"Imakuna rikunallata kana kushkaka jawapachakunay, imashinachu imakuna mana rikuyta ushanchic."
Project of the journey was to travel along the old roads of the Inkas (or their predecessors) with a paraglider from Quito at the equator to Chile, following the path of Manco Capac, Francisco Pizarro, Alexander von Humboldt or Victor von Hagen. Of course in many respects I utterly failed, but still it's been quite worth the try.
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Below you see a map with the main part of the journey. To make this a useful reference
for other pilots and also since the central andean countries are not yet that popular
with respect to paragliding, I included some places, where other pilots have flown and
left information as well. Equally, since the sense of a journey primarily is to become
acquainted with the country and its people I included also a few references to non-flight
subjects. Just like many other travelers I became quite fond of the friendly high land people with
their kind stubborness. During the trip the main mountain-ridge of the andes was crossed altogether three times by para-trekking. First at Huancabamba, close to the border Ecuador/Peru, in the region of the magic lagoons of Sapalache (down by foot accompanied by strong wind and rain), then in the Santa-valley, a well-known crossing of the Cordillera Blanca, with flight to the temple of Chavin, one of the oldest large temples of ancient Peru and then a third time during the flight Bolivia - Chile from the volcano Licancabur, with 5920 m the highest launch of the journey. Mostly I was solito on the way, but I always enjoyed flying with native or other visiting pilots. I had a slight preference for deserted regions though. Despite long hikes and a couple of flights, the main part of travelling has been done by bus or truck. The preliminary conclusion of the trip were the humble attempts to fly with condors in the Colca valley. Comments regarding the map and additions will be recieved gladly, email see below. |
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Contact: higobreitenbach@arcor.de
Feb. 2004, last modified Jan. 2005
