Friday Saturday

Not much chance to post in the last two days! On Friday they organizers went big and sent us on a 120k race to goal. By the time I made it back from goal my back was pretty whacked out so I opted for a 1 hour full body massage instead of time on the computer! It was a bit painful but quite effective and that really helped me get through the next few days. Yesterday, Saturday, the weather was again beautiful and we finished the week with a 71k race around the valley with goal back in Roldanillo. I made up my mind early that I was going to make my own way and avoid flying in the valley any earlier than necessary. As a result of this decision, I ended up by myself for the first third of the race or so. When I did have to cross the valley I got really low and just headed for the biggest, darkest farm field I could find. I was almost all the way across this field, and getting very low, about 50 meters, when I spied a couple of vultures just taking off from a tree near the farm house where I was preparing to land and sure enough they had taken off right into a nice thermal which was just releasing from the field... At this point the lead gaggle had spied my thermal find and was racing to catch me. Another large gaggle had taken a completely different route and was also joining us from a different direction. It was very fast racing from that point until the last 7 or 8 k when things just screeched to a stop in very light valley conditions. I had been in the lead with Dennis Kortel for the past hour and we both ended up stuck on a small ridge. I decided to make a 90 degree turn off course and head into the higher terrain and make my way to the goal that way. I almost won the day but instead took second as another pilot had come from behind and gotten a huge climb much higher than others at the last turn point and had just glided all the way down the valley to goal...

All in all one of the best weeks of flying I've ever had. Beautiful country, super friendly people, and some of the best, most consistent flying I've ever enjoyed.

I'm packing now for my trip to Mexico city and then to Valle de Bravo. There's no easy way to get there from here so it will take probably 3 days to get there. I'm quite tired so I'm going to take it just one day at a time.. Today I head to Cali Colombia, and then I'm hoping to catch an American flight from Cali to Miami... spend the night and then catch an American flight to Mexico City.... Will post again from Valle de Bravo. The Monarca competition starts on the 23rd I think...

Pics are of an enterprising farmer getting so good use out of his horse!
There was a small army of police hired on to make a show of protecting us during the competition. Apparently there has been some history here in past years of kidnapping which as caused some of the strong world cup countries to boycott flying competitions in Colombia.. supposedly this isn't an issue any more...
Some artwork I had done in Honolulu before christmas this year...

Jack