La Paz

Waw, La Paz quite a shock after all this time in the middle of nowhere. A massive city made of red bricks located at an altitude of 3600m just under the altiplano. The agglomeration is literally like a massive octopus that would spread his tentacles in all the nearby valleys. The setting is really impressive as it is possible to see the huge snow capped mountains of the cordillera real from many spots in the city.

View of La Paz from El Alto

Straight away I had quite a nice feel with the city. Yes it is true, it is a bit cahotic, can be quite dangerous, but I liked the dynamism, the colors in the market and the overall atmosphere. Sometimes it is hard to know why you like a city, but I was definitely feeling good there.

We visited the city for a few days as the paragliding guys of Andes Extremo were busy with other stuff. A good opportunity to get re-acclimated to altitude climbing the steep streets.

The entire city is like a massive market. There is a street for everything you are looking for. The electronic neighbourhood, the fruit neighbourhood, the stolen stuff, the spices, the clothes.... Really fun to go shopping in La Paz, but it takes a bout a day wandering in the maze before you find everything you are looking for.

After a few days, the day of flying arrived. We met up with the Alem brothers from Andes Extremo and got out of the city to the flying spot of Yanari.
The spot is amazing, located right in front of the massive Illimani (highest peak of the cordillera Real with 6438m). We got really lucky with the weather as the whole cordillera was cloud free.

View from the take off

Yes it's a good spot!

The day was pretty stable. A few pilots went straight down, but we managed to find a good thermal and climbed out. The views of the altiplano were stunnning. Geo got blocked by an inversion layer at 4250m. I managed to go through it and got to the altitude of 4880m.

The altiplano with La Paz in the distance

More Altiplano with the Huyana Potosi in the distance

The usual cross country route is towards La Paz, but this doesn't give much space to do a long cross country. On this day I got the chance to get nearly zero wind, so I decided to go towards the south to see what it would give.

The view on the other side

I crossed a few little valleys a managed to make my way to a big ridge right in front of the Illimani. I was really tempted to carry on towards the south, but it would have made the rescue complicated. So I made a turn point a the end of the ridge and started to come back, thinking I could maybe fly all the way back to La Paz, which would have been a great cross country flight.

The ridge with the turn point antenna

Selfiellimani

On the way back the conditions were really turbulent and this time I really struggled to pass through the inversion layer, but finally got it.

The way back

Then I commited an error passing under it another time, not being patient enough (need to learn to take my time more!!!), so I landed in the valley, just short of 2 kilometers to the official landing site. A great flight any way.     THE TRACK

This has been the only flight in La Paz, but a memorable one. Thanks to the Andes Extremo team for taking us there.

We got back to La Paz to enjoy a massive fruit sald in the market (1 pound for a mountain of fruit and ice cream!)

Bonus Pics:

Cuenca

We quickly left from the surfer's town of Montanita. Its atmosphere of crazy parties drugs and alcool was a bit too much for us. One good night with our travelling friends Omar and Dario was enough.
After a 6 hours bus journey throught the Caja national park, which reminded me of some part of Scotland, we reached Cuenca. It was great to be back in the mountains at 2500m of elevation.  Cuenca is a very relaxed town with interesting museums and above all good food.

Cuenca centre

Although Cuenca is the third city of Ecuador in term of populaion the city centre as a village feel. There isn't this much to do but this relaxed way of life kept us there for three days.

One of the days we managed to get a quick flight in the nearby town of Paute. We managed to dodge the drops and soar the high up mountain for a while.

Geo and Jonni in flight

Paute

Quito

After a quick stop in Otavalo and its famous market (that we didn't find this famous) and a nice volcano crater hike; we headed up to Quito where we were going to meet up with some travel buddies and enjoy a bit more of nightlife.

Cuicocha Crater

Hiking near Otavalo

In Quito we have been advised a really cool place to stay (La Casona de Mario). An hostel that felt more like a family home. Kitchen garden and a nice living room, even a private room: full comfort.
Quito felt huge! The first taxi ride to get from the terminal to the hostel was just over an hour.
The setting of the city is impressive with high mountains all around and a view on the erupting Cotopaxi volcano in the background.
Our first impression of the city was mixed. First we had been told that Quito was a very dangerous city so we were always on our guards and secondly we felt that everybody (taxi drivers, shopkeepers...) were trying to scam us. It wasn't much money most of the time but it got a bit tiring to be constantly fighting for the real price.
Apart from this, we had a good time in Quito. It has been good to catch up with our travelling friends and enjoy a few proper parties in the downtown clubs. We even managed to get invited to a French party with loads of people from the ambassy thanks to Delphine, a French girl that we had met in Ibarra paragliding.

The highlight of our time in Quito was the climb of the Pichincha volcano that is located right over the city. For the first part we took the cable car that took us from the city (2950m) to the start of the hike (4050m). The hike was fairly straight forward, but we could definitely feel the effect of altitude as we were approaching the summit (4696m). From there we had terrific views of the city on one side and other peaks on the other side. It was funny to think that we had nearly climbed the Mont Blanc on a little afternoon stroll with only two bananas and a bit of water.

Top of the cable car with Quito in the background

The Pichincha

Behind the scene

The top

We quickly felt the need to leave for other adventures; the city had claimed too much our savings and we were desperate to experience more flying in Ecuador (too much wind in this part of the country).

Bonus:

One skin two bananas