y así comienza...

Just under 2 weeks in to my year off and I find myself with the time and inclination to start blogging...

Its been a fairly un-eventful 2 weeks. I landed in Bogota exhausted after a casual few leaving drinks in London, paid about 3 times the going rate for a taxi from the airport, but arrived safely into a nice family run hostel in the Candelaria area in Bogota.

Looking down on Bogota

Bogota is high (2640m high to be exact) and you notice the altitude. It was also delightfully cool at night but hot during the day. The most interesting thing about Bogtoa is the street art. Its everywhere, its brilliant and the city have embraced it. Saw a lot of the city on a bike tour, run by an entertaining American (a former journalist) and including all the culturally significant sights such as a ride (by bicycle) in the red light district and a game of tajo - Colombias explosive, official national sport. Otherwise I was mainly drinking beer and aguardiente; Colombia's own aniseed spirit offering. There was one surprise worth nothing, when I happened to meet Mike Sutton (formerly of SSE and last seen in Glasgow about 3 years ago) hanging out in a tajo hall.

Candelaria

Rapping for the Bogota bike tourists

Tajo hall

On Friday (9th Jan) I headed to Medellin; a 10 hour bus ride, which combined with a hangover and a beautiful ride through the mountains was actually reasonably enjoyable.

There was a young German acro pilot staying in my hostel so on Sat I headed up to San Felix with him to go flying. Medellin is in a lovely location, nestled in the valley and flanked by mountains on both sides. San Felix is up on the mountainside to the north west, overlooking the city.

I didnt get off to the best of starts. My lines had somehow become looped through one another and it took me a good 2 hours to untangle them. Lightweight unsheathed lines definitely have their disadvantages. The flight was very pleasant however. Abundant lift and lots of gallizanos (small vultures) cruising about. I've quickly learn that the hard bit however is getting down and the landing area down on the valley floor is pretty turbulent. If you overshoot, the ground drops off steeply and you then meet the edge of town; so not really an option. I duly (almost!) overshot, but managed to get down with a few meters to spare. Everyone else (albeit mostly tandems) were toplanding. Easy to see why.

First flight from San Felix (the sky hasn't looked that good since)

Sat night is the big night out in the city and we had our own local guide to help us get stuck into the Colombian rum. Sunday was therefore a write off but had a nice flight on Monday with a much more comfortable landing.

Tuesday saw me start some much needed spanish lessons - the main reason I had come to Medellin - and I´ve enjoyed having the time to study something useful (it'll hopefully be even more enjoyable when I start to understand things!).

Based on my limited experience, the weather hasn't looked that great for flying since I arrived (it does however seem to be flyable most days - but maybe not that good for xc?) , but on Friday afternoon after school I chanced it and despite a rain shower on the way up, headed to San Felix for a late afternoon flight. I met a friendly local instructor, Luisito, on the bus ride up and managed to have a lively conversation through my very limited Spanish - It's much easier when you know the topic! His small house on the mountainside is replete with its own take-off area and I eventually left his hospitality behind and took to the air for an early evening flight. After take-off I was surprised at the lack of lift and was heading straight down when I took a nice thermal close to the landing area and climbed most of the way back up the ridge. Watching the lights come on across Medellin was delightful, but with the darkness encroaching I had to work hard to get back down again and the air around the landing zone was buoyant and rough. I didn't judge it well, got my approach all wrong, and ended up coming down with a very heavy landing. Thought I'd got away with a few small grazes but by the time I arrived back at my hostel, my ankle had swollen considerably.

Luisito!

Nice landing field

Not badly sprained I think, but sprained none the less; so here I am with the time and inclination to start a blog!

Bar that minor mishap, my initial impressions of Colombia have been excellent. The people are super friendly and most places have felt very safe. Medellin has much more of a European feel to it than Bogota - it even has an efficient metro system. Two weeks in though and all I've seen is cities; so itching to get out and about, do some paragliding and see some of this beautiful country! Another week of spanish classes before I get on to that however.