After Baños, we went to Quito again to board a plane to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. Knowing little about it we probably expected a second Medellín, but oh boy, we were wrong. In difference to Medellín and Quito, which are tugged between mountains, Bogotá lies on a spacious plain. This reflects itself in architecture and city design. We have only been in two districts but everything we saw was spacious, green, with a lot of plazas, little parks, and broad walkways. There was just a lot more space for people compared to other South-American cities we visited. Even the traffic situation seemed to be decent. The only annoying thing (for tourists) was that you need a public transport card to take the bus. At the airport, the queue for buying such a card was so long that we bailed and just went around by Uber.

We stayed in a nice hostel close to the old town. It had a SPA with swimming pools and a free sauna which we tried out right after arrival. It was Friday evening and it was quite crowded, mostly by Colombians. You could clearly tell none had ever been to a “real” sauna. The quiet area was all but quiet. It was more comparable to a beach bar. Plastic chairs and loungers, reserved by towels, drinks, and food on the stone benches, groups sitting together, waiting to get their cocktails served. Inside the sauna, it was more of the same. Everyone wore swimsuits, flip flops and sat directly on the wood, chatting along and posing for selfies taken through the glass walls. It was quite hilarious but unfortunately, not the relaxing sauna experience we were looking forward to.

On our first day in the city, we visited the closeby mountain Monserate with its colonial church overlooking Bogotá. We hiked up, which was exhausting but worth the view, and took the cable car down. In the afternoon we explored the old town and had some good Peruvian food, which we haven’t had the chance to try yet. The Pisco Sour was getting straight into my head, though Taking it slowly, we only had one more point on our agenda on our final day: visiting the Simón Bolívar Parque (named by a national hero).

What we encountered was an unreal idyll with an unfathomable number of groups sitting on the green and enjoying themselves. There was lots of street food (but difficult to find something sin carne), gambling stalls like on funfairs, and a lake with countless paddle boats and kayaks floating on it. On the way to the park, we also experienced Ciclovía, where every Sunday large stretches of streets in Bogotá are blocked for cars and opened for cycling, skating, and walking. Unfortunately, we didn’t find a bike rental station. But we love the initiative!

To split travel time, we made a stop in Villa de Leyva on our way to our next destination, the Chicamocha Cañon. It’s a colonial town and a tourist destination, for good reason. Standing on the old market plaza makes you feel like being in Spain. We only stayed one night and enjoyed ourselves with good coffee and a Tartiflette (a potato cheese dish, in this case with raclette) at a French restaurant. Yummy.

The next day, we arrived at the canyon already in the dark. We very heading to a rather remote accommodation close to a paragliding takeoff. Because of that, we had to tell the bus driver where to drop us off (nothing special here). A few minutes before we reached the drop-off, I went to the front of the bus. I was observing the curvy mountain road watching out for the junction to the left followed by a restaurant on the right (which was about 20 minutes away by foot from our destination). Unfortunately, I missed the junction and the restaurant was already closed and dark. We quickly realized that we were past it but, unfortunately, there was nowhere the bus could stop.

When we finally got out, Google Maps was predicting a 40-minute walk. Still doable but with our big backpacks and all the trucks and buses speeding through the serpentines in the pitch-black night, we quickly dismissed the thought. Instead, we messaged our host. The internet connection was quite bad so instead of waiting minutes for our replies, he just drove to us with his motorbike. He couldn’t carry us and our luggage back but organized a taxi and even ordered food so that we would have something for dinner.

The following morning we could finally see the amazing place we have arrived at. Past the green garden of the property, the terrain fell off steeply to open up into a gigantic canyon. Down below a river was running. We even had the takeoff in sight. And that’s where we went after a simple local breakfast of scrambled eggs, arepa, sweet bread, fruits, and coffee. With the local (tandem) pilots we had been in touch already to get some basic information. One question is always where to stay best, close to takeoff or landing — in this case, we had both since it was (primarily) a top landing site. When we arrived we were warmly welcomed and received a full introduction of the site.

Together with the tandem pilots we waited until the conditions were right and did a first flight overviewing the canyon. When I intended to land another pilot was also approaching but I made room for him and did a little go-around. Luckily, I quickly gained height again and was able to land soon after. Just a few minutes later, though, the pilots still in the air struggled to get to takeoff/landing altitude. A few even landed a little bit below the regular site to avoid losing even more altitude and having to land down in the canyon (it’s a safe option but it takes more than 1h to get back up). Everyone made it! We packed our stuff and were back at our accommodation shortly after for a relaxing afternoon on our terrace in the green.

The following two days we had a similar routine with paragliding between 11am and 2pm and resting during the afternoon when the wind got too strong. On day two Simon flew a small triangle. First, I wanted to accompany him but after losing a lot of altitude during a crossing, I decided against it. The strong but turbulent thermals helped that decision. They were far from dangerous but I quickly dislike such conditions. After I landed, I watched Simon together with a bunch of tandem pilots.

