When I arrived Bucaramanga 2 weeks ago I got a room at Casa Guane hostel and went straight to see a movie at the theater just to celebrate that I was finally done with fixing a new passport. The next day I headed out of town and up to the paragliding takeoff area of Las Aguilas, right next to a small town called Floridablanca. There I met my friends from Venezuela again and we spent a long time just waiting for a good wind while watching the view of Bucaramanga. Because of the paragliding crosscountry competition that the Yucas where competing in the take off zone was full of pilots the whole weekend and I as a beginner could not join in.

Sun sets over Yuca and me.

So we spent that weekend just following the competition, chatting around and doing pretty much nothing while the yucas where up there making an effort. Another pilot, Lillo, let me stay with them at her house so I hanged with them the whole time. Monday the competition was over, Yuca finished 5th in the top class and Joglin 1st in the second class. The remains of the tropical hurricane hit us and we had some days with horrible weather, not suitable for flying. Got in a few flights though, in between all the rain. The venezuelans got stuck here because the road to Cucuta on the boarder had a 4 km long landslide along it. Supposedly it happens about EVERY time it rains around here. So they stayed around until friday when finally the weather was good enough to get a good day of flying. Leonardo, another friend of the Venezuelan, agreed to give me more coursing and rent me a wing for a very good buddyprice and so I moved in at the flight site hostel with the other international pilots and we flew the whole weekend including monday. The days went by like this: Wake up at 7:30(go "Hurray" if the weather looked good) and have Sarita´s awesome breakfast(usually fruitsalad and a sandwith with fresh coffee or hot chocolate). After breakfast I got my equipment and walked the 50 meters over to the take off where I would wait for Leo to arrive so I could go fly. Usually did two morning flights, depending on the conditions. Then we would go back to the hostel and prepare some lunch and do some chatting, usually about flying and weather (surprise!). Didn´t fly midday because the wind got to strong. Around 3 I would go back to the take off and if the wind was strong we would play with the speedwing(a wing they use for speedflying, check in out on youtube!) to practice kiting, or if the conditions were good we would do 1 or 2 evening flights.

Kiting the speedwing

During my stay we had some stunning evening, sunset flights. I had a couple of long flights over 30 minutes where I climbed on a thermal or soared on the ridge wind before heading to the landing zone or doing a toplanding. We call it a "happy landing", the feeling after such a flight. It refers to the great feel of total happyness that flows through the body, guess its endorfines going through the brain, kind of like after getting a adrenaline rush, just without the adrenaline. What an amazing sport! I learned so much during my stay in Bucaramanga and it has convinced me that I will pursue this sport in the future. As of now it is too expensive to buy my own glider. Left the place with two american guys, and we all went to San Gil together wednesday evening.