Our first stop, Miami, is not much of a flying site. It’s so flat everywhere and the whole coast is in private hands, or if not you can be sure that someone plantet palms on it. We distracted ourselves by visiting the Keys and doing some watersports. Finally on the campground in the Everglades National park we unpacked our gliders and did some grondhandling on a nice big field at the sea shore. Later that day we got to know that in the Everglades the most agressive animals were not the alligators but the moskitoes. As soon as the sun had set, they startet their merciless hunt after human blood. We fled into our tent and did not dare to sneak out the whole night.
After our next flight to Buenos Aires and some days to get to know the city, we were overdue for some nice flying sessions. We boarded a 11 hours overnight bus to La Cumbre, the nearest flying site we knew about. But as it often is in life, it would not be so easy for us to finally get some airtime.
It felt nice being lifted by the wind although the conditions were more like a rough sea than a plain lake. There were several birds of prey turning their circles with us. One was much bigger than the others. It floatet majestetically through the air. As I do not know to name all these birds, I did not realise, that we were flying with a Condor until the locals told me after landing.
By the way, landing is a pain here. From above it looks as if you could land everywhere. But after a closer look you will recognise that it is best when you stick rather to brown tinted surface than to juicy green. Like Allan the Australian Guy said: “If it’s green, it’s a thornbush. You’d probably bleed to death if you would land there”. So we try to go for brown surfaces or the green strips next to the road which are usually well maintained.
