Colombian Eagles

By: Jeff Shapiro

By KAVU

February 16^th, 2021

Additional vids and photos: Marty DeVietti, Brent Bauer, Todd Quigley and Nathan Pohl

Because of COVID19 and the uncertainty of travel restrictions, public opinion and our desire as a global free-flight community to be responsible, the annual guided paragliding tours organized by Eagle Paragliding.... in the beautiful country of Colombia.... were left to the last minute as to whether or not they would happen.

But, as time passed and our plans developed, Rob decided that he'd offer the tours with COVID tests, distance and mask procedures because the feeling that mental health and our passion for life really is.... at the heart of why we all care about living so much.

Luckily, the airlines and airports were both empty and on point with COVID precautions so, when we arrived in the Valley del Cauca, everyone was healthy and psyched on the task at hand..... learning and growing as paraglider pilots!

With fewer clients this year, there were only (4) guides for the first tour, and (5) for the second. Marty, Mitch and Chris and I got to start work (play) with an amazing group of pilots who were there to improve their skills and make some KAVU memories. After the first week, Logan showed up with a whole new group and again, we followed our daily ritual of: wake up to a beautiful morning, coffee and breakfast, ride up the hill, launch and fly in groups as far, and for as long, as we could. Then back to the hotel (since the towns were mostly shut down), hold daily clinics, have dinner, debrief our flights and discuss lessons learned, sleep and then wake up to do it all again.

Day in and day out...... pure bliss and raw experience.

Honestly, one of the best parts of Colombia is the fact that it's literally flyable..... every single day.

The consistency..... the beauty of the landscape and of course, the Colombian people are the reasons we do our best to come here every year!

The Hotel (Los Viñedos) has an incredible staff and being that it's located up on a ridge line, is isolated from anywhere busy, which makes it the perfect location for the world's current "circumstances" (code word for pandemic).

Up there, we could really focus on what we came for which, was flying and learning to become better pilots.

Each morning, the bus picked up our clients and along with our retrieve team...... up the hill we went.

We launch daily from a spot on the range called Los Tanques. Music and good conversation on the way up the winding roads to launch always puts us all in the right mood to spend the day in the air.

Once we arrive, we'd get our gear sorted, talk about the weather and what the day offered for flying conditions and then..... wait for the perfect time to get airborne.

Don't fry yo face!

Last year, being so close to the equator, I'd made the mistake, on the last day of the last tour, of forgetting to use sunscreen. I'd been lulled into thinking the cloud cover would help me from burning. But after literally frying my face off...... I told myself I'd never make the same mistake again.

This year, I took both sunscreen and a super convenient face stick from Amavara. They're a company that produces coral reef safe and environmentally responsible sun protection. I was super impressed by their product and glad I had it!

No face fry, ever again! Thanks Amavara!!

Once our gear was sorted..... our sunnies and helmets on...... sunscreen applied, and the clouds lifted...... the only thing left to do was to

GO FLYING!

2 to 5 hours in the air..... every day. Colombia is amazing! The convective lift, light winds and perfect terrain for the sport of paragliding makes this place literally a mecca for our sport.

One of the coolest parts of guiding for me is the chance to do instructional tandems.

My passengers are mostly skilled pilots but, getting to share experience and lessons learned, the act of making decisions relative to cross country flying and to actively discuss what we're seeing and how to implement good tactics for efficiency.... all in real time.... is super fun! Plus, sharing a memorable flight with a cool person is a gift to me! It's always so fun to see perspectives grow and dreams get born!

HUGE thanks to all the pilots I got to go tandem with!!

And then..... there's the day that your long-time friend and "brother from a different mother" shows up in Colombia, out of the blue, and meets you on launch. Jordan has been present for many of my best life highlights..... adventures which include my first BASE jump, first cliff jump, first building jump and many other days in the mountains where we found ourselves "at the bottom" laughing our guts out.

On this day (during the second tour), he hooked up with my group in the air and flew with us, turning tip to tip and laughing out loud all the way to cloud base, all-day-long! Our whole team landed in the same field after multiple hours in the air and lots of kilometers covered, only made cooler by the fact that Jordan was there too!

Thanks for hangin, brother man!! KAVU day, indeed!

In the end.... although the flying, teaching, weather and culture is incredible...... it's always the people, both clients and Colombians, who become friends and the obvious point of each trip. I learn much more from them than I could ever teach. Connecting with life-lovers and people who recognize the value of positivity and spreading as much goodness as possible is one of the greatest gifts I can imagine. Huge thanks to Eagle Paragliding for making another year possible, to Flako (the ultimate retrieve team leader), and to Mitch, Marty, Chris and Logan for being inspirations to work with.