November 13th, 2021
The following day after my first dune flight, Fernando told me that he had a couple of tandems in the morning and I could tag along if I liked. This time we would be hopping into a dune buggy and heading out into the desert…that sounded interesting. Additionally, the tandem passengers were a couple coming from Lima and the guy was going to propose to his girlfriend of 8 years!
We walked up to the dune buggy staging area and hopped in
one with Fernando’s assistant Augosto, also a pilot, accompanying us. He had brought along a simple picnic for the
couple for after the flights. Roaring
into the desert, I was slightly dismayed when the first seatbelt I tried to put
on came right out of the seat and the second one was quite loose and could not
be adjusted. At least it passed over
both shoulders so I should be alright if we rolled!
Our ride:
It was a bumpy ride with a few nice stomach turning moments
as we dropped down a few steep slopes, which I liked. Stopping on a flat area near a few dunes,
Augusto hopped out with the slightly stealthily packed picnic crate in his hands. The rest of us drove up a dune, pulled out
our paragliding gear, and started to get ready.
The wind was coming up the L shaped dune but one leg of the L was
running parallel to the breeze. It wasn’t
the first place I would have picked to try flying, but I’m not the expert here,
Fernando has been doing tandems in the area for five years.
Awesome sand dunes:
Getting ready:
Sheyla was first on a tandem and they had a few aborted launches before taking off. Sadly within 2 minutes they were on the ground, about three quarters of a kilometre from the base of the hill and no where near Augusto, who was around the bend of the dune. The dune buggy raced down, picked her up and they tried again. In the meantime, I just played around with my wing but none of the cycles of wind seemed consistent. Some were strong but short lived. They were just thermals passing by.
Sheyla's first flight:
Round two with Sheyla was identical. I’m sure that this wasn’t what Manuel had
envisioned. Sheyla remained below and
the dune buggy came back up with Fernando to take Manuel for his flight. Fernando and Augosto had prepared a big
banner to attach to the paraglider that proposed “SHEY, QUIERES CASARTE CON
MIGO?” in big black letters followed by a heart (Shey, will you marry me?). As Fernando tied the sign to his paraglider,
I noticed that the dune buggy with Sheyla, Augosto and the driver had parked
about 150 meters off to the side from the spot where Fernando and Sheyla had
landed both times. Fernando spotted it
too and sent a few texts to Augosto to tell him to get closer but they remained
where they were.
I decided to wait and film their takeoff with the
banner. I have to admit, it looked
pretty cool. But as expected, they had
the exact same flight path as the previous two flights and landed a fair distance
from the buggy. I could see Manuel
running over and proposing and saw them hug…she must have said yes (or “Si” in
this case). Pretty awesome. I asked later and sadly Sheyla hadn’t been
able to read the banner, but had seen the heart and put two and two together.
Flying down...I'm sure with Manuel's heart pounding:
The verdict:
Okay, my turn to fly down, as I don’t want to hold them up. Wouldn’t you know it, the wind completely
died. I stood there for 3-4 minutes,
roasting in the late morning sun, hoping for a little puff to help me
launch. Trying a forward launch in this
sand did not seem appealing, or likely successful. A little blast of air came up the slope and I
took off and subsequently landed near the newly engaged couple and the other
guys, also scoring all of a 2 minute flight…but fun nonetheless.
I packed up as quickly as I could, and we drove around the
corner where Augosto had laid out a thin blanket and there were a few bowls of
grapes, almonds, cranberries and dried mango.
The couple popped a bottle of champagne and toasted to their
engagement. I later asked Sheyla whether
it was a surprise, and it was.
Salud!
Returning back to Huacachina:
Felicidades Sheyla and Manuel!
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