This page contains Argentine Skies Part 2, which was published in the April 2006 issue of Hang Gliding and Paragliding Magazine.
Argentine Skies Part 2
Traveling with a glider over my shoulder and a bag full of cameras, my wife Ursula and I spent over two months visiting the premier paragliding sites of Argentina. The southern first half of the trip we visited and flew in El Bolson, Bariloche, Mendoza, several sites in the Sierra de Cordoba and La Rioja.
After several days flying in La Rioja, we started on our way north again, catching a four am bus so I could get to Tucuman in time to fly. The flying here is famous throughout Argentina for the broad smooth thermals. Moist conditions mean fewer flyable days than at the desert sites to the south and pilots rarely get very high, but friendly locals and a beautiful launch makes this a great paragliding destination.
We found our way to Florencia's hostel. Florencia is extremely welcoming, and only rents to pilots. Her house is in walking distance from the landing zones. Soon local pilot Mauricio Serra, picked us up, drove us to launch and gave a great site introduction. The local club, Loma Bola, owns the take off situated in the middle of the 30 km long San Javier Range. A paved road leaves from the suburb of Hierba Buena on the edge of Tucuman and takes pilots to the grassy launch.
Typically, there are lots of clouds, and the air is humid. The best months to fly are October through November; the rainy season is January through February. This year Loma Bola and Tucuman hosted the Argentina Nationals. Again I saw an unusual number of Gradient gliders, the legacy of Luis Rosenkjer and his marketing ploy of winning the Nationals on an Aspen, and lending Aspens to his friends who all took top places.
True to its reputation, smooth thermals rise from the dense forest below launch. There is normally no prevailing wind, so the thermals slowly track their way up spines, or what the locals call filos, from the flats below. This phenomenon creates a nice breeze to launch into. As with most sites, top landing seems tricky at first but becomes easier after a few passes, and the grassy hillside is huge.
The clubhouse offers shelter from rain and a place for weekend barbeques. Tree tops surrounding launch sport windsocks, or mangas, which literally means shirtsleeves. There are signs describing the site, noting the local radio frequency, and the right hand thermaling rule for the house themal in front of launch and to the right.
We were shown a really nice time in Tucuman, visiting with pilots in the evening and getting rides back when landing out. There are a couple optional landing zones, one close to the hill and the other close to the meeting place at a store on the edge of the city. True to the wet nature of the range, I was rained out several days. Still I got to fly enough to get to know the site, though I didn't get to fly up and down the range, and never got very high over launch.
Some of the best flying in the country is in the north, and we still had a long way to go to get to Lima, Peru for the Christmas holidays with Ursula's family. So again, we boarded a bus right after my last flight in Tucuman, and left for the next site, Tafe Del Valle in a high valley on the other side of the range. Several hours driving around and through the mountains and we arrived late and tired. We carried our gear to a local hostel and contacted the only local pilot Freddy Powell, who agreed to take off work the next day to take me flying. Once again the local hospitality was even better than the local food or even the flying. Amongst thick dark clouds we hiked above town, eventually flying through a small hole in the soup, for a sled ride down. Argentina pilots, like Chileans, call top to bottom flights a "piano", a metaphor I really like.
Without time to explore some of the other potential high mountain flying in the nearby Andes, we headed north again for Salta. When pressed Luis had reluctantly given his opinion that the best flying in Argentina was in and around Salta. Our guide-book spoke highly of the city, with a lively nightlife and lots of colonial history to check out. Local pilot Marianna Farjat kindly introduced us to many of the other pilots, and took us to Corralito, the most used of Saltas flying sites. Marianna owns the Gran Hotel Presidente, a four star hotel on the central plaza, but we found less extravagant accommodation.
The best months for paragliding in Salta are September, October and August. We were lucky catching great weather at the beginning of the rainy season, which runs December through February. The Corralito site is half an hour out of town, and has a locked, gated, two wheel drive dirt road for access. The thermals are broad and smooth and top landing on the spacious clearing is easy. The launch is six hundred and fifty meters above the tobacco fields at the landing zone. Launching into a good cycle is important, but low saves at the bottom of the hill are also possible.
At Corralito we met lots of local pilots who shared their site, their knowledge and their tight circle of friends with us. I was initiated into some of the different varieties of hierba mate, a hot tea drink using a special gourd and straw. The entire trip I watched Argentineans enjoying mate, any time of day. Thermoses of hot water and a mate appeared any time there was a small wait or a short break and a group of pilots were gathered. Traditionally mate is very strong but people add sugar and spices for variety. The gourds, or mate, are made from the Porongo fruit, and the metal straw that strains the tea is called a bombilla descana. The gourd is refilled with hot water, and then passed to the next person. The costume is that if you don't want to be offered more, you say "gracious" when handing the empty mate back.
