CO'26 - the plan

 

Lately I've had a long talk via WhatsApp (WA), with Lucho - my Colombian 'fixer' - about details concerning my upcoming trip to Colombia (CO) in January 2026.

But before I continue here I must say a VERY BIG 'thank you' to Andy from Fly with Andy, who put me in contact with Tini Siegl and thus with Lucho, without whose help I would have been stuck organizing this 33 days trip to Colombia with a handful of friends!

Lucho with his long background of organizing trips not only in CO, found a guide (Edinson) for us, suggested, reserved accommodations and generally did a great job ironing out all the details (muchas gracias!!)

We'll start in Cali (CLO), working our way up to Medellin (MED), thereby paragliding all the well and lesser known sites in the Cauca Valley - trying to avoid the crowds in Roldanillo as far as possible ;-) From MDE we'll transfer by plane to Bucamaranga (BGA) to fly BGA and Chichamocha Canyon sites and finally on to Bogota (BOG), where we'll scout the flying areas around Colombia's capital. Not everyone is able to stay for the whole trip, but we all meet in Santa Elena on 7.1. or 8.1.

the 'plan'

more to follow...

Bassano with Flatland Paragliding: Mon - Fri

I'm not giving a day by day acccount, as we have been flying on just 3 different sites: Panettone, Tapetti / da Beppe, Casette.

Weatherwise,the week started with excellent flying conditions which gradually became less good, as the high pressure area grew 'old' and became weak. In the beginning also excellent views, no clouds and haze, which by Friday turned to low cloud base and increasing haze and wind. But it was possible to fly on all days. I made 1 or 2 flights a day, but many flew more (3 or 4 times a day).

Panettone

Panettone

Garden Relais (view from my balcony)

Tapetti / da Beppe

Casette (West)

Autumn in Bassano: Sat, Sun

 After having been unable to fly since late September; I have decided to go to Bassano for about 8 days.

I arrived in Semonzo Friday late evening after a 6.5hrs drive via Vereina-Ofenpass-Münstertal-Vinschgau-Meran-Bolzano-Trento-Levico. Apart from loosing about 15 in Wetzikon (right at the beginning of the drive) everything went smoothly; I have even been able to catch the train in Selfranga (Vereina) with just 5' to spare ;-) I'm staying at 'Garden Relais'; the first 2 days I',m 'on my own', On Sunday kate afternoon Peter and his group from Flatland Paragliding will be arriving and I'll join them until next Friday.

Sat, 8.11. a nice flight here in Bassano, taking off from Tapetti and flying for 1.25hrs. Good thermals (strong at times), but COLD :-(

Sun (9.11.) As next week, we're flying mostly here in Bassano; I have asked Marco to join me for the day and we went 'exploring' Col Visentin, a site near Revine. We met at 1000 at the LZ of Revine, about a 1hr drive from Garden Relais. Here we met 2 Swiss guys and we took them along. Unfortunately the launches at Col Visentin cannot be reached by car: It's approx 3km + a 350m climb from where you have to park the car. The 2 Swiss pilots decided to hike to launch. Marco then took me to the Revine launch, where already some pilots have been waiting for the tailwind to die...

M  Marco helping me setting up

'Pano' over launch from East to NW: Alpi Bellunesi

This is the first time that I have taken along the Insta360 Go ultra. 

The setup during flight needs to be improved...

    over LZ - looking NE: Revine Lago

     LZ

Finally the wind changed and after some more waiting I also manage to launch: real nice conditions with good, smooth thermals up to 1570m; Last time (in September) zhe inversion had been much lower and the thermals not so 'nice'. Landing after about 1.2hrs.