Sucre: La silla, Cross in Ecuador

Leaving from the pacific coast full of beautiful images, salt and mosquito bites we made our way towards Sucre, a little village a little bit inland close to Portoviejo, the capital of the Manabi province.
Sucre is a very relaxed "pueblo" where there is not much to do appart of going to the market to enjoy a Batido (a sort of yogurt smoothie) and have a beer on the main square at night. Our drive to go to this place was once again paragliding.

Sucre's main square

Close to Sucre there is the flying spot of La Silla (The Chair) a flat plateau used to take off in nearly all wind directions with a flat valley in front and some mountains a bit further making for some good cross country opportunities. This is the second cross country site of Ecuador after the flat land spot of Bototillo near Guayaquil.

Take off

Take off from above

The first day we met up with a local pilot Jamil, as usual super friendly. He took us up to the take off. The day seemed to be working, we could already see a few birds thermalling. We letted Jamil take off with his tandem and got ready with some Buena Vista Social Club going strong out of our portative speaker.

Getting ready

Jamil went down to land quite quickly followed by Geo while I managed to get a few thermals and go for a little bimble around. After a while I found myself super low and fought in broken lift to stay up. I finally managed to find a strong thermal that got me up from 80m to above take off. It seems that these low saves are starting to be one of my specialities. After a while playing above take off the day started to get going for real and I went for some distance in the direction of Portoviejo. After about 10km I could see the moist air coming from the sea and the strong see breeze with it, making the way towards Portoviejo a dead end. So I took the decision to come back towards take off. The sky was beautiful and I could hear in the radio some local pilots in flight achieving what appeared to be a great flight. I then found out that they made the Ecuadorian distance record on that day with a 114km flight from Guayaquil to the Manabi province where we were flying.
Back over take off I had lot of height and Jamil was exhorting me to do a few manoeuvres to get down rapidly to join him for a beer (they already had a few with Geo following me in the car). So I practice some stalls and bakwards flying as well as a few SATs. It was a lot of fun.
Track from the flight

Sucre from the air

The valley with take off on the right

 
The second day was very frio (cold) so we went for a chillout day with a little walk and some internet catch up.
It is funny to hear the weather description here close to the Ecuador. There is no weather front, stable, unstable days or wave clouds it is only Caliente (hot, good for flying) or Frio (cold not good for flying).

Typical house

Banana plants

At night after enjoying some aguardiente (strong liquor from cane) on the main square and hearing a little more about the Sucre hip hop scene we headed up to a traditional ball. It was great! It is a shame that we don't have any photos of it. But color lights and good cumbia made up for a great night of dancing.

Hip Hop

The next day we headed to take off . The day seemed alright but not that good. Anyway we waited for the good moment and went for it. Geo quickly found a thermal and I followed him. Gaining some good altitude I crossed the valley to start the distance flight and Geo followed me after a while with more altitude. It seemed that he was getting better than me! I'm not gonna deny it, it got a bit on my nerves and I made a few bad decisions. Half an hour after Geo was only a point floating high above the mountains while I was at about 50m above the ground ready to land. After fighting once again super low I made my way up to cloud base and got back into my flight. The second part of the flight was really enjoyable cruising over the more mountaineous areas discovering some great landscapes.

Cloud surfing

At tree level but the birds are there!

Eventually the sea breeze came in and I started to make my way south tired of fighting against the wind. There I was going above fairly big mountain ranges with no retreive options, which is always more exciting.

It was funny to hear some Cumbia, crossing one of these remotes valleys at 1400m of altitude. People definitely live with music.
I finally landed in the middle of the banana plantations. I thought I was alone, but when I turned around I saw a group of people watching me taking a piss. The good news is that they had swimming trunks, which meant river and a swim!

Packing crew

Landing

Reward

Finally I managed a 38km flight with some great views. Just a little bit more than Geo who got his record flight with some impressive skills!
The track is here

After this great day we headed up for a crazy night in Montanita (5hours of bus), the famous surfer resort. This was a full day!