Two local tandem pilots, Alejandro Haro and Omar Lopez took me to another local site just north of town named San Lorenzo. Horses carried our gliders during the hot hike up the hill. This launch isn't as high as Corralito and is more challenging to soar. Still, midday thermals call pilots into the air. Alejandro and Omar shared their site and helped me with my Spanish, explaining that a gaggle of birds, or bandera, is also a gaggle of paragliders. They also described the difference between male and female condors and the local cuervos, or buzzard, which is all black.
The launch is a beautiful grassy clearing on the edge of a ridge rising above new suburbs of Salta. There are many optional landing spots, but the normal field is huge and right next to the road to the hill. The day was too sunny with few clouds. Pilots who get high here often fly to the southwest around the city to the Corralito site. The unstable conditions with big but non-threatening clouds we had flown the last few days were what we needed. Instead it was challenging to soar longer than an hour in the on/off thermal cycles of the afternoon.
We passed a last day in the Salta area sharing local bus seats with two young French pilots in a search for the fabled flying at Cuestro del Obispo. We all met at the bus station at six am even though the weather prediction was for rain, the sky was dark and moisture hung in the air.
After several hours retracing our way south, we entered the foothills of the Andes mountain-chain, and climbed up into the clouds. A famous local tourist attraction is a train ride that winds up to the crest of the Andes. It is called "The Train of the Clouds", after which we named our fruitless expedition "El Collectivo de las Nubes". The site has huge relief and the valley obviously holds great promise for free flight. Fortunately we were well entertained by our friends' wild antics and fun energy. I really enjoyed meeting the oncoming bus on top of the pass, changing buses with our paragliders, in the middle of nowhere, and switching our travel from one direction to the other to the bewildered looks of the other passengers. The French pilots were on the way south to eventually fly tandems in El Bolson with the friends we met at the beginning of the trip. The small international circle of pilots was as strong as ever on those dusty dirt roads.
Our final destination in Argentina was the flying around Jujuy, two hours north of Salta. We caught yet another five a.m.bus and met up with Jujuys local instructor, Pablo Altea. Pablo kindly took off work to act as our guide.
In Jujuy we asked a taxi driver the difference between a hotel and motel in Argentina. He laughed as he explained the normal two-hour time limit at motels and the implications.
We met up with another local pilot and headed north to the flying site of El Jaire. This is another afternoon thermal site with big peaks cresting the mountains behind launch. El Jaire has strong valley winds, with another ridge soaring site further upstream. The grassy launch knoll was clear cut especially for paragliding, and there is a shaded parking shelter and table with stools. About a dozen local pilots regularly fly from this five hundred meter high ridge.
Pablo gave me a great site introduction, pointing out various reasons this is an advanced site. With the strong head wind on the way to the landing zone, and the large forest to cross, this is definitely a committing launch. Novices or pilots with low performance equipment should consider only flying when conditions look especially good. The best season here is the same as in other northern areas of Argentina, with the greatest number of flyable days in September and October, and the rainy season December through February. The mountains and valleys around Jujuy are green and wet, in stark contrast to the nearby altiplano of Bolivia and Northeast Chile, an extremely high desert at fourteen thousand feet just a few hours away.
With this final successful flight, soaring high over the forests for over an hour, drifting back with the strong wind, fighting to stay out front in the short lived thermals, I completed an incredible tour of many of Argentina's paragliding sites. We would leave the next day with a group of Salta pilots for the Pacific coast in Chile.
The great people who were so friendly, kind and caring are what made the two months so incredible. There are great sites and the country has very high standards for travel, food and lodging. Almost everywhere we went there was an active club or organized flying scene. The locals without exception were unbelievably welcoming and supportive. I thank each and every one who took the time and energy to share their love of flying and their local sites with me.
Go to Forty Days Over Mongolia: A Paragliding Expedition to the Lands of Ghengis Khan.
Go to Dateline Kurai, Altay Republic: The Russian Paragliding Championships.
Go to A The Celelstial Tien Shan of Kyrgyzstan: Between Mountains and Sky.
Go to Paragliding In The Callejon De Huaylas.
Go to Paragliding Huaraz Peru.
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