Paragliding in BC

Paragliding in BC

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Mexico Adventure Day ???



My landing zone today


Calendar days are starting to become meaningless ....I'm deep in vacation mode now. I'm pretty sure I still have a week left before it's time to go home so that's 7 more days of epic flying.

So a couple of days ago I missed a day due to an upset Mexican stomach. Yesterday I woke up feeling great and the day looked epic, but 30 minutes into my flight I started feeling nauseas & had to fly out. Too bad since I was high & on my way to a great XC (cross country flight). I ended up getting 10 km or so, but the guys who flew where I was heading got 30 km. There may have been some jealousy on my part but I knew I could've done it had I been well so that made up for it.

This morning I felt fantastic - I didn't realize how well until one of the guys from Colorado noted that my stomach must feel better since I was doing handstands on launch! The weather was a bit more stable so we wouldn't be getting too high, but I managed a few low saves and got to try some flat land flying which is new for me. Herminio swooped into the LZ and as we gave him a ride up he said the weather for this week is just supposed to improve. Awesome!

Flight #2 we planned to fly to our hotel about 10 km away. Not a super long flight, but in Mexico they like to plant power lines in the most unlikely places which really limits your landing options. Add a bunch of fields in crop & it makes the flight much more interesting. Since we were ready for a great flight of course we hit sink all the way to the regular landing zone. Well...ALMOST all the way. At 200 meters over the ground I saw a tractor working & made a last-ditch effort to fly over & hope he was kicking off a thermal. There was a tiny beep, but a beep just the same. I worked that little patch of lift to over 1000 meters higher! Nothing feels as good as a low save, I swear. Derek & a few others saw me zoom up & hurried over and soon we all flew towards the hotel.

I landed in a cut corn field 1km out of town with a shady place to pack up that was next to a road. A farmer soon came over & started talking. Between my butchered Spanish & his broken English we talked about flying, his stint living in Oregon & the restaurant his sister-in-law owned in SLC Utah. He soon offered me a ride and as he went to get his truck Derek came walking around the corner! I knew he had landed somewhere nearby but thought he was a lot farther away. Antonio (the farmer) gave us a ride right to our hotel door - talk about spoiled! A chicken fajita (with grilled pineapple in it) with some tequila rounded out another bueno day.




Antonio (my saviour driver) wearing the t-shirt from his family's restaurant in Utah.

1 comment:

Veronica said...

Sounds like you're having a super-awesome trip out there! Too bad about your stomach, but glad to hear you're feeling better.

I'm living vicariously through you these days - at least someone is flying and is enjoying some nice weather. You're missing a forecasted week of rain out here, so enjoy your Mexican flying adventures and rack up those km's!