Siete

Wet umbrellas and tiles around the pool suggest that it rained last night or early this am. The sky seems to concur. 

While this normally doesn't mean a thing here, it does make me wonder about the day considering the weather of the prior two days. 

Yesterday was a blast from the past for me. I saw my friend Carlo Borsatino on launch. He was here attending a trip with Jocky Sanderson's group. I met Carlo in 1999 or 2000 while attending the X-Ceará meet in northern Brazil. He was flying an Apco Bagheera, and I was on a Windtech Quarx, along with my friend Ryan Swan. In fact Gabriel Cañada the co-owner of Windtech was there too. Carlo would go on to open a school in the UK called fly bubble and carry Windtech products.  It's like a family reunion here for me. I've fallen out of touch with both Ryan and Gabrielle. I wonder how they are doing?

Breakfast included two eggs sunny side up, but I asked for more "fuego" on mine and flipped them over to solidify them more. Veggies and a roll completed the dish.  Interesting combo, and I polished it off with some café con leche and a fresh smoothie that is prepared each morning. 

As we readied ourselves to load up and go, it began to drizzle and a quick phone call to friends in Roldanillo confirmed it was more even more widespread. We pushed back the departure time and the drivers packed the wings in tarps to be safe in case of more rain. 

After an hour or so of light drizzle,we had a meeting and decided to have a presentation about logging flights online and planning flights as well. Our youngest participant Collin led the discussion and did a bang up job!

Negrito, the little black dog waited with me and kept me company. I miss my pooches at home. Maybe he knows?

As we finished the talk the sky lightened up a little and we jumped on the Cipri to make our move to the mountains. Once there it started working but never fully cleared up. We cautiously readied our gear unsure if the weather would hold. 

Unloading the rain-proofed gliders

Several other pilots launched and began to soar, even though cloud base wasn't very high, some were able to surf the lift up the side of the cloud on the south side well above base. 

A hand full of our pilots launched and experienced a variety of conditions including sink, wind, lift and turbulence. Most headed out to get more terrain clearance, taking the advice of the guides via radio still on launch as we shut down the launch and waited to see if conditions would improve. It began raining in Roldonillo and the wind started to increase over the back of the hill. The pilots in the air landed out front without incident and kited their wings for fun and practice in the valley landing zone we call Oscar's. 

Putting it all back in the bag. 

We packed up and walked down to the Cipri waiting near the bottom of the stairs. 

Cipriano showing Rob his lashing skills for the wings on the Cipri. Not bad for a 70 year old!

So in the end, a few flew, and most did not. It was a great lesson in patience, observation and safety-based decision making. All pilots are accounted for and happy. Tomorrow this group leaves and another will arrive late so we can go flying again on Monday. Some folks are remaining here for more than one tour and will have an official rest day, as will the guides. It should be a fun send-off party tonight at the hotel. "Live from La Union, it's Saturday night!"

The view from the Cipri on the way home. Looks like we avoided a car wash with the wings uncovered on top!

Yours truly modeling some $2000 Cp ($1 USA) reading glasses from town. I added the Niviuk logo for style points with a black sharpie

Cheers from Colombia!

Marty

Sies

The sky is dark today. 

It could mean a slower heating day and better flying. Yesterday started cloudy but sunned up so abruptly that clouds overdeveloped and rained until the sky once again clouded over and mellowed out. 

Oatmeal or porridge with apple and guava chunks made for a tasty breakfast today. Ali our cook is flying tandem with Rob. She has flown once before with Rob tandem in Santa Barbara and flew to 9000', a personal best for Rob at the local site and a heck of an intro for her. 

The Cipriano vehicle or "chipree" as we call it is right behind us in the way up as usual.  The guides usually ride in Flacko's vehicle. 

Flacko's jeep. 

Flacko goes by several names such as John or John jeep, Freddy or Freddy Flacko. It took me a while to put it all together that it as all the same guy. He is an accomplished pilot as well and flies tandems as a local guide too. He takes great pride in his work as retrieve and coordinates with Cipriano to pick everyone up as soon as possible. It is really impressive. 

The man who is Flacko. 

Everyone sends him a text with their full name and gps coordinates. He looks on his map and fetches the hard to reach guys while Cipriano scoops up groups of pilots from Flacko at the main road rendezvous spots when he is full so he can go back on chase for more. 

John Spitzer finishing the hike up to launch. 

The sky stayed overcast and dark as we sat surrounded by cloud on launch with the wind blowing from over the back of the hill at up to 8 mph.  It made for a much cooler hike today but there would be limited soaring. 

The easy way to deliver gliders. 

I saw this cool bug on launch. 

After an hour of patient cool waiting, brad and Koyoko launched into a hole in the cloud followed by others soon after. A few made it back to our town, the rest and I landed directly below.  We packed up on grass and were picked up a few minutes after we hiked to the road. We headed straight to my the chicken place!

