Day 1 Tour 1

The day dawned bright and looked good.

Breakfast was a hoagie style sandwich with chicken or pork cutlets and red onions with some light vinegrette sauce.  Odd, but I finished mine knowing I'd be hungry very soon if I didn't. The 6:45 breakfast was a good call, despite the grogginess we all seemed to share. It made the difference between flying and not today for our group. 

Some had bright new wings to fly.

Some knew how to apply sunscreen!

We all launched and had a great first day of flying, but a group showing up behind us was met with wind 'over the back' making it unlaunchable. 

After a brief morning chat we took to the sky. Lots of blue today, steong climbs and higher than usual cloudbase for so early. I flew to 7,700 feet after launching from about 5,000 feet. Nice. 

Pell and I had a nice tandem together. 

The day seemed too good to be true. 

We flew well as a group but there were no clouds to mark lifting air out on the flats, so we stayed in the mountains until the increasing wind over the back forced us to take a chance for the flats after all. The flats remained with blue skies and no clouds. It was getting windier out of the North (down valley) and the weak thermals we found we're drifting pilots into a hard to retrieve area. Ultimately we all landed mostly together, except two pilots made it a bit farther and one of them (Juho) made it to the next town down wind of Roldanillo. Well done!

Pell and I had a less than soft landing due to switchy winds in our landing spot but were no worse for wear and later found out that we weren't the only ones that had a hard time with that landing zone. Gotta watch out for sure. 

Flacko and Cipriano were there in just minutes to pick us up. We stopped for some rotisserie chicken and fresh smoothies back in town. 

Our pilot meeting was held before (and after) dinner tonight as we couldn't do it the night before due to late arrivals who would have missed it. We still have two more late arrivals tonight, so they will have some catching up to do for sure. 

Lots of happy pilots today. Another early start tomorrow. 

Hasta mañana,

Martín

Arrival day

While I was sure the day would turn sunny, it did not, thwarting those that took a jeep to the launch, 45 minutes  away. 

For me, yesterday was spent going to town to get a few last supplies, including a lightbulb for my favorite lamp.

As I waked back to the hotel with Brian and Juho, I noticed that I wasn't feeling well, despite my happiness for them on their shopping successes. 

Juho with his $3 toilet seat (since his room didn't have one). Nice! Brian also scored some handy items too, like a plastic bucket to do laundry in. I may have to borrow that. Good call. 

Amazing how this stuff works.  I was so woosy that I skipped both lunch and dinner and spent the majority of the afternoon in bed all the way 'till the next morning. Marité (Rob's Wife) gave me the pepto and some chamomile tea right at dark. I also downed a glass of lime juice mixed with water earlier in the day to combat whatever had me so sapped. 

This am, my breakfast was a banana and some mango slices with some unsweetened juice. All systems go! I could have flown today but I wanted to be sure and rest up some more. All good. I had homemade chicken soup for lunch and a full dinner tonight. I'm back!

 

Unfortunately, Rob isn't feeling well now, and spent much of today resting too. I hope he will be feeling better overnight like I did. 

Farmer, Dave and Juho inspect the frozen treats cooler.  Mmmmm. 

Half the pilots arrived tonight and we had a nice dinner.  The last half of the pilots should be here at 10pm.  We will get them checked in and meet at 6:45am sharp for breakfast. 7:30 we load the bus and chase jeep, and we depart at 7:45.  All times are 15 minutes earlier this year due to a drier year hear in Colombia and making sure we are launching by 9:30ish to get airborne before the air gets strong. 

Wishing you well as we settle in for the night.  Tomorrow we fly as Team Eagle!

Sueños dulces,

Martín

Day 3 prep

Today dawned brighter than usual, and was very good for flying for those that went up.  One pilot not in our group who is staying here said he had a tangled brake line that he could not fix and wisely opted to land ASAP safely while is other two friends has long uneventful flights. 

