3HR

The day dawned clear. I was up early to see a lone star in the wee hours.  Unusually clear it seemed. Nice. I am to fly Xavier today tandem. That makes my fourth this week. All good.

We aimed to be out the door at 7:45, rolling by 8am today. We left right on schedule.  Just as we rolled into town we realized there had been a mixup on the tandems.  We shuffled a few people around and sent the small jeep back to grab gear, turned around and were on launch ahead of the Cipri with time to spare. 

We readied our gear as usual but today in full sun, with nice cycles of wind rolling up launch allowing us the luxury of inflating our wings to clear them and lay them out.  Reverse launches were used also, a rarity here. 

The group got up and away and our armada headed south along the mountains finding climbs along the way. It was nice to see every pilot up, at base and under way. Nobody sunk out in front of launch today. Sweet. 

Xavier is a cinematographer by trade and he burned through both his gopro cameras before we even got past Roldanillo.

Two of my three guys got stuck on the big valley crossing while one (Shaun) made it across went on ahead with the other groups. Eventually Shaun landed ahead of us with some of those ahead of us and I opted to wait for the stragglers. Scott, who went the farthest yesterday, was next to land and Truck dug out of his hole and met me at cloudbase, which was my holding pattern for an hour or so with Xavier. Serendipitously, waiting as we did allowed the day to heat up and the clouds started streeting up, allowing us a "stress-free" crossing over Roldanillo and out to the flats.

We tagged Zarzal and headed North towards La Victoria.  A slow climb allowed us one more trip to base, and we were within glide of La Union. Victoria looked blue above and so we opted to cut the corner and set our sites on the soccer field near the lunch spot.

The glide was easy and fast and the wind looked steady at the field until the last second when it perked and a thermal broke off at the field. We had to make a last minute change and landed outside the stadium in the mostly dirt field next to it, downwind. Ugh!  We slid to a stop and when the dust cleared we were both fine but a little dustier than we had hoped.  Nonetheless we were still stoked on our three hour flight and walked to the grass and shade to pack with Truck, who also landed after us but right next to us, in the opposite direction, soft as a feather. Well done.

Marite. 

John Dudley, who went tandem with Brian.

Truck, Xavier, and yours truly.

All I could think about was fresh grape juice and lunch so we hiked over as Marite and rob Milley landed an packed. 

Lunch was amazing and included chicken, beef and pork (chorizo), rice, salad, a small baked potatoe with guacamole sauce on it and a baked banana chunk for desert. Yum!

This weekend is the bicentennial celebration for Roldanillo, and the fireworks should be impressive. Can't wait to see them tonight or tomorrow night. 

Reversible blue/black/white Serape. I like.

I'm happy and tired. I miss my wife and kids. It will be so great to see them all in one week. Having the time if my life. Wishe you all could see what I get to see here every day. Proceless.