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Incio En Espanol / Home Page In Spanish.My cell number is 970 729 0078
Peru Paragliding Tour: Join us for our annual trip to the best flying sites in the Andes!
homebottom of pagepage contentssite mapcontacts&links
Incio En Espanol / Home Page In Spanish.My cell number is 970 729 0078
Peru Paragliding Tour: Join us for our annual trip to the best flying sites in the Andes!
Upcoming Tour: Fall 2011: Our annual Touches the Andes of Peru Tour. Join us! My cell is 970 729 0078 TemplateLink
This page contains teasers for two articles published by USHPA Hang gliding and Paragliding Magazine in 2010. Ayacucho: Paragliding the Central Andes of Peru is about my first season flying this awsome site, and Gold Hill, Telluride Colorado N. 37° 54.246’ W. 107° 49.320 was requested by the editors as the famous Oops Field landing zone had just been saved from development.
I ALSO HAVE A NEW HOME FOR SALE:
I watched the sun drop behind a nearby ridge, and happily climbed into the back of an open panel truck, half full of locals. The truck dropped us at this intersection and turned off the highway. Now, it’s dusk and people look weary, but they reassure me that something will come along. Three old women sit sewing, backs against a nearby building. Their feet reach toward a tied up pig and a handful of chickens. I am dismayed when the women get up, shrug and wander off. It’s dark now.
Finally our ride comes. They call minivans that ply the roads of Peru “collectivos”. To me this describes the collection of humanity that they pack in, as well as the way they stop in the road every few miles to collect the next fare. I toss my glider on top and find a seat. The farmers have been out in the fields working and the acrid smell of sweat fills the van. The fumes irritate my eyes and keep me awake like smelling salts, but the old man crammed next to me (four across the seat) can’t stay awake and his head bobs on my shoulder.
I count how many people are crowded in here but stop at twenty, plus boxes of produce, bags of potatoes, bunches of greens for guinea pigs and small children wrapped in colorful mantas. The driver of this overloaded van takes the corners too fast, and as we round one he jerks the wheel as we almost hit another truck that lies on it’s side, the contents of it’s bed spilled across the road. They lost control, hit the mountain side and rolled over. Everyone crosses themselves, but no one suggests we stop to help or see if anyone is hurt.
The LZ at the edge of Ayacucho.
THE FLYING:
I left the earth first and found the air light and lifty. It was enough and soon I was above my earthbound friends. Both hang gliders and paragliders joined me frolicking to and fro above the rocky, tundra covered ridge. The final day of the summer season, soon comes winter and the cold that comes with it. But today is our day.
Hang pilots Craig Pirazzi and Kevin Smith join me over the high peaks. It’s light, but lift is everywhere. We follow the ridge as it drops and climbs, past golden sunlit spires. Gendarmes reach toward us, into the sky. We circle close, sometimes laughing with each other, sometime dancing with the ridge. Conditions feel winter-like. The air is smooth and kind.
Below us the others are still near launch, enjoying their piece of air, their time aloft. We continue back from Palmayra Peak, climbing again over Silver Mountain and Ophir Valley. This is a confluence of several ridges, but they come together randomly. The thermals reflect the terrain below and it’s usually hard to get high here.
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Join us for our annual Touching The Andes of Peru Tour!
Upcoming Tours: April 2006: India, May 2006: Peru