We had a lealisurly breakfast consisting of papaya juice and slices with Apple and banana and a ham and cheese omelette.

We kept busy with more preparations.

We tackled the phone set up for our guests and inventoried all the phones. We verified SIM cards, charged batteries and made sure we had it all working. 

Maya kept us entertained or maybe the other way around? She's so cute!

My phone needed to be backed up and then restored with a new local SIM card in order to work. Problem was, the wifi to back it up is so slow, it would take around 15 hours or more. The people at the phone shop recommended I drive 40 minutes to Cartago, to have the main office for the "Movistar" network do some high tech magic to make it work.  I tried deleting a bunch of photos so it could back up the data faster but no dice. Rob was super helpful and suggested to just get a travel phone to remedy this problem. We found lots of decent phones for not a lot of cash on his laptop. In the end, Julian the lead server in the dining area helped me pick out a low priced android smart phone so I could fulfill my guide duties and check pilots in when they landed safely. I will once again be able to talk, text and pull up all our shared data on the go. Whew. 

Dave Tuener arrived in time to have dinner with us as did Brian Howell. 

Dave's gliders got lost on the three flights to get down here, after leaving Mammoth with three new feet of snow there, on a motorcycle with all his stuff. Of course he brought an extra front tire too, as it was getting bald, and as expected, he changed the front tire himself, on the way to make his first flight out of Sanfrancisco. Nice!

Brian arrived with all his gear since he had been flying all last week in nearby Roldanillo with his brother and other pilots staying there. Farmer should arrive tomorrow and we will finalize details and ghave a staff meeting on Friday. 

That's it for now. Flying is coming up soon. Lots to do on the ground first. 

Hasta mañana!

Martín

Arrival and the next morning

A very loud bell was ringing in the jetway as we boarded. It was steady and piercing, then intermittent. Finally just occasional until it finally stopped. We were sure Ashton Kutchure was about to show up, but he didn't. Probably best. 

Night had fallen and it looked clear after the rain earlier today.

LA looks better at night, I think. 

As the sun rose Five hours later, it looked clear, but at 35,000 feet, it usually does.

A blanket of clouds with some imbedded storms coverd the ground below.

Panamá has an impressive skyline that I never noticed on previous trips. Cool.

It looked hot and humid outside, but we would only see the inside of the air conditioned terminal before boarding our connecting flight to Cali.

In less than an hour, we are climbing in a smaller jet with only a few passengers bound for Colombia and there was some slight turbulence as we climbed through the morning cumulus clouds already forming. As we made our approach an hour later, we hit some moderate to severe turbulence and the passengers responded with shrieks and called out to Mother Mary, and one or two of the Trinity for suport. Now that's turbulence!

It was awesome. The flight crew was still chatting about it as we all cleared customs. Juho and I were as well.

As we exchanged some currency I saw our driver Noberto waiting just ouside and pointed to my watch indicating a few minutes more, and he smiled back saying, "No  problema."

It was a 2.5 hour drive but Noberto took great care of us in his air conditioned pickup and stopped at a fruit stand along the way. A local woman prepared a fresh pineapple and put it into a plastic bag. We put on the plastic gloves she gave us and proceeded to feel like we were in fruit heaven as we bit into the golden sweet discs. Ahhhhhh.

We reached the hotel at around 2:30 local time.  The sky was awesome looking and we saw a pilot or two flying above.  It's on!  We checked in, settled in a bit and later walked down to town to set up our phones with local SIM cards and get dinner and supplies. A half rotisserie chicken and a pitcher of mango pineapple juice were all we needed to call it a night as we walked back up to the hotel. Perfect.

I decorated my room a little with this sweet card from my youngest who told me to wait to open it when I got on the bus (but not before). Went to bed around 10:00pm. Woke up around 6:30. Just right.

