San Felix

San Felix has been an amazing stop. We arrived there in the morning after a long bus from Bucaramanga. Even if we didn´t had much sleep we quickly understood, taking the bus that was climbing above Medellin, that this day was not made to rest, but to fly.

View from the breakfast

Just arrived, we met with Dairo, a local pilot, friend of our contact who gave us the key of the small house that we were renting close the take off area. As expected, the place was quite rustic, but well, it is four walls some water runing and even some electricity, what else do we need! Especially when we are renting the place for less than 5 pounds a night for two.

The Palace

So after dropping the bags, we headed to take off to get something to eat. Dairo and his friends were motivated to go cross country, so we joined the team to attempt a distance flight.

The conditions were super good, so off we went. We quickly reached cloud base and started to think about leaving, but we were there before the locals. Anyway we decided to go for it. Bad idea! We went the wrong route. We didn´t fully understood (or listen) the advices. So I jumped to the next valley and encountered strong winds and turbulences. I finally found a place to land inbetween the motorway and some high voltage overhead lines. An interesting flight.

Landing zone

The next few days, we started to get into a routine of going flying every morning and evening (was strong at mid day) and go to the pueblo at night for some food and a few beers. It was very calm as most of the nights were done by 9.30 p.m. It is interesting, this place just out of Medellin was the proper country side. Only farmers and no tourists just there at the door of the second city of Colombia.

In the afternoons, we had some tremendous soaring conditions, with great views over Medellin and the country side.

Medellin

The back country

Geo flying over Medellin

The conditions were perfect to try a few maneouvres, so we took advantage of it.

The local pìlots once again were absolutely amazing and the kids fearless. It seems that here in Colombia there is no Week End pilots. You either fly every day or you don´t fly. That for sure makes an experienced pilot in a year time.

Crazy kid standing in his harness

The last day in San Felix, the conditions were not at their best (but still flyable as usual), so we couldn´t fullfill our desire to go cross country flying. Speaking with one of the local pilot we got a super good plan. Go to the other side of the big mountain to fly down to Santa Fe de Antioquia. This was perfect for us as it associated a bit of adventure and some touristic visit as the town of Santa Fe is a nice touristic highlight. It is better to go for a visit flying than by bus!

So after one bus, a mototaxi and an unxepcted pick-up ride we were at the other side of the mountain enjoying the view of the valley that the 900m of denivelation were offering us. The next goal was to find a take off area and as we were on the lee side of the hill we needed to hike down a little. Finally we found the perfect spot and prepared the wings carefully to ensure that we would go with no problem.

Looking for a take off

Just ready we got a a nice thermic breeze and off we went. We didn´t find any thermal to go to Santa Fe, but had a super nice 20min glide to San Jeronimo where we landed at the petrol station.

The view

Gliding down

At landing with the locals

Then we took  taxi to go visit Santa Fe. It was another beautiful colonial village, but we a nice relaxed feel. Not too many foreigners, mainly Colombians eating massive (maybe I should say gigantic) bowls of icecream. This little adventure was a nice end to the San Felix stop. 

Then we decided to leave our hill and go down into the hearth of crazy Medellin for a few days of party enhanced by the "Feria de las Flores" event.

Bonus:

The adventurers looking at Medellin thinking of the next party