I'm in Eden :-)

It was an emotional departure from Roldanillo after a good barbq lunch with new friends of both the hang-dangling and paragliding varieties.
So many people asked for me to come back soon, I received offers of places to stay next time and the lady who runs the hotel was all hugs and tears. The people here truly want to change the perception of their country in the eyes of foreigners.
Personally, I think its all reverse psychology! They don't actually want us to realise how amazing Colombia is, otherwise it will be over-run with Europeans. Keeping an image of some danger actually protects them from a massive influx...its just my private theory and has been refuted by everyone I've mentioned it to, but something this good is worth keeping a little bit quiet! ;-)
By mid afternoon we were half way up another mountain where I enjoyed very pleasant evening flight at Piedechinchi - at last I've been flying :-)
The countryside here is just sooooooo beautiful. Tall jungle trees, banana palms and so much GREEN! The guys in Roldanillo have gone out of their way to make me welcome and pander to my needs and whims. I wanted to fly somewhere different - after a week of 5+hours on the Roldanillo launch I really didn't need to go back up there again, even if it was just to get airborn.
We were here in Piedechinchi last week as gol and it struck me how beautiful this area is. Its not disimilar to the climate and vegetation of Queensland, Australia but has the advantage of being much closer and much cheaper and better flying!
So here I am.. in a hotel called Eden, with breakfast, dinner, wall-to-wall wifi, pool, beautiful cabaña room and flying on the doorstep all for less than 30€ per night. I do truly feel like I am on holiday in the garden of Eden. The only slight downside is that Eden has more than its fair share of mosquitos, but if everything was perfect, life wouldn't be so interesting. I'm just here for just 2 days but I'm going to enjoy it to the full while I am here.
We arrived at launch at Finca Bello Horizonte - memories of Brasil come to me with that name - and passed through the walled gardens to a beautiful grassy lawn with bubbling stream and 2 ancient Gum trees which did a very convincing job of convincing me the wind was too strong with all the rattling & crackling of bark strips.
Finally just before dusk the wind dropped, the smoke from fires in the valley started to rise instead of being horizontal, the light became golden red and I made a beautiful calm controlled launch into silky smooth skies.
With a retrimmed glider ( the ears are flying a tad slower now so its much easier to turn and doesn't feel like it racing ahead of me so much) and a Denis adjusted harness everything feels shiny and new and much more comfortable. Its incredible the difference that can be felt after a few straps have been tweaked by the guy who know what tweaks what!
So now its time for dinner, shower and a restful night in a luxury room before meeting up with the guys tomorrow to go flying again....life is good!