Getting To San Gil

South America » Colombia » San Gil
October 25th 2012

Published: October 30th 2012

San Gil!!! ohh San Gil! What an absolutely amazing place! I left Bucaramanga on Thursday the 25th early, up at 6am to get to the Paragliding Rendezvous. I wasn't going to let what happened the previous day with the climbing happen for the paragliding! I packed up all of my stuff and hobbled out of Kasi Guane headed for the main road, the 33. Once there I waited for a bus to take me to Papi Quiero Piña. After waiting for about 15 minutes, I became impatient and decided to catch a taxi. It was going to be much easier than trying to shuffle all of my stuff onto a likely very full bus. The taxi was substantially more expensive at $8000COP compared to $1700COP, but its only a couple of bucks in AUD. Once I arrived at Papi Quiero Piña, I was greeted by some grumpy Colombians trying to get me to purchase their bus ticket. I little irritable from not much sleep, I wasn't very polite in my refusal of their help. It got quite an aggressive reaction from the main hustler, and I quickly noted that I should refrain from being being so aggressive myself. I easily found the right bus to take me to Panochi (A town near Chicamocha Canyon) where I was to meet my paragliding instructor Leo at a restaurant named Chiflas. As it turned out, this time around all of the travel ran smoothly and I was now two and a half hours early. I decided to have some breakfast while I waited. Unfortunately the restaurant didn't have a menu, and I had no idea what they might have at their restaurant. So I asked the waiter what he thought was the best, que rico.. Something yummy, and a coffee. He definitely brought me something yummy, a really nice soup made of whole boiled eggs, potatoes and a bunch of other spices. With it came a really salty flat bread, almost like a tortilla but very different too. This would have been a perfect breakfast for me.... especially considering I was about to try and fly. However, he then brought out a steak, another flat bread and what I think was a Yuca. I can't be sure though. It was potatoesk in appearance, texture and flavour. It was an awesome breakfast but, perhaps a little too hearty for what I needed. After waiting around for a while, Leo finally showed up and we rode on his bike to the launch pad for the paragliding. This was a little difficult with a full backpack on my back and my day pack on the front but we managed fine. Once at the site, we waited around for what seemed like a long time. The winds weren't very strong and we waited to see if they got stronger before flying. He said there were two options, climb with thermals if they were there and then descend, or failing that, just descend straight to the river. As it turns out, the waiting was in vein and we soared to the river. This was perfectly OK though, still felt insanely high. As the canyon is a big one!! I got some go pro footage that i haven't been able to view yet.. We followed a ridge for a little, gaining a little bit of height every now and then from thermals, and then descended reasonably quickly to the river. It was an amazing way to see a place. I think I might be hooked on it. On the final bit of the descent, the last 150m or so. Leo did a few spins over the river and then came into land. It was awesome, one of the best rides you could ever go on I think. He later told me he was the best acrobatic pilot in Colombia, I still don't know if this is true, or he was just bragging.
It was a short bus ride to get to San Gil, ans I quickly found Macondo's hostel and dumped my things. An Aussie bloke by the name of Shaun runs the place, nice fella.

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