I could hear the pool guy scooting around with his supplies and took a shot of the morning sky.  Looks like a perfect day ahead.  We will prepare for the arrival of our first group on the 5th. We need to be ready to fly every day for each group until the following group arrives, it has already been a great season here with two comps finishing up just ahead of my arrival. It has been somewhat drier here this year, which means stronger thermals, and higher cloudbase than usual. Looking good.

Ciao para ahora, (bye for now).

Martín

Departure day

Tandem, check. Solo wing, check. Carry on, check. Personal item (back pack), check. 

Smooches and goodbyes to my girls, (sniffle), check. 

After a morning deluge of rain today, the clouds parted and near gale force winds ensued. As I recall it rained on the bus ride down last year too. So it is eerily similar to last time. A good omen I think. 

 This time around, however, I'm riding the bus solo to LAX where I will rendezvous with Juho. Last time I rode (and flew) with my esteemed colleague Brian who is known lovingly in Colombia as "the pilot of the Bumblebee Tandem" (El Piloto del bipleza abeja?).  Brian left a week ahead of me to go play and warm up, so to speak, ahead of the tours. Nice. 

We had time for some Wolfgang Puck's pizza.  Seemed expensive till we tried it. 

Juho works with Eagle in Santa Barbara and is a solid pilot and van driver extraordinaire. He should be only flying and not driving on this trip, though I suspect he will be super helpful nonetheless. 

We found a comfy couch with an outlet--A true premium experience at the airport. 

Got a full charge on the phone just as it is time to board. Gotta go!

T-minus 4 days and counting...

It was this time last year that I was  fortunate enough to get to go and guide with Eagle Paragliding in Colombia, and I'm going again!  We have three sold out week long tours back to back in the paragliding hot spot known as Roldanillo Colombia. 

As I pack up my gear, our dog Sam marks it by rubbing his face on it so I can take his smell with me. Nice!

Gliding tandem in Santa Barbara

I've been happy to get a dozen or so tandems in in the last month to get back in the groove and make sure everything is tip top. 

Yours truly driving the bus in SB

The weather has been cloudier as of late, sunny mostly, windy and at times chilly too (cold for here anyway). So in final preparation I mowed the yard one last time till I get back. Yep, really. 

This is what It's like in Colombia, remember?  Warm, humid, and puffy cumulus clouds to show the way.  

I'll try to keep the blog alive again this year.  So much fun is hard to remember without some note taking along the way.

Hasta pronto!

Marty, AKA:  Martín

Treinta y siete

I slept in and loved it!

Steak and eggs, queso (cheese), pan (bread), and a sweet fried bread ball (bruñuelo) made if corn flour.  Café con leche and jugo de lulo y mango (lulo and mango smoothie). I managed to get the normally challenging wifi to allow me to pick my seats and secure my boarding passes. Bueno!

Returned my favorite lamp to room 3 downstairs. (The management lets me exchange it for the one upstairs where I stay). 

One last gaze at the pools. Ahhhhh. 

The beautiful walk to the waiting bus where I say my goodbyes and hope to come back again next year. 

Rolling through the parque (town square) with the Iglesia (church) reflecting off the glass of our bus. 

The weigh in.  23 Kg each for the big bags (51 lbs), whew! Made it. Brian and I sailed through and had no extra fees. We went ahead and grabbed some food while Ali did her thing. 

Italianisimo for me turkey (pechuga de pavo) for Brian. Ear fresh!

Finally at the gate. Ali (Alicia) rejoined us and we took over a charging station together. Ali helped me correct a few blog typos and fill in some blanks on previous posts.  Aprendo mucho mas ahora, gracias a Ali. 

Its a wrap. Lots of memories, photos and GBs of data from GoPro footage. Marge sure did a great job of capturing the fun on her camera. I'm sure we'll see more from her at the next club meeting. 

We lost a dear friend and experienced pilot back home due to a tragic flying accident that occurred while we were away. I haven't mentioned it until now, because I needed to stay focussed and composed. It has made me very emotional lately. This trip is dedicated to him and his family, and the flying community who knew him. 

Marty