From time to time, one approached me, complimenting his flying or inquiring about his current location. They later also made me aware of the wind getting stronger and gave some tips, like not flying behind the takeoff (because you would not be able to fight back to it against the wind). They also suggested that Simon should consider returning before it gets too strong. I relayed everything to him via radio. It was cool that they were so interested and caring. After he landed safely, we did a little hike to the amusement park nearby to see what it is about and get something to eat. The balcony of the restaurant had an amazing view and we were really thirsty after flying and hiking in the blazing sun.

We would have stayed longer in the canyon and, in hindsight, this would have been a good idea. But we didn’t sleep well because of the many mosquitos and our accommodation was only offering breakfast, so we mainly ate snacks for lunch (fruit, chips, muesli bars, and supermarket sweat bread) and had to order food for dinner (which was only mediocre and came in a lot of throwaway containers). There was nothing nearby and without a car, unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of good options for us. So we moved on.

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We are sitting in the backyard of a cute cafe, surrounded by greenery, and enjoy cappuccinos and a delicious passion fruit cheesecake. The sun is shining but it’s not too hot. We are relaxed and are looking forward to our time in the adventure town Baños and in particular flying in this spectacular landscape with steep green valleys and volcanoes on the horizon. We fully enjoy ourselves. Do we, though? There is this nagging thought that somehow we are getting tired of places more quickly, that the full-day bus rides are getting just a bit more exhausting, and that our enthusiasm is just a tad lower. That with every place we see, we are getting a bit less excited about the next and have a harder time appreciating where we are.

We are exploring this feeling together and realize that we share this state of mind. We also acknowledge that the outlook of spending time in the Alps, starting our apartment renovation project, and even getting back into a daily routine feels good. And that this underlying feeling makes us feel stronger about the little things we don’t enjoy while traveling in South America. Because, and that is hopefully not surprising, not everything is awesome all the time. Above all, the local kitchen is very monotonic and not very sophisticated, in particular when you are vegetarian. And we often feel there is a widespread “lack of care”. Waiters who are on their phones instead of serving customers, accommodations where the walls mold away, general lack of maintenance, etc.

I don’t want to paint a negative picture here at all. We have met many nice people, stayed at amazing places, and are very grateful for all the positive experiences. But I want to illustrate that there is a balance for us that started tipping. Highs and lows are part of every journey, but at this point, we started to see a pattern. And we had to make a decision. Next up was Peru. But we would need two days on the bus to get across the border (sparing out Guayaquil because of curfews and criminality) and two more days with 7-12 hours on a bus to get to the first (paragliding) spot we wanted to visit.

After sleeping over it for another night, we committed to heading home in the next weeks. To sweeten the deal, we decided to do the sailing trip in the Caribbean that we missed because of a strong wind at the beginning of our trip.

I’m not writing all of this to excuse anything. We talked about if cutting the journey short is any kind of “defeat” but quickly dismissed the thought. It is not easy to accept that you fly home rather than travel on but we are happy with the decision. And taking it has not only helped us get a better perspective on our journey but also painted a clearer picture of what we are looking forward to. That we enjoy the mountains — not only but also because we love paragliding so much —, that we value being in nature more than living in a busy city, that food quality is very important to us, and even that we like to have a routine (that we can then break out from again) and work on something.

Now that this decision was made, we could make sure to enjoy our remaining time. As a tourist town, the variety of food offered in Baños was a lot greater than in most other places. So over the next few days, we stayed at different cafes, had drinks at the hotel bar, enjoyed good Italian pizza with local wine, and ate an outstanding eggplant & cheese dish at a Swiss restaurant followed by a chocolate fondue. And of course, we went paragliding. A really friendly local tandem pilot and instructor took us with him to the takeoff 40 minutes away, stopping for some ice cream on the way.

The launch was spacious and the view was breathtaking with multiple volcanoes and other high mountains in the distance (unfortunately we forgot our camera). Only the wind was very strong. After watching the conditions and tandem pilots for a while I launched but immediately got into strong turbulence. It was manageable, though, and got calmer away from the ridge. I enjoyed the even better view from up in the air and flew around for some time. When I attempted to land back at the takeoff, things got a bit stressful, though. I got into turbulence again which is not nice in strong wind and close to the ground. Three times I aborted the landing and flew away from the ridge again before figuring out that I had to do a higher approach. The fourth time I finally landed safely.

To be honest, I was a bit shaken and happy to be back on the ground. I think I overall managed the situation well but the safety margin was too small for my liking. Over time the wind got weaker and Katy and I decided to give it another shot, together this time. And with the wind maybe 20% weaker, it was a whole different experience. We flew in perfectly smooth conditions as the sun slow slowly set followed by a smooth and easy landing. When I landed shortly after Katy, she was just being “video-interviewed” by two locals who happened to be at the takeoff for the view. They were amazed seeing us flying up above

One other activity we were looking forward to in Baños was cycling. Like our other biking experience at the Cotopaxi, it was similarly underwhelming though. The bikes weren’t great and we could basically only ride down the valley on the main road between Ecuadorian traffic. And while the views could have been spectacular, human infrastructure really butchered it. More enjoyable was the visit to an animal park the next day. We are both not big fans of watching animals in captivity. However, Katy was really keen on seeing lamas & alpacas so we went anyways. Just watch Katy’s joy

P.S.: We will fly back to Frankfurt on the 12th of June

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After our jungle trip in the Cuyabeno nature reserve, we originally planned to go directly to Baños, an adventure town with paragliding spots. On the evening before, though, we got the message that the laptop repair is finished. Since we wanted to continue writing our blog as soon as possible, we went to Quito instead. This was our second (Simon’s third) time in Quito. Since then, we even passed through Quito two more times: once when heading south to Latacunga/Baños and the last time when we flew out to Bogota. This is because Quito is located quite central in the middle of Ecuador and we didn’t travel further south.

