30-Jun-2011, El Yopal - Cartagena

Wanted to depart El Yopal at 10 am, but made it barely at 3 pm, courtesy of Aerocivil. El Yopal was not on our original route, and we had to send a signed petition to the boss of Aerocivil to grant us the right to continue. While this delayed us, I was still impressed we received the ok after just 4 hours, not 4 days... (recommend you brush up your Spanish before flying into Colombia).

El Yopal, climbed immediately out to 12,500 feet to cross one of the 11,000 or so passes along a chain of mountains showing some 15k in the area. At climbout, saw just clouds, but when reaching (always in VMC) 12k, we saw some decent holes, to cross the chain safely. The terrain function of the GPS is a great tool, but obviously only an assistance, you never want to lose VMC in that area...

These Andean peaks are about 11,000ft (3600m)

Crossed near Sogamosa (which has an airstrip, in case things get bad), from there I had identified a long valley descending all the way to Bucaramanga, where the plains open toward the Caribbean Sea. Had to descend quickly to under 8000 ft, as flying above was very choppy due to the mountain waves. Nice scenic flying, compared to the Alps (or the arid Andes further south, Chile, Bolivia), here the mountains are green and lush almost up the peaks.



Bucaramanga

From Buca to Cartagena still about 2 hours, over big rivers, ponds and lakes, all VFR (as single engine planes cannot file IFR in Colombia)

Turning final at Cartagena 

Cartagena is worth the whole trip! The old colonial city is great, with all its fortifications, mansions, churches, but not made for tourists, but for locals to live in.