We nearly cleaned out the rotisserie chicken place.  It was amazing as usual. 

We ate like savages and the got back on the Cipri back to the hotel. Brian bought a horn at a store that sounds like a ocean ship at sea.  Can't wait to hear it at cloud base!  

Now I'm hanging up my laundry that I washed while in the shower. I have a fan in my doom and everything will be dry before I go to sleep. 

I miss my family and our two cute dogs too! I love you Mia and Darla, Joe and Andrea, my sweet Carmen and the pooches Sam and Rosie! Thank you for letting me be here living my dream. 

"Con abrazos y besos" 

Ciao,

Marty

Cinco

The day started looking beautiful, and ended overcast and cool. Who knew?

The clouds parted and it sunned up as we left the hotel but low clouds and high clouds as well served to slow down the day from then on.

Cloud enveloped launch and we watched as others hiked up the steep hill, some using the horse to carry their gliders up. 

We had nice pow wow with the groups and talked about the day ahead. 

Rob Sporrer talking with Koyoko. 

Eventually we launched and it was stronger than expected, with towering cumulus  behind us encroaching our buffer zone and starting to rain.

We wisely flew away from the cu-nim (cumulonimbus) cloud and positioned ourselves at the edge of the valley ready to cross and fly in safer air. 

The air was choked with smoke at times from the burning fields below, and they sky grew dark as well from overcast conditions much of the time. 

Rob on glide 

The groups more or less came together at times and scattered at others. In the end we flew for several hours (3) and landed at Vitoria to the excited fans living there. Brian flew Tom today on his new tandem that is know affectionately as the bumble-bee in fine form and kept of the deck for hours in some patient and challenging conditions. Props!  All my group had nice flights with two out of the four landing with me in Vitoria. Nice!

We were picked up right as I finished packing and were whisked into town where a mango/pineapple smoothie settled my stomach until dinner. After a shower and washing and hanging up some clothes, I had 30 minutes to visit by the pool. It was my turn to have a discussion and I chose to talk about hydration before dinner.

Dinner started with our favorite soup and finished with grilled chicken and mushroom sauce. The veggies were fresh and not over-cooked, with a tasty rice as well. Yum. Ali, our private chef is doing great work. We are loving it. Thanks Ali!

I'm off to bed early tonight. Ready for anything tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marty

Cuatro

Today dawned bright and I couldn't help but think it would be a great day. 

Everyone slept in since the comp was over and the energy level at the breakfast table was high. 

We got to launch first, set up and admired the beautiful sky and clouds. With only 40 or so other free flyers on launch we had plenty of room and nobody telling us we only have 3 minutes to launch. Ahhhhh. 

I was the only guide flying tandem today. I took Todd (from my group) with me for a 3 hour tour, and Jon, Ioan and Gareth made the whole tour too. Chris landed in Roldanillo. We stayed together pretty well and it wasn't until Roldanillo that things changed and became necessarily more patient. As chris packed up we flew to Zarsal then La Vatorial and tried to make it back to La Union. We all landed short but it was all good. It was a beautiful spot to land and we landed together.

We hopped into a truck like this for a quick ride to the main road. Not bad!

Ioan, me, Todd and Garreth.

Rob gave a great presentation tonight followed by dinner and then cake to celebrate Farmer's birthday. 

Tomorrow I give roll call and present before dinner. 

It's late so I'm off!

Ciao,

Marty

Tres

The day started dark with interesting cloud layers. Fortunately I'm able to remain hopeful and optimistic regardless of what the day starts out like here. It seems that knowing a lot about the weather isn't as much of an asset as one might think. 

5am look out the window. 

This was yet another early day, in order to get to the take off area ahead of the comp. 

We ate at 6:30 and left by 7:15 with our gear loaded into the trucks. Fresh pineapple, banana and some other fresh fruit were we the perfect compliment to the granola like mixturee 

We rolled through town as the sky opened up a little, only to shade and make our early arrival up top less helpful than planned. Still, it was the last day of the comp and we all got off as soon as we could, so that part went well. 

Ioan getting ready

Rather weak conditions made it tough on the pilots for a solid 20 minutes at first, but eventually most of the pilots made it up to cloud, though one or two made their way to an early yet safe landing below, including the pilot who flew the farthest the day before. 

Keawe, who won the day yesterday. 

We made a move south to the crossing I call the "jumping off spot" that separates us from Roldanillo where we waited patiently for an hour or so for conditions to improve. The comp started and they blasted by us, prompting us to double back to the north to stay out of their way. 

We flew back to La Union, then waited a bit more, before finally charging across the valley, thankfully finding good climbs for the pilots following the guides.

Collin flew tandem with me yesterday and flew with Matt's group today so he could fly with his dad. He and his dad had outstanding flight today. 