During our three stays in Quito, we stayed in two different neighborhoods and went around the city a bit. This gave us quite a good picture of Quito and we generally liked it. Although we were annoyed by the horrible traffic situation (they just opened a Metro, but we haven’t had the chance to try it). Traversing Quito often took us an hour or more, not to speak of Tokyo-style cramped buses. This is also due to the unfathomable lengthy shape of Quito. The City is located in a basin between (volcanic) mountains at an altitude of 2850m (the highest capital of the world) and stretches north to south for 40km.

We always only stayed for a few days and, unfortunately, during one of the longer stays Simon got sick with stomach cramps, fever, and chills. After two days he felt much better, but we went to a doctor anyway before heading to Crucita, our next location. Just to make sure everything was fine, considering that we just came out of the rainforest and the symptoms potentially matched more than just one jungle illness. The doctor only prescribed Paracetamol, Colombian Elotrans, and an anti-inflammatory injection. Not our first time in South America where we had the impression that they treat most illnesses like “Schema F” (i.e. in the same way). Well.

Arriving at the Pacific coast in Crucita, after another day on the bus, we first stayed in an AirBnB which we didn’t like much at all (musty smell, no window, not very clean). Unfortunately, we had to spend Simons’s 30th Birthday there through which he slept most of the time (feeling sicker again). But at least I was able to put together some no-bake birthday cake despite the extremely poor kitchen equipment (have you ever tried to whip cream with a fork? Cannot recommend it). Also, the pizza and tiramisu we ordered for dinner were not very authentic or tasty, despite the reviews praising the Italian style. I guess none of the reviewers has been to Italy yet

After three more days for Simon to recover and a change of accommodation, Crucita turned out to be really great. The Paragliding Hostal was run by a tandem pilot and his wife. Every day, we could drive up with him to the take-off (only a 25-minute hike, which we also did once or twice), relax in the shade of his pavilion on some rundown plastic chairs, and fly when the conditions were right. The flying site was a 100m high cliff on the Pacific coast approx. 8 kilometers long. In such spots, you need strong wind from the ocean in order to stay up in the air and soar along the coast. As soon as that’s the case, you can basically fly infinitely.

We enjoyed it immensely. Flying along the coast, playing away some height with acrobatics just to immediately gain altitude again. We also practiced top landing a lot, for fun or to take a break before flying yet again. More than once we were able to fly the whole afternoon (with breaks) and then fly into the sunset. Especially the long weekend (Labour Day) was brilliant because the restaurant next to the takeoff had opened and we treated ourselves to frozen/slushy drinks or snacks between flights. We also switched wings a few times which was a good experience. Especially when the conditions were weak, it was easier to stay up with Simon’s glider due to its higher classification and larger size/smaller load.

When we had enough for the day, we just flew down to the beach and basically had a kilometer-long landing strip available to us. The only limitation was high tide, when we had to land on a small strip of grass between the ridge and the beach. Since our hostel was right next to the beach, we just landed there. After packing our equipment we could directly take a dip in the Hostal pool – or better – in the Pacific Ocean and refresh.

Crucita itself is a fisher town with mainly local tourists. They have a vast waterfront but next to that not a lot to see, or do. There are no fancy hotels or even a nice city center, only a chaotic and busy shopping street, which is not even paved. In the first days we only went to small “Tante Emma”-style shops nearby to get some necessities and basic ingredients for cooking (rice/noodles, eggs, some veggies, oatmeal, etc.). But we soon wished for some more variance and made a trip to the mentioned shopping street. With a tuk-tuk, it took us at least 15 minutes to the center (and we got ripped off by paying more than twice than on the way back). It was quite exhausting because it was hot and we had to visit four different stores to get what we wanted — a bakery, two supermarkets, and one vegetable/fruit store.

Despite the limited attractiveness of Crucita, we enjoyed our time in the Paragliding Hostal, flying at the coast, and the relaxed atmosphere so much. We stayed around 10 days in Crucita before moving on. We asked ourselves, though, why not stay longer since it seemed like the perfect place to be for us. We realized that for once we felt like having properly taken advantage of what Crucita has to offer in terms of paragliding and that after traveling for some time now, we are getting tired of places more quickly. Something we will think more about as we travel on.

