" (small witch) sorts of motorbiked propelled benches racing full blast througfh the jungle. The ride with our crazy pilot called "El Diablo" was thrilling!
The ride
Brujita
A part of the team
The town itself was no more than one main street. We quickly found an accomodation and headed to the river. It was a delight to swim in fresh waters in the middle of the tropical forest. It got even more exciting when a big storm with moonsoon rain rolled in.
At night we wanted to have a quiet one, but on the west coast of Colombia Monday night like every other night is a night of music and dance. So of course we ended up in one of the casa dancing like crazies with some amazing black womens amused by our weird moves.
The next day was the time for our first encounter with the Pacific ocean. We arrived in Buenventura in the morning and sorted out a few things before embarking in one of the small boats towards the coastal villages. Buenaventura doesn't have a great feel for the tourists has it has the reputation of being very dangerous. It is the main port of Colombia in the Pacific ocean and is home to many traffics starting with cocaine.
After a few hours waiting on the peer we finally set off in a small speed boat. Another time it was a crazy experience. The driver couldn't see anything in front due to the angle of the boat so he was assisted by a guy standing at the front pointing in the water to the massive logs floating so the pilot could do a sharp turn to evite them. Really I was happy when we arrived!
Getting the boat ready
First view of the coast
Fishing Village
Being with some Colombians was fantastic. They got us a really good deal for accomodation and food in a small village a bit further on the coast.
We stayed in the house of Señora Donia Oralia in "La Barra" for 4 days. She took care of our group of 14 as her own family.
Home
During our stay we had some amazing time. We went to swim in fresh water in the mangroves, where we nearly got stuck with a broken engine and the night coming :) . Took the same boat and engine to go see the whales breeding off the coast. And swam at night with some lightning plancton!
Here are a few photos:
Setting off to the mangrove
The team in the mangrove
Que rico El Pacifico!
The beaches were amazing with black sand and imposing surrounding forest. However it was surprising to see the amount of junk lying on the coast. It seems that most of the Colombians living in these places still don't have any environmental awareness.
We really enjoyed this time, it was great to be part of such a good group it such a special place, but soon it was time again to hit the road. We had itchy feet and more so itchy gliders. We really wanted to go get another dose of air time.
After our stop in Salento we headed to Cali (the Salsa capital of America Latina) for the Festival de Música del Pacífico: El Petronio Álvarez. The Petronio is a music festival decicated to the music of the Pacific coast of Colombia and more generally to the afrocolombian culture.
The festival was a blast! Five days straight of music and dance. Trust me, we unlocked our hips and sweated buckets. It was funny to see all the blacks getting their smartphones out to film the dancing gringos. They were impressed and pleased to see that we were having so much fun and that we didn't hesitate to join fully the party. Again we have been interviewed casi every night :)
The people were fueled with Viche, an alcohol based on sugar cane that comes in different color and tastes. The most appreciated one, which is transparent, was for me very similar to gasoline or white spirit, but well you've got to learn to appreciate a culture and its specialities...
Viche Stand
The rest of the time in Cali we enjoyed the feel of this city. It is not particularly beautiful, but the nightlife and the people are great. We met again with some travelling friends for some great nights. Learned a lot of Salsa and went to swim in the river. There we also met another big group of travellers from France and Colombia with whom we stuck for a while. The main langage in the group was Spanish which was good for my progression. By the way I am getting better!
On the not so good side, I got attacked one of the nights by a group of five with knives very close to a street full of people. I could do absolutely nothing and so was Geo and the people who could see everything. I just letted them take everything from my pockets. Everything was not much as I only take a bit of cash with me on nights out, and moreover they didn't find the biggest bank note I had in my pocket. It was just a very stressful moment, but well these things happen in every big city and even more so during a massive festival.
