Marty DeVietti's XC Paragliding and Racing Blog : Treinta y tres

The day started about right. The deck chairs and umbrellas were still wet from some silent precipitation that must have occurred overnight. Perfect.

Fruit atop a hearty granola with a pineapple based fresh juice filled me up and café con leche got me firing all cylinders. Pow!

The sun started peeking out as I walked past the pool. Looks like a spectacular day ahead.

I see this huge wasp nest on the drive up each day and today I asked Flaco to stop so we could take a picture.

Up top I met another of Oscar's family. In addition to Helen, was Oscar (junior). They live in a very modest shack less than a mile from launch. Helen goes to the school just down the road near launch. Oscar is here every day and carries gliders up the hill for extra money.

Rich, rearing to go. I asked him for a "before" photo, and this was it.

The house thermals were working and EVERYONE got up and established at cloudbase. I was so excited to see Lars back at cloud base, so I shot a bit of video of he and many others bobbing around and recycling at cloud base. Best day of this group so far. It was spectacular to see.

Most made it to Roldanillo and beyond. We could have flown the box easy, but once at La Vitoria, nobody wanted to land at La Union so we kept flying. Matt's group few south to Tulua and part way back which is pretty far south of Zarsal.

"Farmer" on top of the whipped cream.

After flying to Roldanillo, we crossed to Zarsal, then La Vitoria, back towards Roldanillo diagonally to the middle of the valley, then back to La Vitoria where I landed with Rich, nearly 5 hours after launching. Yes!

Rich and his welcoming committee. Nice!

Rich's "after" photo. The Gatorade bottle went down in one drink.

We opted to let Flaco pick us updated than take the bus, so we went along to get Farmer, Shane and Bianca before coming back to the hotel.

Farmer, Bianca and Shane. Loving it!

We had a great time reminiscing all the way back. The west wind was super strong tonight but we were all safe landing on the other side of the valley.

We got back at 6:30, missing Rob's talk but making it to dinner on time. Yum!

There was so much energy at dinner tonight. It was so fun to watch everyone tell thier story and chat about the day. Many personal best flights, indeed.