Initially, we thought about going further down the coast but then opted for Latacunga and a visit to the Cotopaxi, looking for a cooler climate. Expect some amazing pictures from one of the highest active volcanos in the world in our next blog post

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We arrived in Ecuador beginning of April and went straight to Ibarra. The city is close to the Colombian border and situated in the Andean highlands, the so-called Sierra, close to the two volcanoes Imbabura (4630m) and Cotocachi (4944m). The whole Sierra consists of two mountain ranges including more than 20 volcanoes (out of a total of 55 in Ecuador) with the highest, the Chimborazo, peaking at 6268m.

We chose Ibarra as a well-known paragliding spot in the North of the country. When searching for accommodation, we found a German campground close to the Laguna Yahuarcocha. We got curious about the offered tiny houses and decided to stay there for eight nights. We enjoyed having our own space for a change, and the quiet and green surroundings with the view of two volcanos. We quickly developed a daily routine of relaxing, cooking, and flying, whenever the weather allowed. The only annoyance was the mosquitos in the evening.

One day we went for a hike. Because of my ankles and Simon’s hip issues (both still bothering us occasionally) we wanted to hike up to the ridge and take a bus down to not overdo it. But when reaching the top we took a wrong turn. We realized the mistake 10 to 15 minutes later but were too lazy to go back and hoped we could return to the street where buses pass by. Ultimately, we did the full 4 to 5-hour hike. When we reached back, we could both barely walk. We served ourselves a cold German Radler and proper sourdough bread with butter at Hans restaurant (the German campground owner). The German treats were a welcome change but it somehow felt a bit wrong to us staying in this German exclave in Ecuador.

At some point, we learned that the name of the Laguna Yahuarcoche (Yawarkucha) means “blood lake” and carries quite some history. The area was under conquest by the Inka empire (between the late 15th and early 16th) and after they scored a major victory, the male population got beheaded in retribution for its resistance and thrown into the lake. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen anyone taking a swim

Flying in Ibarra was one of the highlights for us so far, mainly because of the spectacular panorama. The blue laguna below, the city of Ibarra situated on a plateau behind it, the canyon in between that opens up to an even deeper valley below, the mountainscape and volcanoes, and maybe most unique, the many small patches of farmland that transform the mountains into a natural mosaic.

When we arrived we contacted a local pilot named George (pronounced Joche) and he told us all we needed to know. He also connected us with Pebe who offers rides up to the takeoff with his 4×4 car. On the second flying day, we were joined by three local pilots. They had their first beer already on the way up at 10am which set the tone for the day. After the flight, we all landed close to Hans’s Biergarten and went for a drink together. They were quite amazed about our paragliding skills because Simon and I flew the longest. Apparently, most visiting pilots go for multiple and much shorter flights. And the flying conditions weren’t always particularly easy either. The thermals were quite cyclic (on and off) and on two days strong wind was causing big rotors over the lake. That’s the explanation George gave us for the turbulence and changing wind directions we experienced.

But back to our drinking round with the group of local pilots. We had a lot of fun together! All of them were speaking English more or less fluently (mostly picked up in university). So by mixing English and Spanish, we were able to chat quite freely. After the stock of local beer (Pilsen) was exhausted we picked some German ones for them to try (Hofbräu and Flens). In the afternoon, after a few hours with them, we went back to our tiny house tipsy, hungry, and in need of a nap (I now understand why day drinking is a thing :D).

Being in this state of mind, Simon, unfortunately, spilled water onto our MacBook. We immediately saw it entering the display causing weird colors. We were quite worried, so the next day Simon went all the way to the capital Quito and brought it to a certified repair shop (an 8h roundtrip). A few days later we received the message about the needed repairs (exchanging the display and cleaning some internal components) and went to the shop again to pay the 800€ they’d asked for. A lot of hassle and a steep price for a tiny moment of carelessness but still way less than what we would have paid in Europe for repairing this basically brand-new laptop.

After everything was finally settled with the laptop, we could continue onwards from Quito to enter the next chapter of our trip in the Cuyabeno reserve located in the Amazon rainforest.

One story we still want to share, though, is something that George shared with us over another round of beers. From his perspective, and the two comrades sitting with us very much agreed, Ecuador is now worse than Colombia during Escobar’s times in regard to crime, murder, corruption, and the power exercised by the Mafia. Ecuador was always in a bit of a tough spot being located between the drug-producing (mainly cocaine) countries of Colombia and Peru and along the drug trade routes to North America. After a bit of research, we saw that media reports support their perspective and we already knew that there are nightly curfews and tightened police controls in a few regions, namely Esmeralda and Guyanquil. We spared these regions and never felt unsafe during our stay in Ecuador but it is sad to hear that the situation is deteriorating. And a picture starts to emerge with what Adam has told us about Colombia…

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When we were heading to Santa Elena (Piedechinche), we knew where to stay for a long time already, namely since our time in Costa Rica. That’s where we met Adam, a paraglider from Sweden who is working in Norway and spends half of the year in Colombia. His girlfriend Valentina is running an AirBnB in town, so staying with them was an obvious choice. In particular, because I’ve got a new vario (flight computer) sent there after mine died a few weeks back.

The weather was (again) a bit of a mixed bag. We could do some nice paragliding but also had some days with weak conditions and rainy weather. That gave me time to continue working on my Paraquip iOS App. Specifically, I worked on making a concept called »wing load« easier to understand via data visualization and by providing guidance. That was quite interesting because it involved a lot of research, including talking to a wing designer at Nova.

