Treinta y cinco

The sky was dark today. Refreshing. It rained last night.  Potential is high. Feeling a little tired. 

Breakfast was on time and we had fresh fruit, granola, guanabana fruit wedge, and a crepe with chicken and mushroom sauce. Quite good. 

The guides are all holding up well, but we will all be ready to go home in two days time. Everyone is plugged into thier phone or iPods on the way up today. I blog on the ride up and at night if I'm not asleep already.  Time to center and rev up for the day. 

The four month old let me rub its nose on the hike up the stairs today. Sweet. 

We launched as early as possible to avoid the north wind we saw in the clouds. Only two out of the group landed early today. The rest did a fantastic job of getting up and recycling at cloud base. We hung out for a while, then crossed to Roldanillo and gaggled at base there too. The west wind arrived early and forced our hand.  We glided out to the valley and we all got a climb together

View from the top of the first valley climb..

Farmer and I topped the climb first and we went looking for the next one together along the road towards Zarsal. We hoped it would be at the bridge where the river cuts under the road, but the north wind had us drifting to the south, over the 'hard to retrieve zone' instead. 

As pilots showed up they found the climb and it looked like we might all get out and make it to the next town. Rob dove in on tandem, but was too low to get the climb, landing perfectly into the north wind. A few others had the same fate. 

As  Farmer, Bianca and I topped out the climb we were still lower than cloud base and opted to run for Zarsal with what we had. Clyde got high enough to make a play for Zarsal too, but he and Bianca were too low and landed at just outside of town while Matt (Farmer) and I beamed up to base in a huge climb over the tile roofs deep in the center of town. 

The others continued to struggle in the light lift and a few made it upwind to an easier retrieve zone on the north side of the road.  The cane fields south of the road, surrounded by locked gates = long hot walk in the sun to where the retrieve vehicle is forced to wait for pilots who land out here. No pressure!??

Finally high, I watched and confirmed all the pilots in my group had landed safely. Farmer and I decided to fight the wind back to La Union rather than spend all day on retrieve going south towards Cali with the wind at our backs. Rob Sporrer came on th radio ad said Bradley was in the air south of Zarsal and was headed our way too. 

After fighting a 13 mph headwind at times, Farmer and I finally landed in town. Bradley came in just minutes behind us. Juice bar time. 

Brad had a car stashed nearby and we drove to the town center (the parque) "park."

Some funny stories were told around the pool when we got back. Shane had landed deep in the no retrieve zone but was close to the boundary and the road. He ended up hiking along canals and even tried to cross a stream using s fallen tree.  He fell in of course, but the water was shallow. The mud was waist high. 

Avocado starter for dinner. 

Giant tamale night again. Yummy. 

A special dance program in our honor took place after dinner. Complete with mint tea and group involvement as we followed along learning all kinds of salsa moves. It was quite a work out and the west wind was perfect to help us stay cool. 

Near the end of the program there was a candle dance with handkerchiefs and about half of the group was there for that.

Finally the staff of Casa Blanca thaned us for being tier guests, and gave us bracelets as gifts. 

They even had a special t-shirt made for Rob Sporrer and Marite's baby girl at home. So thoughtfull. 

We went to bed late and I woke up at 6 am realizing I hadn't emailed home, blogged or stayed awake for a FaceTime chat with my family. 

The last day and night will be non-stop action. I'll have to catch up on the blog on the bus to Cali perhaps. 

I'm finishing this on the ride to launch. I won't be able to publish it until I get back tonight. 

Cheers,

Martín