BIV?

All but 3 guides have left for the week off between tour 2 and 3. Today we said our goodbyes and the hotel was very quiet. 

Scott, Shawn and Truck will be back!

Choosing not to fly today is a relaxing change to our prompt morning schedule, even though I got up early anyway, to enjoy a cup of coffee as the sun came up on the horizon beyond the pool. 

Tomorrow and the next day, the 4th and 5th we hope fly north and either topland a launch that has a hotel up top or land below and stay in a hotel below, catching a ride up the next day to fly back again.  Matt is thinking of continuing north the day we try to return, as go as far as he can. Cool. 

It is fun to consider the idea of going somewhere, and not returning until a day later. The weather suggests rain, but then it always does here, and we end up flying every day.  We shall see. 

Cheers!

Marty

Fin

The last day of flying for the second group dawned beautiful and we anticipated a "best yet" kind of day.  For a few of us it certainly was, for several others it was just too challenging due to shade and overdevelopment.

Nonetheless, much was learned and everyone stayed up for as long as possible, landing safely with smiles all around. 

Jim over Zarzal.

Truck went the furthest with me though Scott and Shawn hung in there till the last move, where we shot out near Roldanillo and scratched just a few hundred feet off the deck over the valley. Just after Truck's landing it finally perked and Farmer, one other pilot and I cored up to near base and went on glide for Zarzal with Dawn, Jim and Rob in tow. 

Working together we got up deep in the foothills east if Zarzal, Farmer chose to go even deeper, inspiring me to backtrack to the valley. The others split the difference and took a diagonal line that looked like it could work towards La Victoria. Two of them landed on the transition leaving Rob Milley an farmer to join me in the valley. A slow climb got us all up again and I opted to straight line it to 'home' while Famer and Rob tagged La Victoria and arrived to towering cumulus and increasing west wind. My landing went well, but it had my full attention. Rob wisely chose to pick a larger field near the valley to avoid the huge lift and strong wind. Farmer landed with me and concurred that Rob made the best choice. 

A juice bar visit was our lunch, followed by a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. 

Classic cars lined the town center from a nearby car show. 

We all watched the Super Bowl as dinner was seved and played poker until late.  

Matt found a giant bug, a cicada?

Another amazing group!  It was such a pleasure to be with everyone. The energy was really wonderful and I will miss them all. 

My knee was still bothering me after one week after jabbing a thorn into it.  Marité took me to the local hospital where I got antibiotics and some pain meds.  I've been soaking it in with a hot wet compress laced with salts morning and evenings and the improvement is like magic. I'm supposed to rest it, but I find that flying around in a pod is the equivalent of elevating it on a chair so I am convalescing at cloudbase. 

Rehab at it's very best.  

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.