To get going in the morning, we treated ourselves to a great coffee from the small coffee farm of Valentina’s brother. And for our usual muesli breakfast, I very much enjoyed using the refrigerated passion fruit that I mixed with some sugar, more fruit, oatmeal, crunch, linseeds, and plant-based milk. Katy usually skipped the passion fruit for whatever reason When the weather was favorable, Adam, Katy, and I drove up toward the takeoff, usually in a taxi. We then hiked for another 30 minutes up the mountain road before reaching the green, spacious, and well-maintained launch site. Even though we were outside the main season, there were usually a bunch of other pilots, including a few we already met in Roldanillo.

Every day, flying in Piedechinche was different. One day we needed to be content with heading straight down to land. On other days I could head out into the valley and fly a nice triangle together with Adam and land in Santa Elena. Yet another day, only the mountain ridge was thermally active, so we flew along it as far as we could. Overdevelopment (i.e. large clouds forming) and thunderstorms were often a factor. More than once I flew away from them as fast as possible when they were forming during the flight. One day we took off right when the first thunder was rumbling. In the Alps that would have been a no-go but with the local weather system that still gave us enough time to land safely before strong winds & rain hit the landing. While the XC-flying opportunities were a bit more limited than in Roldanillo, the flying was more relaxed with fewer power lines, a dedicated landing site, and a more vibrant paragliding community that often met at the landing in the afternoon.

One place we somehow gravitated towards during our stay was the Patisseri a bit outside of town. It offered great Colombian coffee, fruit drinks, sweets, and other dishes (small pizzas for example) and we could sit outside in the shade. The atmosphere was nice and best of all there was a landing opportunity right around the corner where I touched down two or three times. One time after landing I unfortunately let my glider settle on a bush full of thorns. Even worse, it wasn’t even a real bush but a pile of thorny branches that were collected from the field. It took a good amount of time to retrieve the glider without damaging it. Katy helped me after getting there and having a good laugh. The cold drinks at Patisseri afterward tasted even better after this ordeal.

During one of the frequent water outages, Adam and I got into a chat about how it is to live in Colombia compared to just traveling the country. As a tourist, you usually only see the nice surface, but he shared that underneath things are quite messy. Mafia structures are very much (still) present and take advantage of people making good business by pressuring them into paying “taxes”. Neighbors are paid or pressured into surveilling each other. Generally, people are seemingly often trying to get a little edge, e.g. construction workers stealing small amounts of building materials for their private construction. And if you are doing above average, you need to fear getting sabotaged. This supposedly also explains why there is so little differentiation between shops and restaurants and why the service is often mediocre. No one wants to risk getting punished for their success. It’s also not the only time we hear about Mafia structures. A tandem pilot in Ecuador shall share similar stories with us later on.

We very much enjoyed our time with Adam and Valentina. We are grateful for their hospitality, flying together, and the great coffee. Moving on, we expected a bus trip between 8 to 10 hours from Cali to the Ecuadorian border. At the ticket booth, though, we were informed the trip could take a whopping 25 hours because of a landslide a few months back that is still affecting traffic. In the end, it took us 16 hours with the result that we reached Ipiales in the middle of the night. Fortunately, the taxi driver took good care of us and the hotel let us still check in. After a short and very cold night and a long hot shower, we visited the church Las Lajas before moving on to Ecuador. One funny thing we did is taking the full-size but very slow cable car for the last stretch to the church. While the views were really nice it was just ridiculously oversized

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Roldanillo is famous around the world as an awesome paragliding spot. The climate and terrain provide plenty of opportunities for long cross-country flights along the Cauca Valley. Easy transportation and low prices round up the package. Roldanillo was also part of the Paragliding World Cup 2011, 2012, 2017, and 2022 which boosted its popularity so that nowadays up to 1000 pilots stay there at a time, mostly in January and February when the conditions are at their peak.

We visited Roldanillo at the end of February/beginning of March with the rainy season about to start and were already feeling some FOMO. And the 3 weeks we stayed, conditions really haven’t been at their best with lots of rain, thunderstorms, and a low cloud base. But based on the stories of other pilots, we were still happy not having been there earlier. Conditions generally have been hit and miss this season and during the busy months, accommodations, restaurants, bars, and cafes must have been totally overwhelmed. Not to talk of the crowds at the takeoff and in the air. Even if we would have loved to see the spectacle.

We met a lot of other pilots including a German instructor working for Papillon (Wasserkuppe) staying in Roldanillo every winter, a travel group from Germany, and a bunch of pilots from Sweden, the USA, and the UK. Since the city was comparatively void of tourists we not only met them at the takeoff but often bumped into each other in town. We quickly formed a small community drinking beer and coffee together and playing chess (we only watched).

Even though the conditions were not as favorable, I still managed to do some long flights I’m quite happy with. The takeoff is located on the ridge next to town which extends North and South for many kilometers. At the launch, you look out into the vast Cauca Valley often without being able to see the ridge on the far side. After taking off, you need to clear a ridge in front of you and a huge power line which can be intimidating. On my flights, I mostly followed the ridge north crossing multiple gaps where the valley cuts deep into the ridge. Always present and often a bit unnerving: the powerlines. One of the aspects that wouldn’t let me recommend Roldanillo for beginners.

