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!
Another paragliding stop. But this time in a well known place, the world famous (for paragliding) Valle del Cauca.
In Ansermanuevo the big thing was the accomodation. You can't really dream of a better place for a paragliding pilot. A house on take off with full pension.
The place
The team at take off
The classic day in Anserma: Wake up, eat a big breakfast prepared by Pepe, the super nice manager of the place. And then look at the sky and get ready to take off (20m from the bedroom). Fly for the whole day and come back in the afternoon for more food, reading and pool time.
Hard times
I took advantage of this quiet time to repack my reserve with the help of one of the local tandem pilots.
Fun with the reserve
Packing
The first day we had a relaxing flight. I did a little out and return to the next mountain. It was very funny as I got interviewed (in Spanish!) for a local magazine. I was feeling like a local star when the reporter jumped at me at landing to ask me a bout my impressions of the flight. I hope I'll be able to recover this footage!
I managed my longest flight of the trip so far with nearly 90km for 4:25min in the air, maybe I could have done more distance, but I really needed the toilet by this time.
The track here: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1238359.
The flight was really good on a sportive point of view with strong conditions and a lot of low saves. I got a few collapses including one on full bar that nearly got me into autorotation, interesting.
The views of the Valle were spectacular, but I still prefered the cross over the mountains in Jardin.
This cross country flight has been one of the highlights of my time in Colombia. Amazing views, technic flight and overall a beautiful way to see this country. Here is the story (sorry it's a bit technical and long, but there is nice photos :) ). The track
In the morning we went to take off with a strong will to go cross country flying. However, looking at the cloudy sky I told Geo, hmm this is gonna be a day for cyber cafe and reading. So we sat and waited for a while enjoying a fresh avocado while chating with the locals. After an hour seating on take off, the sky started to open up a little and a few thermic cycles showed up. We watched the other pilots take off and go nearly straight down to the landing zone without finding much uplift. Not really encouraging. Nevertheless we prepared our glider and decided to still put some warm clothes on, which was wise given the flight we had after.
The ride up to take off
We took off into what we thought was the best cycle, but my first impression was ohhh sh*t, there is nothing here for us. I ended up at 80m above the ground in a position that would not even allow me to reach the landing zone when I saw a few birds thermalling up. Straight away I pushed on speed bar and reached the thermal. With a lot of concentration I made my way up and I was quickly above take off again. Geo managed to get into the same thermal and it took us above 3000m. Now we could think and relax a little.
I decided to go for the same route that we took the day before and just managed to pass the first col in pretty turbulent conditions. There I saw Geo struggling to follow me and fighting in broken lift. This was the end of the flight for him. Just after the col I found a thermal that got me once again above 3000m. The view opened up, it was magical. I was happy to have my jacket and some trousers!
Then I got a low point above a town called Buenos Aires on the plateau. I thought I was done when I found another unexpected lift that enabled me to carry on. At this point I knew I was going to do better than the day before.
Buenos Aires
I managed to get to the next slope and struggled there for a bit. Once again I have been massively helped by the birds who showed me the view. At this point I was really close to the steeps slopes covered in coffee plants. I was able to see every detail, every house, say Hi! to people. It was like hiking, but without effort and with a lot more fun.
The next jump to the bigger ridge was fairly easy, but once passed 2800m I was finding a strong easterly met wind (about 25km/h) which was making my progression to the north difficult. It was strange to fly on the west facing slopes with a easterly wind, but it was working well! There the view started to be even more magical.
I continued to make my way in zig zag (due to the easterly wind), staying up high, towards the north and the big mountains. After Hispania, it was beginning to be a bit more technical as the landing options started to be scarce.
Hispania
Big mountains in front
I was confident that I was high enough to pass the mountains, but when I got close I found myself in severe sink. I was lee side of the mountains for two reasons: the breeze coming from the valley at the north and the met wind from the east. The situation wasn't very comfortable and I didn't wait long to get a good half wing collapse with 2/3rd of speed bar. Waw sensations! I thought of turning back, but the desire to see what was on the other side of the mountain pushed me forward. I made it just above the col, and there the valley opened up. Beautiful! But I thought "it better work" as down there it was only thick vegetation and steep slopes!
After the col, the reward!
There it was really wild. Only a few houses on super steep slopes. The type of places you will never visit on a "classic" trip to Colombia.
Mountain house
Over the valley, the nice breeze took me up and the river Cauca appeared. It was really incredibe to hear all the noises from the jungle under my feet. At this point two eagles showed my the way of the last thermal. What an exhilarating moment. I knew I was going to be able to reach civilization at this point and I just relaxed making my down towards the Cauca valley.
Affluent to the river Cauca
El Pico
River Cauca and Peñalisa
River Cauca
As I was approaching the football pitch in Peñalisa, a herd of kids starting to run and shout. It is always a pleasure to see a group of kids super exited by the ovni landing in their back garden.
Jardín, another little paradise lost in the middle of the mountains!
We headed to this quiet town at 3 hours (in theory) south of Medellin after another party packed stay in the city. Arriving at the bus terminal a guy in uniform gave a strange look to our backpacks and came to speak with us. At first we were a bit frighten that it will be another military or policeman that will ask us to empty all our bags. But it turned out differently, this guy was a bus driver, the driver of our bus and he was intrigued because he was a paragliding pilot as well. All good, still in Medellin we already had a plan for accomodation and a contact for paragliding in Jardín.
Main Square in Jardín
In Jardín, it was funny to hear the sound of horses as we were going to the cafe. Men were casually going places on their horses. Including the bar where they would not even go down their ride to enjoy a shot of Ron. The feel in the village was super relaxed, their was many people out on the terrasses to enjoy a coffee at night. Mainly locals and Colombian tourists. We were lucky that this jewel is not yet mentioned in any of the main tourist guides. If you read this, I highly recomend you to go to this place, but keep it for yourself, it is a secret spot :) .
The paragliding scene in Jardín was as usual super welcoming and maybe even more due to remotness of the place. The site was absolutely stunning with a beautiful grassy take off and a view over the village.
Geo on take off
We had 3 days of amazing flying. Including some top class cross country flights (finally). The first day I managed a little tour of the valley in the morning and then a short but stunning cross country with Geo in the afternoon. It was Geo's first proper cross country and what a place to do tha! Flying together on this distance flight was exhilarating. We flew over steep terrain and coffee plantation in strong thermic conditions, a good training.
Jardín from above
Coffee packed slopes
Dinosaure back
Geo in flight
Fincas
The second day I managed one of my best flights. Not in term of distance, but in term of technic, commitment and views. I think I will make a quick article only for this one.
Take off preparation
The last day, the weather wasn't the best, so we decided to head into the Jungle with the local pilots to get to a higher take off called the "Ninja take off". The ride was as usual bumpy and rythmed by salsa.
Happy driver
When we arrived to the so called take off, we quickly understood where the name was coming from. No space to run, a side slope and the Jungle as security net. The first pilot took off in not even five minutes with impressive skills. Geo and I were looking at each other with sweaty hands and beating hearts. One of the Colombians missed his take off and ended up down in the bushes. Our driver found that very funny and laughed out loud seeing this fail. The tension was building up for us!
On the Ninja take off
Geo managed to get airborne after his second attempt. For me it has been another story. I was last on take off with our happy driver and another help. I did 3 failed attempts with two of them where I ended up swearing in French down in the bushes for the pleasure of our driver. Luckily I only got out with a few scratches and no damage on the material. The fourth was the good one for me. And I finally reached the ground for a beer.
The next day we headed to the famous Valle del Cauca passing by a dirt road in the Jungle with a massive bus, thrilling ride!
