Day 10

Saturday, December 8, 2013

Day 10

Today I went for a walk to the creek with Marcela. It was so beautiful there! it reminded me of when I used to walk to the creek with my sisters when we lived on Bethel Hill Rd in Sweet Valley, Pennsylvania to fish and just hang out.  The big difference is there was a patch of bamboo trees growing and I never took notice  before of how different young bamboo trees look. As Marcela pointed out, they have a brown fuzzy covering that starts to peel and fall away as they become taller and more mature.  Just beautiful.

Collecting stones from the creek.

Pretty flowers along the way to the creek.

Beautiful view of a neighbor's property. At the bottom of the hill is a statue of The Blessed Mother.

Craig and Deiter going to fly for the final day.  Craig flew the Sledkin by Hyper Flight today. I watched from the hillside.  As he and Deiter were flying, Marcela and I watched approaching rain. The rain was to the north and she explained the rain usually did not reach the flying slope unless it was coming from the east.  She was right!  It was still very cool to see the rain approaching across the valley.

Craig decided to write a friendly note on blue masking tape to the TSA explaining how to re-lock the locks properly on the sports tubes since they were not locked properly we when retrieved the tubes in Medellin.  With Marcela's help, we also wrote it in Spanish!  Funny.

Our last full day in Giardota.  Hmmmmm....what have we enjoyed the most?  Our hosts!   Deiter and Marcela are the best hosts you could ask for.  In addition to sharing their beautiful home, they sincerely wanted to ensure we enjoyed ourselves with whatever we wanted to do.  They were our guides, and sometimes body guards (Marcela watched us like a hawk when we went into town), they really gave us exactly what we wanted from this vacation....a true taste of the local Colombian lifestyle!  We have made new friends for life.  I'm sure we will see you both again!

Day 9

Friday, December 7, 2013

Day 9

Full day of flying (and sunning and reading for me)!  Craig sums up the flying with, "Crazy wind, crazy lift!  It was fun!  Lots more photos in the big camera to be posted when we get home."  He's looking forward to 1 more day of this sun,wind and flying.

All the photos we've posted so far are with the iPhone!  It amazes me.

Ready, set....

Go!  Wheeeeeee!

Lucero, her daughter Jasmine and her niece Alejandro

Lucero with Deiter's plane, The Pace. She helped to carry this down the hill.  Definitely braver than me!

Day 8

December 5, 2013

Day 8, Thursday 

A full day in a city of over 4 million people...Medellin, Colombia!  The day included taking a taxi ride into the city, then we took the metro to the cable car area, a cable car ride to the public library and to the heart of the people, then back to the pulse of where it was all happening, downtown Medellin! Plaza Botero, the Botero cafe and, of course! the famous museum.  Ever since I began to read about Medellin, I've been most intrigued by Fernando Botero, a native artist that depicts the lifestyle of Columbians in paintings, drawings, and sculptures. His work is always large!

One of my favorite sculptures.

The famous painting Pablo Escobar Is Dead.  Botero donated this painting to the museum in 2008.

As stated in the Botero Museum: "The figures painted and sculpted by Botero are not really "fat" they are his formal bid for expressing the sensuality of form, for exploring the possibilities of volume and to give monumentality to the protagonists which allows him to alter the laws of perspective and to place compositional items according to his formal needs."  Botero himself has said "What say is that they are not fat, but voluminous."

Me with Fernando Botero!

With Marcela overlooking the city.

With Deiter overlooking the city.

A landscape view with Deiter.

It is my understanding this is a typical village.  This is within site of the public library.  Our cable car ride gave us an aerial perspective of the living conditions.  This is one of the reasons I love to travel.  It truly gives me an appreciation of all I have and the opportunities that are afforded to me.

Downtown Medellin

Day 7

December 4, 2013

Day 7

Today the sun came out to play!  After breakfast, we took a trip up the mountain to see a stunning home that had an incredible view, 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, 35-40 horse stall stables, on approximately 7 1/2 acres.  Manuele was the owner and he offered us lulu juice which was really quite good!   Then a trip into town to shake off the cooped up feeling that was starting to bring us all down due to all the rain.  Then, finally, finally....off to the slopes!  I tackled the trek to the slopes and was quite surprised it only took 15 minutes to get down to the flying location.  It looked much farther from the house.

Tomorrow we will take a day trip to Medellin! 

Day 6

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Day 6

Craig's beverage choice...I'm sure you can figure this one out.

Aguardiente - My beverage choice, an anise like liqueur, a local favorite made here from sugar cane and flavored with anise.

Horses parked at the watering hole. Notice the ponchos.

This is as exciting as it got today.  Rain, rain, and more rain.

Day 5

Monday, December 2, 2013

Day 5

Last nights dinner was some sort of potato stuffed crust puff ball, along with more fried green bananas and their special sauce. Both Craig and I are really enjoying the meals and have discussed bringing Lucero (the housekeeper/meal preparer) home with us! I could definitely get used to not only eating like this but having our meals prepared.  Although I enjoy cooking, with my schedule, it's always a stressor for me.  Ahhhh...but Lucero comes with a 13 year old daughter named Jasmine and a boyfriend.  That may get a bit crowded.  But one can dream. :)

We watched the fireworks kick off the Christmas season from atop our magnificent overlook.  It was interesting to observe the display from this angle as the explosions were still well below us.

Around 3 a.m. The skies opened again and there was a downpour, however, in the morning, the sun was shining!  Since it is best to fly in early afternoon here, we took advantage of the clear skies and went to town for a few grocery items.  Since most people are back to work, the crowds were less but it was still fairly crowded.  The streets were lined with evidence from the night before's celebration.  This time at the market, I found a hat that called my name.  

Deiter and Marcela say I look like a Colombian cowgirl with my new hat!  Now all I need are some cowgirl boots!  

Craig was excited to make a purchase you can not find in the states.  This is a shower head that generates hot water simply by plugging it in to an electrical outlet. At least that is my understanding.  There is one in the shower of the apartment we are staying in and it works great!  He's not sure what he will do with it, he just knows he wanted one.

It is now 4:00 pm and it has been raining all afternoon.  One thing is for sure....I will be completely rested once we get back home.  I have been reading a lot and, of course, taking full advantage of a daily siesta.  I just hope we see the sun again this week so Craig can get more flying time in.

Day 4

December 1, 2013

This morning it was very cloudy, low visibility, no sun.  Craig and Deiter diligently watch the weather maps to determine if the sun will ever come out.  Leisurely morning with another lovely breakfast, some Tai Chi overlooking the valley, and several hours of bird watching. There is an art to watching for birds...you must first find one flying in to roost briefly atop a tree limb, telephone pole, fence, or wire, then pick up the binoculars to see if it is within range, if it is...quickly put the binoculars aside, grab the camera, zoom in and hope the shot is good.  You can then review the pages of the "Birds of South America" book to attempt to identify the species.  So far we observed various hummingbirds and birds that fall into the flycatcher species.  I actually witnessed one catching a fly! Ahhh yes, it's definitely an art.

By mid-afternoon the sun truly did appear so the men were off to the slope. I on the other hand caught up on some reading and enjoyed a brief siesta.  Life is good! Below is my view for bird watching.  In the distance, to the left is the site of the flying slope.  Photos of the pilots doing their thing will follow when we have our first full day of flight and I make the trek to the slope.