To fly a triangle (which is usually the ambition in XC flying) and because of a strong westerly wind called Pacifico that sets in in the afternoon, I then crossed into the open valley at some point. And suddenly I needed to switch my mind from ridge to flatland flying. I haven’t had much experience of that so far so it was great practice. Instead of studying the shape of the terrain, it is more important to watch the clouds and the kind of surface below (the jackpot were sugar cane fields that were currently harvested). Immensely helpful were the birds which clearly indicated thermal activity and saved me from bombing out plenty of times. It’s a huge reward to get back to cloud base circling in a flock of birds after expecting an imminent landing.

The weather, in particular the wind situation, often changed quite rapidly. Multiple times I had to flee from massive dark clouds that were forming and navigate around rain showers. And trying to fly back to Roldanillo in the afternoon can not only become dangerous but is often just impossible because of the strong Pacifico headwind. Already on my first flight, though, I found my preferred landing spot at a football field down the road to Roldanillo where it was easy to get a lift back home. And it was not only my preferred spot because that’s where I, by chance, found the paragliding group mentioned above, packing up after landing there as well.

Another infamous sight where the sugar cane fires. Environmentally immensely harmful, unnecessary, and a hazard for paragliders that I very much stayed away from. More than once, though, I by accident flew through light ash clouds caused by one of those fires. This was not problematic but simply unpleasant.

There are two flights I want to tell you a bit more about. The first one is an exception to the rule that you don’t need to worry about coming back to Roldanillo wherever you land in the Cauca Valley. I took off with a group of local pilots and followed them for a while in weak conditions crossing above the town. Compared to many of the other pilots I managed to stay up until conditions got stronger, flew back to the ridge, and followed it north as far as the airspace would allow. Even then, there were no clouds in the valley and I expected weak conditions. Because I expected the Pacifico to set in soon I flew out anyways, but didn’t manage to fly back South at all. I landed in a field close to a town called San Francisco. It took me 2½ hours on buses and motos (motorbike taxis) to get back home because I needed to change vehicles at every other town.

The second notable flight was my longest with over 5h and 68 XC kilometers. It wasn’t a gimme by any means. There were quite a few spots where I had to work hard and be very patient to stay up. But that makes the flight all the more rewarding. On this day I attempted that classical Roldanillo FAI ~100km triangle. For that, you fly north to Torro, then back and to the South a bit (which I didn’t do), across the valley to Sevilla (which I almost reached), and then back as far as the headwind allows.

While I was out flying, Katy unfortunately still needed to be easy on her ankle. From another pilot, we heard about a good physiotherapist in town and decided to go there together. Katy for her ankle, and I for my hip that was still hurting regularly after overtaxing it during a hike in Costa Rica. It was only 7€ per hour and became a habit for the following 10 days (“Nos vemos alas cinco!?”). At least after we realized that the doctor expected us to come back more than a few times. We always got a cold & hot treatment, followed by a massage or electric stimulation and some exercises along with six other patients. All the while the doctor and his assistant were passing idle time on their phones.

The doc was only 27 and loved rock and metal music. When he learned that we share that preference he started playing Rammstein (of course) and other artists (Disturbed, System of a Down, Linkin Park, etc.) for everyone. Loved it On one Saturday, Katy received an additional session at the doctor’s home (he got a training room there). It was a bit awkward initially but they had a good time playing some more rock music and Katy tried to translate “Du Hast” (Rammstein) into Spanish — with limited success.

Next up for us was Piedechinche (Santa Elena) further down the Cauca Valley. We needed to delay our departure by one day, though, because Katy, unfortunately, got very sick. Ironically, through a home-cooked dish (probably some uncooked lentils). On the positive side, our hosts went out of their way to help Katy. They prepared water with natron & citrus and even cooked a delicious soup for her with chicken, potato, and cilantro. We were really thankful for their friendly aid!

P.S.: We are happy to be back after the laptop disaster

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The ones of you who follow us on Polarsteps can probably already guess what this post is about. After lots of fun paragliding, a small mistake during landing was enough to ground Katy for at least a few weeks. Before we get to that, though, let me introduce you to the lovely little mountain town of Jardín. It is located in the south of the busy metropolis of Medellín and is as picturesque as it gets. It is built around a central plaza with a church and many cafes, restaurants, and bars. In particular, during the weekend it is a very lively place with everyone sitting outside, Colombian music playing, and tap-dancing horses (which can be annoying at times^^).

It’s the perfect place to flee the big city. And that’s what many Colombians do, hence there are many local tourists. The town is obviously trying to entice visitors but hasn’t lost its charm along the way. And it’s a paragliding destination as well. There is a local tandem operator that offers flights to tourists that want to marvel at the mountain landscape from up in the air. The takeoff is a bumpy 40-minute ride away and as solo pilots, we can just join the rides up for a small fee. It’s very easy going and, on our first day, one of the tandem pilots was more than happy to give us an intro (see our site guide for more information).

