Just before I left Colombia in September 2015, I took a tandem paragliding flight in San Felix, high in the hills north of Medellin, with Medellin Paragliding
My original plan was to take my Paragliding pilots license there, or in Floridablanca, near Bucaramanga, but that didn’t work out because I ran out of time – I had to be back in good ‘ol Blighty for my Diploma in Journalism course. The pilots course was going to take 10 days, and I only had 6 left. So I decided on a tandem flight instead.
I turned up at the site, got a short video briefing, and was then given directions and told to walk up the hill. When I got to the launch site, there was nobody there – Mondays are a quiet day – but in about 10 mins the instructor turned up on a motorbike.
We both got knitted up, and I readied my trusty GoPro Hero 4 Black on its selfie stick. I was determined to get some decent footage of me having a blast!
I strapped in, and on command, I started to run down the hill. We were airborne in about 5 seconds! Very quick and painless!
The flight lasted over 20 minutes, and included some ‘hands-on’ practice at steering for me, and a demo of crazy aerobatics by my pilot. What a hoot!
I am still working on editing the full video, but here is a 15 second taster that I put together for Instagram of the landing. You can probably tell at the end that I quite enjoyed it!
Stay tuned for a longer video, and a short travelogue of my whole nine months in this beautiful, vibrant and exciting country. And if you ever get the chance to go, then I thoroughly recommend it – you will not be disappointed! Colombia is a truly beautiful country, with fantastic sights and really lovely people! Do it!
Hasta pronto, amigos!