Saturday, September 13, 2008

Along the Isthmus--ShredAir's Journey to Colombia

I first visited Colombia on the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first flight. Flying along the Andes, Marcela and I saw a beautiful country with outstanding potential for RC soaring.
Right there and then, we started talking about moving there once conditions are right. Little did we know that we were going to experience the beginning of Colombia’s rebound from decades of civil and drug wars and that conditions would be right sooner than we thought.
During subsequent visits, we’ve been greeted with enthusiastic hospitality; we’ve admired the innovative, uncomplicated, and resourceful ways of life; we’ve enjoyed the pleasant weather, particularly in the greater Medellín area; and, significantly, we’ve witnessed rapid improvements which are transforming the country not just into a land with increasing economic opportunity, but also a refreshing, year-round vacation destination.
Suddenly, we are at the beginning of our journey through Mexico and Central America to Colombia. Our trusty old Toyota pick-up with a really old camper (a combination dubbed “Ugly Slope Hut”) is waiting for its longest slope trek yet.
And this trek will take at least four weeks. The theme of our journey of course will be our love for RC glider flying, and we’ll bring along two or three gliders (one electric-powered) to fly wherever we get a chance.
Given Marcela’s professional background, we also will make an effort to connect schools and students along our route and throughout the world. That’s where this blog comes in. We encourage and invite students and teachers to participate, ask questions, post comments; please have at it; we’ll respond as quickly as our travels allow.
But of course everyone’s welcome, including our fellow RC glider freaks. Please feel free to follow along with the Ugly Slope Hut and post comments, questions, and suggestions. This way, we can continue to dispense with our trade-mark OFA (opinionated free advice).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I'm looking forward to the travel tales of the route to CO SA....
Know this has long been in the making and time is near.....
It will be interesting to see how many good slopes you get to fly and how many pilots you encounter on the way.... I know there are RC pilots in the cities... but those big carbon birds on the slopes in the countryside.... that'll be a quite a sight.... and I bet Marcela will get lots of kids to talk to.....
and other than clicking off those inevitable miles, wish I could be along.... got a feeling its gonna be barnstorming thru Central America.... great fun

Paul Hamilton-Smith said...

Best of luck... If you get a chance in Guatemala, go to Antigua... You will not regret the trip. Its a colonial town similar to Villa de Leyva (ask Marcela!)...

Looking forward to seeing you down here

Paul (HS)