Even though the conditions were worse than usual, we could do great flying. Katy used the spacious takeoff for her first and perfectly smooth top-landing (achievement unlocked ) and I tried to fly as far down the valley to the north as I could. One day I managed to get all the way to Hispania and back, clocking in a flight of 4½ hours and 50 XC kilometers. We also had some rainy days during our week-long stay. One day I needed to fly away from Jardín again on my way back because a thunderstorm with dark clouds formed in the basin the town is located in (including a fun ride on a motorcycle that ran out of fuel mid-way back to town).

Another mediocre flying day — it was very cloudy — Katy and I took off, climbed to the cloud base, and headed off to a valley east of Jardín together. The terrain is rising in this direction and the wind blows up the valley. We had good altitude and while it was quite a distance, we felt comfortable that we would find some lift. The strong thermals close to takeoff boosted our confidence. The problem: we didn’t find any lift at all.

When we realized this, we tried to fly out of the valley again but with the headwind, we had no chance of reaching back to Jardín. We still tried until the last moment to soar out of the valley. By doing this, though, we gave ourselves very little time to prepare for a proper landing. Those two mistakes — committing to fly into the valley in weak conditions and not accepting defeat earlier — unfortunately set up Katy for a rough landing. She got into a downdraft and didn’t manage to turn into the wind and onto flat terrain.

She landed down a slope, managed to stay on her feet, and ran while the glider was lifting her up again. She touched down two times before coming to an abrupt stop. From my location further down the cow field, I couldn’t tell if she was alright, just that she wasn’t getting up. I ran to her with my paragliding equipment still on. To my relief, she looked alright and was only mentioning pain from twisting her right ankle.

Reading this paragraph now seems more dramatic than it felt, to be honest. On the other hand, things could have gone much worse very easily. Katy by instinct and lots of training still did a lot of things right to save the situation. It just tells how important good practice combined with proper risk management is for paragliding. That’s also the reason we afterward very deliberately analyzed the errors we made and why we share them here.

Back to the scene. While I was still packing up our equipment, an ambulance stopped down at the road. Apparently, someone saw us landing and called them. We weren’t quite sure if it is really necessary but we soon appreciated their help. The field was quite rough and we needed to get across two ditches with water and a barbwire fence to get out. One of the paramedics carried Katy on his back. It was quite an amusing picture, to be honest. After that was done, they drove us to the hospital where the doctor got to the conclusion that nothing is broken, and recommended crutches and rest. All in all, they charged us just 5 dollars for everything.

For Katy, unfortunately, it meant being grounded for the next few weeks.

On our blog, we don’t only want to share our travel experiences but also collect information that can be useful for other paragliding pilots traveling in Central and South America.

We can obviously only cover the sites we have seen, so this is far from a complete guide. We still hope it is useful for some of you and might even motivate you to visit Costa Rica. It is comparatively unchartered in terms of paragliding but definitely worth a visit.

We’ve sent all guides to local pilots to make sure we covered the sites well. However, as mentioned in each guide, we were only able to spend limited time in each spot and information might become outdated. So always check with the locals before flying there.

A general overview of flying in Costa Rica you find at Paragliding: Costa Rica. Below are all our Costa Rica site guides:

In comparison to Dominical, which was a nice little surfer town with charm, we encountered Jacó as a huge, noisy, party-surfer town with one hotel and shop after the other. We only stayed one night until we boarded a night bus to Panamà the next evening. We made good use of our one day in Jacó, though, and went paragliding.

Our plan was to hike to the takeoff. We checked it on the map and it seemed to take around one hour. What we didn’t expect was the heat and blazing sun with near to no shade, the dry dusty slope, and the inaccurate mapping of roads on Google maps. We missed the path up way several times and had to turn back again.

When we finally arrived at the top, we were drenched, and especially our legs and ankles were covered in red dust. We were told that, usually, someone passes by on your way up and offers you a lift. We weren’t that lucky but ten minutes from the top, two guys stopped and at least offered to drive our backpacks up. We really sped up for that last stretch, though, because doubt started nagging on me if it was smart to eagerly give away our equipment worth thousands of euros to two random guys.

Those guys were obviously paragliding pilots with their own equipment in the car. They were also very friendly and excused themselves that they cannot offer us a ride. Also, in the paragliding community, it is quite common to offer a lift, if not for yourself, but at least for the equipment. So everything seemed pretty normal and when we arrived at the top, everything was indeed fine. They even put them into the shade for us.

After regenerating a bit and watching the other pilots fly, we launched as well. The takeoff is not very high and if you don’t get lift right away you are quickly screwed. The thermal conditions were rather weak and bubbly and it was not easy at all. We still soared for quite a while, Simon twice as long as I did. He also was able to practice landings back at the top/takeoff. In the meantime, I used the time to ground-handle (practice glider control on the ground) and walked the glider back toward the city until Simon landed close to me (the possible landing area is huge, basically all fields between the city and takeoff).

