Anchorage - Louisville KY - Miami FL - Bogota Colombia - Pereria Colombia - Roldanillo Colombia. The trip started great with a bunk on a UPS 747-400 freighter from Anchorage. Made it to Miami in less than 12 hours so that was pretty good. American was very accomodating and put me in Biz class for the flight from Miami to Bogata. I had a ZED standby ticket on Avianca Airlines from Bogota to Pereria which also went very smoothly.
The challenge began when I stepped outside the aeropuerto in Pereria for the taxi ride to Roldanillo. Fortunately a local women stepped in on my behalf to help me make sure I got into a taxi with a driver who was actually liscensed, and that I didn't get completely ripped off. This seem to get worked out ok and off I went with a driver who seemed rather excited to be taking me to Roldanillo. Turns out it wasn't legal for him to work outside of Pereria so he, to my dismay, took me all the way across Pereria to the east side of the city (the opposite direction from where I was going) to go to the main taxi office to get special authorization to take me out of the city to Roldanillo. I had to sign papers and show my passport, etc., just to let the guy drive me to Roldanillo. An hour and a half after I originally left the airport with this taxi, we are driving right back by the airport again finally leaving the city headed out... We found Roldanillo after only one wrong turn and overall it was a nice ride once we finally got going. That turned out to be the most expensive part of my journey...
Got situated in a pretty descent hotel right on the main square of Roldanillo. Had to switch rooms as they had me in a very noisy room where even with ear plugs I wasn't going to be able to rest well. On friday I made my way up to launch with about 50-60 other pilots who were arriving a couple of days early for the competition. Had a wonderful flight of abotu 70 kilometers in pretty easy conditions. Landed with one of the top Colombian pilots at a small airport across the valley. Was very happy with my glider flying with the new line set I had just installed. The trim and feel was very noticiably improved so this was a very good thing. If conditions stay like this it will be full on racing and should be a blast. The terrain is friendly, the people seem quite friendly so has the potential to be a great comp... will see!!!
Tomorrow I will probably just rest and take it easy...
Jack
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment