Paragliding in Lima

October 24, 2021

I’m not a big fan of cities, especially large ones like Lima with a population of over 10 million!  One out of three Peruvians live in the city, crazy.  However, I did book a week in Lima because of the amazing paragliding site right in the city, by the ocean.  I used to live in Victoria and loved flying the seaside ridge along Dallas Road.  Well the site here in the Miraflores neighborhood is like that, times 10.  Instead of being 15-40 feet high, the ridge must be 3-400 feet.  Add to that a long row of tall buildings, some over 25 storeys high, you’ve got a recipe for some amazing flights.

 

The first day that in Lima, in the Miraflores neighborhood, I walked 15 minutes from my Airbnb to the “Parapuerto” (the paragliding airport).  There was a small brick fence with a closed gate preventing the general public from strolling around the take off/landing zone.  Carlos, a young Peruvian in his 20s came over and started asking me some questions in Spanish including whether I had a copy of my licence.  I had yet to get a sim card so there wasn’t a way for me to show him it.  Did I have a radio?  No, I stupidly didn’t bring one from Canada, trying to save weight and also thinking that likely no one wouldn’t use them down here anyways.  I explained that I was an instructor back in Canada, so he let me in.  The launch had Astro turf, like we installed at our launch in Lumby over the summer although it was hard packed underneath.  They had a small rectangular section outlined by a white line as an area to hang out and prepare your wing.  I dropped my bag there and thankfully an American named Jens who was originally from California but now lives here came up and gave me a site briefing.

 The Miraflores coastline:

It turned out that Carlos’ English was actually pretty good, definitely better than my Spanish, and we chatted before and after I had a flight.  He told me that he has a part time job coming down to the aeropuerto most days from 2-5pm and every 15-30 minutes he takes a wind reading and reports his observations on a Whatsapp group so that other pilots know if it’s flyable or not.  He gets paid all of $200/month (do the math, a pretty low hourly rate) but he enjoys doing it and it gets him out flying a lot too.

 The view from the Parapuerto:

I prepared my gear for a flight and Carlos’ last wind reading was 30 km/h.  That’s pretty strong for paragliding and if that was the wind speed back in Lumby, I definitely wouldn’t even be considering flying.  However, this is laminar airflow from the ocean so there doesn’t tend to be much gustiness to it…still, it was going to be interesting getting the wing above my head.  Once it’s above your head, you’re usually good to go, but to get it there you must bring it through the power zone where it’s like a sail on a boat and all the wind is hitting it and it can drag you backwards.

 

On my first attempt I got yanked pretty good, pulled backwards and slammed on the ground.  I was able to kill the wing quickly but I felt like I landed pretty hard, and awkwardly on my right foot.  The next inflation was fine, I kited it for a bit and then I was off for a 45 minute flight.  What a cool site!  There were lots of people walking along the cliffside, lots of traffic on the expressway hundreds of feet below, and lots of windows of apartments and hotel rooms to peer into.  I saw one place that looked like they had a full on bar in it even though it looked like a private residence.  I probably travelled along a 3-4 kilometer stretch.

 

Stupidly, in my haste of leaving Canada, I didn’t bring any gloves nor my GoPro camera.  I sure would have liked to have filmed what I was experiencing.  Later, it felt as though the wind was abating a bit and I noticed that other pilots were landing and I was the last one in the sky.  Jens had given me a run down on landing in this strong wind.  You had to approach the LZ from the side and have your body below the ridge, and your wing above it as you would get popped up but now this wasn’t necessary.  I made one pass and I was actually too low so I circled back, gained a bit more altitude and tried again.  Well, I never got the pop up I expected and I just eked in at the height of the LZ for a landing.  What a great intro flight to the site.

 

These videos are from a few days later.  Just shows you how dynamic it is.  There's one young pilot, Sebastian, who supposedly learned most of his skills from YouTube.  He was always there and wow, world class.  He was doing acro maneuvers like SATs, Misty Flips, back flying, helicos and more.  It was impressive and made me feel like a beginner!

While packing up there was a young boy, only 11 years old, kiting a wing.  His dad Martin had been flying and I talked with both of them.  Turns out they had been living in Sooke (near Victoria) for a few years but had moved back to Peru due to the pandemic.  Maui, the boy, already paraglides and he loves to surf too…what a cool kid.

 Martin and Maui:

I was stoked to get a flight in on my first day as now anymore flights are just a bonus…but I have a week so I hope there will be more!

 

That night my big toe of my right foot began to throb and show some bruising.  Damn, did I break my toe on day 1?!?  I put some ice on it, took some Ibuprofen and luckily over the next few days it seemed fine.