San Gil

When we arrived in San Gil by night with our two big bags each and no hotel reservation, we thought, ouch, maybe it's gonna be a bit tricky. But not at all, as anything during our trip so far everything came to us naturally. As we just arrived in the hostel a guy came to us asking "guys are you paragliding pilots? do you want to come fly tomorrow?", and the only thing to do was to say "Claro que si!". So there we were, with an accomodation and a plan for the morning to go flying.

Arriving at the canyon

We flew for three days in a row in the canyon of Chicamocha. A top class place for thermal flying. I managed to get some really good altitude and could have went for cross country on most of the days, but some strong rain was surrounding the dry canyon. So I used this altitude to practice a few maneouvres, SAT and big wing overs, it was really nice to do it with 1000m plus under your feet.
After going a few days in a row to the same spot we started to know a bit better the team of tandem pilots. One of them, Richard, told us that we could rent his little house in Medellin at 2 mins walking from the take off and also that we could stay with his family in an other spot later on in the trip. So we were already set for accomodation in two other places, when I say that Colombia is easy! It is going to be hard to leave this country.

The canyon in flight

More Canyon

Head down

The local pilots were really impressive with their take off and top landing in thermic condition. We even saw one of the tandem pilot Sergio (a super nice guy) who got caught in a dust devil (a sort of mini tornado) coming to landing it could have been a serious thing, but thanks to his skills everything ended up well and passenger and pilot ended up sharing a beer together on the main square at night.

At the end of our stay in San Gil, we had quite a night out, with a lot of salsa dancing. The clubs were all located under the gas station, so you end up drinking with the truckers next to the gas pump; party with style. 

The next morning I decided that the moment was right to change my facial hair style and headed to the barber to get a Vallenato singer (folklore from the carribean coast) style moustache. I haven't been disappointed.

Moustache time

Bonus:

Geo and Fruits