In the end, all the pilots who crossed the valley were able to stay up, fly to La Vitoria and then land back at the soccer field in La Union together. All but one of the pilots in my group made the 3+ hour trip and were all smiles upon landing. 

Chipri was there to pick us all up and take us to town, where we had 1/2 roasted chicken each and I even split a mango/ banana smoothie with Ioan. 

A short ride to he hotel later, I was charging electronics, replacing batteries and taking a shower to try and cool off as well as clean up. Boy that was nice. 

Raindrops in the pool. 

As if on cue, the sky grew dark and dumped rain on the hotel for 10-15 minutes, just as we have enjoyed a thunderstorm nearly every day across the valley in full view of the dining area. 

Brian gave a nice talk from 6-7pm and promptly after, dinner was served. 

It was just right, a lentil like soup to start and pork loins with some sort of potatoe and green veggie mash. 

Even a tirimisu style dessert was served. Of course I wasted nothing. 

I fly tandem with Todd tomorrow who had a short flight today. This should help him put the pieces together and have longer flights. 

Sueños dulces. 

(Sweet dreams)

Marty

Dos

Today was a great day. Everyone flew, despite another hiccup at launch with the comp going on, we all took to the air and many gaggled together, playing at cloud base while waiting for it to raise enough to make the big canyon crossing towards Roldonillo. 

Colin on my tandem

Eventually we made the glide across and gathered on the other side, regrouping and climbing back up to the clouds. We wanted to leave the mountains and get started on the flats (the valley floor) to cross to the other side, namely the city Zarsal and beyond. The tandems all shot out front searching for the next climb finding a good one just past the city center of Roldanillo. 

The new tandem is wonderful. 

Eventually high clouds rolled over and shut down the lift. The tandem pilots; Rob, Brian, Matt and I each took a direction to search but it would ground all of us but one. I landed first, just outside the city in lush pasture land with my passenger Colin. 

Chris, also in my group, landied next to Colin and me. Shortly after that Matt landed with Colin's dad, Tom, about a mile away. Rob took his tandem farther towards the middle of the valley but also landed. Brad was busy talking on his radio to his group when his solo comp wing got a stuck tip (or cravatte as it is called) following a wingtip fold. He couldn't get the tip unstuck after multiple attempted to spin it and shake it free and landed as a result, uneventfully. At this point only Brian and his passenger Koyoko were still in the air acting as a guide for the remaining few pilots. Eventuality the others landed one by one. Brian landed his tandem leaving only one lone pilot left, Keawa who flew well beyond the next town of La Vitoria. Well done! 

We only waited a few minutes before being picked up. Nice!

We had a great talk led by Matt and dinner started with a lovely soup. 

I thought it looked like a swirling thermal, not surprisingly. 

Tomorrow is the last day of the local competition so we hope to have the launch back to ourselves soon after. 

Brian was the star guide of the day! And props to Brian's group member Keawa who had the flight of the day. 

Hasta mañana

Marty

Uno (one)

The first day was off to a great start complete with yummy omelettes and fresh juice. All things considered, we did well leaving the hotel 15 minutes late. 

At launch, we arrived in two groups, and the first was allowed to pass the bouncer at the stairs thanks to our wrist bands that allowed us to launch ahead of the competition that is over in 3 days. The second group was denied access and it took 15 minutes to sort it all out. 

The takeoff area

In the end, everyone flew and eventually landed safely. There was a crosswind from the north that created some strong turbulence near the house thermal, but everyone glided through the gauntlet and most got up, up and away, a few got caught in strong wind and sink, landing out front uneventfully. It was a strong day, the strongest I've seen so far here. All the Eagle tandems were in the air today, and will likely all be flying again tomorrow to help those needing a little extra help. 

I flew tandem and had a nice flight, making it back to La Union with my passenger John landing near, but not in, the usual soccer stadium. We hiked out to the road thanks to our local guides who greeted is with smiles and questions as we packed up. 

We said our goodbyes and I will keep this field in mind for some other day. The boy and girl were very nice and at times walked arm in arm together. Very sweet. 

Dinner was delicious, and our private chef made us this lovely appetizer of purveyed vegetables with a hint of heat in it with potatoes and tiny hard boiled eggs. The main meal was pork in a yummy sauce and another blended veggie concoction with rice. Desert was a lightweight pudding that had hints of citrus  and a strawberry on top. Yum!

Colin and Tom (son and father) are both going tandem tomorrow with Matt "farmer" Beechinoor and me. Should be a blast!

Tomorrow we are eating at 6:30 am and leaving the hotel by 7:15. 

I'm watching the super bowl on Colombian tv as I type this and it is reminiscent of last year doing the same thing. The Seahawks look great and it is fun to think of my home state of Washington and remember the good old days there. I'm sure my dad is watching the game too. Miss you dad! Go Seahawks. Score right now is 24-14 Hawks leading. 

I hope all is very well wherever this finds you. Buenos noches. 

Marty