Medellin, Colombia

Early Saturday morning, we made our way to the airport...Jim dropped me at the curb with my paraglider and a bag of clothes.  He was to fly out to SLC later that morning, leaving the car until he returns to Panama City Feb16th, after his reunion back home with Marcie, family, and friends...lots of work to do as well on the basement finishing project, he says to me.

The flight to Medellin, Colombia was short, sweet, and expensive.  Determined to find my way to the hotel via public transportation and avoid a $50 cab fare, I got to within a quarter mile of the destination after bus and city metro connections.  I walked aimlessly for 45 minutes through the vortex of upscale high rise condos and office buildings looking for the hotel but Medellin has no rhyme or reason to its city layout.  It's easy to notice a lost and bewildered gringo, and that's exactly what a very nice young couple did as they pulled up beside me in their Honda Accord.  They looked at my notes and offered to drive me there, going out of their way.  I must have stored up some karma sometime, but I cashed it in there and the Familia del Cielo saved the day.

I spent the day walking until I was exhausted in this beautiful and facinating city of several million people. It is relatively long and narrow, sandwiched between two mountain ranges, the northern portion of the Andes. My hotel is in a quiet and peaceful side street but there is really no convenient retail outlets or restaurants near.  Later that evening, I set out to find sustinance, and walked for an hour, only found one pizza joint.  Having eaten nothing all day, I was desperate and reluctantly settled for the Colombian equivalent of Chucky Cheese.  Picture this:  a 61 year old man, sittling alone in Chucko Cheeseo, with about 50 kids (half a dozen bithday parties) eating pizza playing on trampolines and various kiddy things, with mostly mothers and a few bored fathers...all staring at me.  I'm lucky they didn't call the vice squad or launch a preemptive asault on the old man in the corner.

This morning, I made the arduous trek to the closest paragliding site to the city, a trip of about two hours via Metro and bus.  San Felix is high above the northern end of the valley, just outside of the city limits of Medellin.  I had made contact with Marlin via the internet who works for a paragliding company and he mentioned that he would be at San Felix and would watch for me.  Luckily, he found me and dly gave me a briefing on the conditions and idiosycracies of the takeoff.  Wow, what a wonderful flight I had, about two hours in the air, with gentle and abundant thermals to keep me aloft.  I flew until I was tired and cold, and performed a less than graceful top landing at the end.  Enjoying refreshment at the outdoor cantina overlooking the takeoff, I felt a sence of total relaxation and contentment for the first time of the trip.

I think I'll hire Marlin to guide me to a few other sites within a reasonable distance from Medellin, especially to Sopetran, where I have had wonderful flying the last two trips to Colombia.

My "Chucky Cheese" Close Call

San Felix