Flying on the Coast Next to the Birds
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2007
1
13
18
Trip End
Jan 21, 2007
Crucita,
Ecuador
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
We had a continental breakfast with our daily dose of fresh fruit juice (cantaloupe or passion fruit here) and swam in the pool while waiting for the coastal wind to start coming in. By the way, it is CRAZY HOT here... We woke up to 28'C in our room and it gets much hotter when you step outside around noon. However, the sea breeze coming through our windows makes up for the heat. Once the wind was in, Luis got all excited and told us to 'vamos'! We applied massive quantities of sunscreen and jumped in the van. The launch is situated right next to a small restaurant at the top of the ridge: which makes for a great top landing site. Next to the launch, there is a brand new foreigner housing development of very nice villas with pyramid and dome roofs complete with in-ground swimming pool... All for a measly 40 grand USD! The launch itself is a perfectly acceptable long sandy slope that ends somewhat abruptly onto the ridge's edge
Benoit Taxis to the Cliff...
. You can fly for about 10 kilometers to the left by staying inside the ridge lift. Michel tried, but was thrown out onto the beach a good walk away below the launch, I was heading there when the wind switched direction and lost it's strength, so I turned back and managed to land on the beach just in front of the hostel where Juan, our driver, was waiting and Benoit managed to scrape some lift and execute a top landing on the launch. We waited some more for the wind to get stronger again and chatted about this and that while watching the hundreds of seabirds climb fast moving thermal columns above us... They are quite a sight and make us very envious! Once the wind got stronger, Luis and Juan left in a big tandem paraglider for Juan's very first flight! It was a gift from Henri for his 38th birthday (officially Monday). We all got a second flight in after that, Benoit and mine were shorter (I completely missed the ridge lift bubble and landed immediately on the beach), Benoit joined me not long after. Jean-Roch and Martin left later in stronger wind and eventually landed on the beach... Martin nearly landed IN THE SEA for one reason or another... He had a nice time watering down his wing with fresh water since sea water is so bad for our wing's material... Hehehe. And Michel managed a long, high, yet slow flight where he had to use a variety of techniques to descend and reach the beach to land. A good day indeed! And to top it all off, Henri, Martin, Luis and I all sat silently on a big log on the beach to watch yet another perfect Pacific sunset. 
