Fixed my Break and Flew the Valley Some More
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2007
1
10
18
Trip End
Jan 21, 2007
Tunshi,
Ecuador
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Greetings,
We have moved into an Internet-free zone (nowhere close to our hostel anyway), so here is the update for last Saturday (pictures will follow since time is short here in La Troncal):
Saturday, we woke up at a reasonable hour in Rio Bamba and returned to the Tunshi flying site. On the way, we saw an indigenous woman lying on the ground right in front of her house... We were worried, but soon learned that she passed out drunk right in front of her door! It turns out the farmers all get massively hammered on Friday and, obviously, some don't make it all the way home the next morning! Anyway, it was a beautiful day and I was unsure about my break... I had initially decided not to fly partly because of my break, partly because flying every single day is exhausting physically and psychologically and partly because I did not enjoy my thermal experience the day before..
Beginning the Descent Through the Clouds
. However, the weather was nice, I showed Henri my break and he assured me it was very strong... We covered the exposed area in masking tape I acquired at the local supermarket the same morning and he explained to me the inner workings of a thermal and how one should approach them and take advantage of them. Both actions relieved me enough to take flight... So, my colleagues and I flew a once there. I didn't get any thermals, but it was fun nonetheless and reassuring. Michel, however, managed a very long thermal flight to the clouds and Benoit managed to scrape some lift off the ground for a long time too. The kids, again, were pleased to see us again and I ended up having a nice long chat in my broken Spanish with the owner of the landing zone land/fields. We talked about paragliding and the economy and his work on the land... It turns out his family has been farming the very same piece of land for what is like forever for them and that the water flowing through the fields actually comes from 2 hours drive away: they manually dug the ditch from the source over the mountain to the fields! So, we had a good morning after-all.After that, we left for La Troncal. We drove over the Andes and down through the cloud forests for 3 hours (always driving downwards through miles of clouds) and into the subtropical side of the Andes facing the Pacific coast... Wow! The landscape was incredible. It sure is humid here and HOT! It is amazing how fast the climate and culture can change within a few hours drive in Ecuador! Our drive was interrupted about half way down due to a massive landslide that wiped out half of an entire mountain where the road we were on used to be! In fact, only 3 roads in the entire country join both sides of the Andes and all are afflicted with frequent landslides due to the damp weather and frequent rain on either side. We arrived late at night at our hostel outside of town..
Giant Spider in our Room
. A good thing since the town itself is quite dusty and the cars and trunks keep driving though with big diesel engines all night and day. Troncal is the Spanish word for crossroad... So that is that. It also means no daily Internet access... Tonight (Sunday) is an exception. Oh, I was also greeted by THREE gigantic (apparently harmless) spiders INSIDE our little cabin and a big cricket. I managed to kill two of the beasts and the other two never reappeared. The roof has cracks in it, so they come in quite easily... So much for the tropics! Martin was even luckier than Jean-Roch and I, he was visited by a BAT! The wild life and incompetent/yet friendly hostel staff aside (no towels, toilet paper or keys), this region is beautiful and we are slowly getting acclimatized. Tomorrow, I will post what happened today (Sunday) and fill in the missing pictures and videos... Till then! 