Halfway to the city we stopped at the first shop to get cold drinks and finished them in one go. After the initial needs were satisfied we started thinking of how to get a shower because we felt really sticky and dirty. We didn’t want to stay like that when boarding a 17 hours bus ride to Panamà in the evening. So we went back to the hostel we had checked out this morning and asked if we could use their shared showers. Unfortunately, they haven’t had any, but the receptionist let us in anyways to use the shared restrooms. Once in the hostel, we ended up asking a German guy we came into conversation with if we could shower in his room and luckily he had no issue with that… We felt a bit awkward but we were longing for a shower so much. And it was just a delight. We were so thankful!

After having dinner at an Italian restaurant we walked to the bus stop far outside the city. Here we had to wait next to the highway for our bus to depart 15 minutes past midnight. The temperatures were nice, but sitting there didn’t feel great. We were at the bus stop early because we didn’t want to hang around in town any longer. But when 00:45 am approached we started to get nervous, thinking if there was any way we were at the wrong spot (the ticket was only saying “Jacó (Maxi Pali)” which was a supermarket 200m behind us). At around 01:10 am I called the hotline. Right when I got somebody on the phone, the bus arrived. One hour late on point. We still wonder if this had anything to do with the one-hour timeshift between Panamà and Costa Rica, but it still makes no sense to us…

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Our next flying spot is said to be the cradle of paragliding in Costa Rica. That’s where Jean-Claude emigrated to from Switzerland in 1999. Over the years he built up a paragliding paradise with a vast takeoff, restaurant, viewing area, top-landing space, etc. From the launch, you overlook the bay of Caldera, a small village, not too far from the capital of Costa Rica, San José.

Standing up there we could still imagine how buzzing the place called Nemaclys must have been. For a few years now, Jean-Claude is slowly scaling operations back. He usually only opens up the gates on weekends, the restaurant is vacant and while it is well-maintained, you see the signs of age. However, it is still a beautiful spot and Jean-Claude has plans to open up an AirBnB for paragliders which will surely be very popular.

As in Rivas, the Carribean trade winds got into our way a bit. To fly in Caldera the sea wind from the south must push against the wind from the north. The stronger the northern wind, the longer it takes to switch if it does at all. During the day you can watch a line forming on the sea where the two winds meet. The water looks slightly different on both sides. When it is moving towards the coast and the ships laying in the bay turn towards the south you can expect the wind to change eventually. After it stabilizes, you can take off.

This and a lot more Jean-Claude shared with us while we were waiting (see our site guide for a summary). He is truly nice and welcoming and spent quite some time with us. In general, we didn’t mind at all relaxing a bit at the takeoff. There was always a refreshing breeze and it was calming to watch the sea, birds, and clouds.

We also learned about a shortcut to get to the estate. It crosses a decommissioned train track and seems like it hasn’t been used a lot recently — nature is taking back control. As Katy wrote on our Polarsteps travel log: “While I was quite cautious and brave in the face of all the deadly poisonous spiders, scorpions and insects that could hypothetically be lurking around us, Simon, meanwhile, was completely ignorant and dashed through the bushes”. The path was much quicker and nicer than the road, though, and we didn’t encounter any wildlife except a huge dead lizard.

Out of the four days we were in the region, we could fly on three of them. However, the first two weren’t ideal. The takeoff conditions were difficult (probably caused by rotors of nearby trees) and flying wasn’t as smooth as expected. On day two we even got into the wind shear of the northern and southern winds and had strong lift across a large area. I wasn’t completely sure what was going on so I did a rather fast descent with spirals and big ears. Katy followed soon after, even though she interpreted the conditions correctly. Better safe than sorry!

The day that wasn’t flyable at all we spent in Puntarenas. A popular tourist destination with a long beach stretching far into the ocean. The promenade features an endless amount of restaurants, hotels, and stalls. Almost all of the stalls were curiously selling the same thing: Churchill. A drink made of shaved ice, ice cream, condensed milk, and syrup. We rather enjoyed some cas juice (a kind of guava) with slush ice and a vegetarian taco plate, which was fabulous (and only listed on the special vegetarian menu, the default one only listed meat dishes).

After some uncertainty we decided to stay one last day in Caldera and boy, it was the right decision. Finally, we had the conditions we were looking for. Takeoff was a piece of cake and we could basically fly indefinitely. I practiced SAT spirals and managed to do three top landings (i.e. landing back at takeoff) — my first ever! It was pure joy and excitement

Back on the ground, we needed to learn an important lesson: don’t trust the internet, talk to the locals! We waited at the designated bus station and the bus just passed by us, stopped 100 meters further down the road at a random location, and drove away without us. I was quite mad. We walked back to our accommodation (Cabinas Y Pulperia Cerromar) and they explained to us that, for whatever reason, this location we deemed random is indeed the “correct” spot.

Our hosts were generally really nice and made a real effort to converse with us and make us feel at home. They showed us their garden and monkeys climbing around in their backyard, gave us fruits (kind of miniature apples, we aren’t quite sure), and shared family stories with us. While the accommodation was not that comfortable (no air conditioning and a worn-out mattress) we would still be happy to come back.

Now knowing the correct bus stop, we caught the following bus and still made it to our next destination, Jacó.