CO'26 21.1. Filadelfia (> Cauca Veja)

Wed. Another lousy night with lots of coughing andnot feeling really well rested. Vincent has left us after breakfast by taxi to MDE for his flights back home. MDE-CTG-ZRH-GVA. The rest headed for Filadelfia, a nice little town at 1600m, with a very well prepared TO at 1850.

Edinson had organized Frank, a local pilot, who gave us a good site briefing. We had to wait a bit, before conditions turned on. Today it has been a bit harder to stay up / high and feeling tired /unwell I didn't fight for too long ;-)

launch (to the right of highest point)

Filadelfia

heading for the LZ (in front of pod)

Igor about to land...

Luckily (for me) Igor also sank out, as today I would barely have been able to carry my gear to the nearest pick-up point (even though only 500m away) - I felt just too weak. We have been collected by Esteban and Gudrun (who had top landed) and then went looking for the rest: all have been able to get away direction 'la Merced'.

After about 2hrs (with a stop for 'dinner') we reached our next 'base': Cauca Veja.

CO'26 20.1. el Brillante

Tue. Our visit here in the central Cauca Valley draws to an end. 

During the night it had rained heavily and in the morning the sky has been covered by lots of clouds. So we feared another bad or even no-flying day. We drove to Viterbo for some shopping and changing money. As the morning wore on, more and more the sun started burning away the clouds. Edinson called a local pilot (a friend of his), who showed us the LZfor el Brillante and accompagnied us to el Brillante-launch. This launch is located on the same mountain ridge as Risaralda, but facing West (iso East).

el Brillante (San José) looking East

launch

I quickly found a good thermal, which slowly has brought me to cloud base, so after a while I could contine North (over San José) to Risaralda-launch.

San Jose (looking N)

Risaralda launch

Risaralda LZ (at la Margarita)

relaxing at the pool after a hike in the hot afternoon sun...

I managed to reach the LZ near our hotel, therby flying over yesterday's launch: la Risaralda.

Tomorrow is (again) a moving day; about 1h45' to Filadelfia, from where we could be flying direction Cauca Veja, otherwise by car. Also: Vincent is leaving us tomorrow :-( but he could fly every day and seems to be pretty happy. 'Un grand MERCI' for your assitance in carrying my pack many times and assisting when ever needed...

CO'26 19.1. (Risaralda)

Mon: more clouds and humidity than expected. After an excellent breakfast and having looked for the LZ here in las Margaritas we left for Risaralda. 

Risaralda is a small, but busy village sitting on top of the mauntain ridge. After a short hike from the end of the drivable 2*2-wheel road, we've reached a TO on top of a small hill, facing NE to SE; as well as SW to W. Unfortunately with so many clouds and no sun, the 'normal' wind pattern didn't set in and wind came from WNW. This direction is alsmost cross to the small launch and only some of us decided to launch, Kari Gudrun and I declined and in the end walked back to our bus. But there have been some very nice x-wind launches!

...but some of them landed closer to our accommodation.

Michael in the LZ - just a little exaggerated ;-)

As there was no improvement to be expected and el Brillante, a site facing the wind is a 1.5hrs-drive away, we didn't think it would be worth the drive...

Again a nice dinner at our accommodation!

PS: there has been a Colombian guy on launch which has taken many pictures; once they become available, I'll do another post about today's 'adventure'.

CO'26 18.1. Roldanillo -Trebol

Sun: another good looking day. 'Moving day' for us, as in the evening our new 'home' for the coming 3 nights is 'Hazienda La Tranquera' in Las Margaritas (near Apia/ Manizales).

Of course the idea was again to fly as much in that direction. So shortly after 1100 we launched from Roldanillo 'Trebol' (same as yesterday).

'el Trebol'

Roldanillo

Today going has not been as easy as yesterday: many had to fight sinking-out; Michael lost more than 1000m altitude and barely managed to reach a decend LZ. I myself cannot complain and never had a low-safe, but my xc-speed has been much slower compared to yesterday as I tried to stay as high as possible and turned even in very weak lift.

