Diesiocho

The day looks good, and as we sit down for breakfast I can see launch looming in the distance from the roadside restaurant. Lots of truckers are drive this road since it is a major artery connecting Cali and Medellin. It's a fairly nice place that caters to the traffic. 

Breakfast of champions...Jim 

Dawn says the cake is for Redbull X-Alps training.  I like her thinking. 

This hotel has a beautiful pool, though after my cold shower last night with air conditioning In my room, the desire to go for a dip quickly faded. 

Shane and Destin chilling on the couches upstairs. Flacko arrived promptly at 8:30am. Rooms were $20 USD. Nice. 

Utility drives the market here for sure. 

The launch was actually farther towards Medallin than I thought. We drove around and eventually found a suitable spot to take off. 

Some cows wanted to sample our wings, but we got away without too much slobber. 

Once away we gaggled for several minutes and it felt good to fly with everyone. 

Gliding to the next cloud with Farmer. 

It took two climbs to get back to the antennas from the night before. Matt wanked it down and toplanded at the base of them to fix a problem with his harness. He reported the worst weeds ever, so I stayed aloft and got to base overhead. 

Clouds formed on the right side within reach and I dove ahead to take advantage of the opportunity. Dawn and Destin followed and I was able to mark several climbs leaving at base as they cored up from below me. 

I found a lovely climb over this small town tucked up in the foothills. From here on out I thought we would have the high ground and an easy flight towards goal. There seemed to be a slight south wind that got stinger as the day went on. 

Ultimately we all landed short today but we did see some stunning views of villages perched on ridges  as we flew by, trying to stay out of rotor and yet climb as high as possible.  

My landing zone is on the left side on the grass near the road. I walked 100 yards to a restaurant to pack and find shade. Flacko was there before I could put my wing down from the walk. Nice. 

Whew! Lots of wind at the end, but everyone is safe on the ground. Yesterday was so amazing and today was too, but it felt like a lot more work. 

Farmer took a deep line and toplanded on the wrong side of the river (not retrievable). He caught a ride to another launchable spot, relaunched, and landed on the west side of the river by the road so he could catch a bus back to us. Cool. 

Tomorrow we launch from a new spot.  Hopefully wind won't be on the menu. 

Super tired, and this meal makes me even more so.  Ahhhhh. 

Hello to my friends and family. Miss you lots. Thanks for alowing me to be here. This has been nothing short of wonderful for me to get to do this with such a great crew. 

Muchisimas gracias a todo. 

Hasta mañana. 

Martín