CO'26 - the story behind

At the beginning of 2025 I had the 'crazy' idea to make myself a present for my 70th birthday: inviting a handfull of friends for a month of paragliding in Colombia in January 2026. This is not the actual month of my birthday, but it's the month with good flying conditions there and - more important - a month where the invited friends actually could get off work for more than just 2 weeks. If we wanted to move slowly and also visit places outside Cauca Valley (CLO to MDE), then a fortnight simply would not be long enough.

Once Ruth had signaled her approval for my 33-day absence from home  (MANY THANKS!), I started planning: whom to invite, where to stay, etc, etc. Originally I had invited 9 friends, but unfortunately 2 of them (Andy and Hartmut)  declined immediately for different reasons; the 'remaining' 7: Kari, Gudrun, Oli, Vincent, Peter, Michael and Stacy. Stacy later had to decline as well, so that left an 'empty' slot. Of course I could made the group even smaller,  but the organization work  remains the same for 7 or 8 pilots... Earlier on,  first Igor and then Eddie had heard of this trip and have asked me to put them on a eventual 'waiting-list', if by any chance a slot should become available - so that made Igor the lucky one ;-) (Sorry Eddie!)

As mentioned in my privious post, I had been too optimistic in thinking I could organize everything myself from home. I made bookings for all the places I wanted to stay just to be on the safe side, but then it became harder: finding a guide, transport/ drivers etc. That was the moment when I turned for help to Andy from Fly with Andy, as I had travelled with 'him' in 2019 to CO (actual guides have been Verena and Tini Siegl with Pedro as the 'fixer'). Unfortunately Pedro is not working in CO anymore, but Andy graciously put me in contact with Tini and her husband Lucho. Lucho has also been organizing the trips to CO for Fly with Andy for quite some years now; in addition he's guiding a group by himself (we might actually meet somewhere in the Cauca Valley).

Lucho is extremely eperienced and has a vast knowledge of paragliding sites, accommodations etc. He also has found me a guide for the whole trip: Edinson, who also runs a pg business in BGA. While there, we'll certainly fly also his own site called 'las Aguilas' in Ruitoque...

As I publish this post, everything seems to be organized: flights booked, accommodations confirmed, SIM-cards ordered etc etc :-)

the bus for our trip with Christian or Esteban as driver