Arrival @ Gonzales Chaves

WOW!

This is just great! First of all: CU starts to pop up at 12:00, growing in a fast rate and staying there for a long time. Cloudbase reported @ 3000m! Second, the people are even friendlier then I thought (and I already thought they were). Third, this feels like vacation!

Why? Well, setting up your tent on flip flops with temperatures over 30 degrees helps. The fact that the gliding conditions look marvelous and all that while Europe is suffering from cold strong winds and darkness, helps too. But there is more.

Life here is going back in time for me. And I mean that in a positive way. It reminds me of my younger days (no comments please). For example: In this small town I saw all the cars my parents had in my life within 5 minutes, except their newest model. It has something to do that new things are quite expensive so people are more careful with their equipment. The shops are so… How can say that? See for yourself. Imagine you have to buy your (forgotten) towel in here (ok, he doesn’t look friendly, be he really was):

Feel what I’m meaning? The pace is different, life is not so individualistic and gliding over here seems to be even more a team sport then in every other place I flew so far. I feel very privileged to spend my winter here. The place feels like vacation and it brings back memories from all the old ones. Not just the gliding vacations, but all of them. I’ll spare you the details on that and I will stop the melodramatics.

Going to bed early because I’ve a lot to do: ATM over here doesn’t work for any of my European cards and queues can get quite long, the pre-paid chip isn't working on my European cell phone... What did I say about the old days?PS: This is Franco :)