We mixed up the pilots a bit in order to accommodate tandems and keeping eyes on our guests. We also retuned to the comp launch for another go. The call for Farmer's and my group was to go long today.
Tamales started us out with fresh pineapple juice and mangoes along with the famous Colombian coffee here. Delightful!
The day started a little dark as is the norm. We got off th hill with no time to spare as the comp was moving up their start. Conditions were more challenging in that if you got a climb to cloud base it was easier to lose it all, and if you didn't get a climb right away, you were more or less on your way to an early landing, and this thinned the groups early on.
Once on course to the south, our gaggle moved well together and we were able to regroup occasionally and let everyone catch up. After a while we encountered hang gliders and towering clouds over the terrain on the west side of the valley. It was time to make our move to the flats. We all committed to the glide and got up after a long patient climb.
We fanned out into a fabric armada and glided quietly south, thousands if feet off the ground, enjoying the spectacular view, looking ahead for birds, smoke or other pilots indicating our next climb. John Black had his personal best, and Farmer rocked the tandem, landing next to John with an elated and tired Elizabeth as his passenger. Dawn and Jim landed past me but short of Farmer and company. They were on a bus in no time and beat everyone home. Personal best flights for many, disappointingly short flights for others. Acceptance and gratitude are key.
I landed in this field short of the others a few miles, filled with what I thought were cows. Turns out they were all bulls, but I was able to make a hasty escape under the fence before they came too close.
Whew! Then began my odessey back, involving playing frogger on the freeway to get to the Northbound lanes after a ride in the back of a dumptruck to the main road.
Later I was able to flag down a bus to Tulua, where I then transferred to a bus to Roldanillo. While I paid for my bus ticket I enjoyed some fresh cane juice with lime in it. Yum! Here is the press that made it:
Soon I was on the Roldanillo bus and chatted up a young man hoping to one day go to Miami Florida. Another bus took me to La Union where a tuk tuk got me back to the hotel just in time for 7pm dinner. Rob gave a great talk about various things after dinner and I was ready for bed. My knee was hurting so I iced it and had some Advil before bed.
Turns out when I rolled under the fence to escape the bulls, I jabbed a huge thorn into my knee and it of course was broken off in there. Nothing my Swiss Army knife can't handle, and a little neosporin too. Hope that was all of it! Cheers!
Feeling very fortunate.
