La Serena

Chile - Posted On

Next to a few adventures on the road, we enter with Thiago the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world.

Vegetation, houses disappear day after day.

At last the city of La Serena appears at the end of a huge hill down.

Ramon, Couchsurfer, hosts us for a week here.

I am waiting for my friend Nadège, while Thiago will take a flight back home in Brazil for a friend’s wedding.

Through the couchsurfing web, we get to know, Laura and Natty, who also host us in a nice wooden little house after a big birthday party the whole night long.

On the 28th June, Nadège arrives at La Serena airport.

I am here with my bike, Le Baroudeur; she is here with her, named Alpazone.

A nice little paraglide the Ozone Ultralite 19 is part of her luggage.

We are now ready for a five months trip, all along the Andes, biking and flying. The dream becomes shared!

El Brillador is the paragliding spot on the north of La Serena.

Rodrigo, local pilot, drives us there.

This area is all made of hills with no trees; a nice sea breeze baths the playground.

Rodrigo and I fly at a few centimeters from the ground for hours, while Nadège is training herself ground handling.

Her level of flying is beginner; she is going to learn while traveling. She is my first long term student!

Cerro Grande is one hill covered of cactus, another spot for flying. I fly with the others local pilots there, putting Nadège’ wing for the first time in the air!

At last we decide to go with our bikes to a big dune at 40 kms up north to practice inflating the wing.

The spot is like the Dune de Pyla in France, except that there is nobody here, it’s such an incredible spot!

We fly there for two days, and Ivan, fisherman, gives us some delicious ‘mariscos’, shellfishes, national specialty.