Competition launch: los Tanques

lots of 'dummies' around ;-)

Having crossed La Union I tried to continue, but didn't dare to venture past 'Toro' due to lack of landing options... So I landed after 1h45' just North of La Union.

huge LZ, very close to main road with 3 trees for shadow

touch-down just 50m from the shadow...

I had barely packed up as our bus arrived,havein already Kari, Gudrun, Michael and Oli on board. Peter made it to th LZ at Ansermanuevo, Igor another 10kms further. Finally we collected Vincent and Edinson and then headed for Haz. La Tranquera, where a good dinner has been waiting for us. This is another very nice accommodation selected for us by Lucho- and for once all the rooms have a shower with hot water ;-)

The coming 3 days will be exploring several sites around here: Risaralda, el Brillante, Apia, Filadelfia before heading to Cauca Veja.

CO'26 17.1. Roldanillo -Trebol

Sat.  Finally a day like the normally are in the Valle de Cauca at this time of the year :-))

Today I felt much better and I hope I'll be completely fit by tomorrow. Edinson has chosen 'Trebol' as our launching site for today; some pilots, but not that many that we would have to wait a long time before being able to launch.

Trebol launch

Peter and Igor have helped preparing my glider and so I was one of the first in our group to launch (something that happens rather seldom). Over yesterday's launch (Torre) I found a nice thermal and soon I strated heading North, partly joined by Vincent. Thermals have been abundant and strong, sometimes a little bumpy, but nothing to worry about when flying under a Leeloo(X) ;-)

first crossing

Vincent

La Union (looking west)

Hazienda Santa Rosa (La Union) - landing just to the right

nice shadow for packing...

Gudrun landed nearby, the rest flew longer and further :-))

Dinner: 38'000COP (approx 8CHF) for this dish (solomillo)  :-))

CO'26 16.1. Roldanillo (Aquapanelas/ Torre)

Fri. LOTS of people at SP Aquapanelas, fog, but about 10 pilots took off within seconds into the approx. 250m thick ‘soup’ :-( The problem is that there is a power line in front of the SP that has to be flown over...

Roldanillo - SP Aquapanelas

Since the situation did not change, we drove to a lower SP located before the (first) high-voltage power line. SP ‘Torre’: Igor got off to a good start (still little headwind; Gudrun so-so, then zero from behind: we then broke off and Vincent carried my bag back to the bus (many thanks !!). Igor made it to our hotel at La Union. 

Roldanillo - SP Torre

later, the upper launches started working....

CO'26 15.1. Ansermanuevo > la Union

Thu. As inPiedechinche the plan had been to fly direction la Union (our next stop for the coming 3 nights), but again the wx didn't permit an xc-flight: it would have been an upwind battle... I dind't feel really well, so I started with very low ambitions/ expectations (that's also why there are almost no pix of today's flight as I didn't bother to take my camera along, only the X3), but today I found a thermal right in front of launch, which got me to cloudbase :-)  As mentioned, conditions didn't allow for 'big adventures' so I landed after an hour at the main LZ, together with most pilots of our group.

...contrary to yesterday, I managed to get above launch ;-)

Gudrun

We then moved to Hazienda Santa Rosa in La Union; arriving I felt rather badly (fever/ influenza?/ vomiting/ slight headache), which made me skip dinner. But some kind of 'bug' has been around in our group; the last few days Kari didn't fell completetly well. Also Esteban (our driver) didn't look 100% fit...

Tomorrow we want to fly Roldanillo, so I hope I'll recover and that there is not too much wind/ humidity around. We didn't plan for an accommodation in Roldanillo, as this week there is a competition going on and it's full of pilots; also prices reflect the popularity of that place...

CO'26 14.1. Ansermanuevo: nada

Wed. not really my day :-(  I made 2 flights, both with good launches and good landings (at main LZ), but in between: virtually nothing: just centering sink ;-) 

Launch (by Kari)

main LZ

The rest of the group has been more successful, some of them trying to fly north, some just staying local and landing here in Ansermanuevo. Gudrun&Michael organised a jeep to get back to Villa Lucas and they have picked me up after my second flight. Gudrun later cooked a nice dinner for us, while the rest, after having been 'collected' by Esteban, have eaten at an Italian restaurant in Cartago,