Eagles in the Valle de Cauca

By: Jeff Shapiro

By KAVU

February 11^th, 2025

Eagle Paragliding Tours '25

It's one of my favorite times of the year....

January signifies the opportunity to head south to Colombia. Perfect skies and warm weather makes the Valle de Cauca a paragliding paradise escape from winter in the northern hemispher.

Working with a crew of legends from Eagle Paraglidng, we get to meet and guide around 30 pilots each week, all grouped in small, like-skilled flocks, and assigned an individual guide who spends time helping with flying related goals, debriefing each day's adventure and making suggestions to apply all the lessons-learned toward the next day's flight.

The flying in Colombia during the January and February months is next-level amazing, but really.... it's the people who consistently brings me back year after year.

KAVU Days!

The conditions found in the skies between Cartago and Cali produce some of the most consistently good flying from anywhere I've ever been in the world. Rain, sun... it doesn't seem to matter much - EVERYDAY is a flying day!

To travel like we do to find good conditions means that nearly always, there will be some down days, and sometimes I might travel half way around the world and only get to fly a few days due to weather.

Not in Colombia! It's truly a destination that you can expect to fly your face off.

The pilots who come year-in and year-out are some of the nicest people I know. They're all passionate about human flight and adventure, and are happy to be chasing birds each day.

Also, the locals in the Valle de Cauca always seem to make us feel welcome with their huge smiles, and I love getting to meet all the interesting and kind people after we land.

Each morning, we wake up, drink coffee, eat some fresh food, and head up the hill early to make sure we're in position to launch when the conditions get good. Nearly every morning, the clouds fill in as the hot, tropical sun meets the ground. We wait for cloudbase to rise and the birds to start soaring, signifying it's time to get airborne.

Fly Tandem

Tandems are one of the best teaching tools we have, and I love getting to share a long cross country flight with another pilot who would typically be flying solo. Thinking out loud while doing a tandem, and simultaneously guiding the remainder of the group on a 4-5 hour XC flight offers a unique perspective where the passenger can apply what he/she learned to the next day's flight. If they've not done a ton of XC, the experience tends to broaden what they perceive is possible. For me, there's nothing better than seeing a pilot have a personal best the day after we do a tandem together!

It's also great to share time with the other locals.....

I feel so lucky to get to be a part of the team of guides with Eagle. Rob, Marty, Brian, Fitz, Farmer, Reavis and Dustin are all pilots I've learned a lot from..... and it's an honor to watch them freely give hard-earned experience from a lot of years in the sport to all the pilots who make the effort to come down to fly with us.