And - another piece of humble pie!

The last two days were not flyable in Tacima. Low clouds and rain made it look very average, so we went to the coast instead. Our driver David took me for a tandem, and Konrad flew his RX pro down the coast for a bit.
Today looked great. Just when I got into my harness and David kept cutting on a wooden stick, I got a bit irritated. He said he had forgotten one of my battens (no 9) at my last landing place. Guess I should never totally trust someone to look after the glider set up and pack up... he fit the wooden batten into my sail and said it would be fine. Oh well. I worried a bit, then I thought, maybe I´m just too German? So I took off. The glider flew well and only had a very slight turn to the right where he had replaced the real batten...
Early start at 8am, getting up to base straight away! 1100m isn´t really high above the plateau canyons, but I committed to crossing with Konrad. We went quite well, but after the plateau, Konrad hit some sink and landed. I stayed in lift longer, went up to base again, and was looking for the best line. First cloud didn´t work. Second one neither. Now I was already in ground mode, searching for some vultures or thermal triggers. Found nothing - and landed. At 9.05am!!!???? Painful to look at the sky, wondering why we both couldn´t get it, while the Gavin the paraglider is on his way to Quixada. Good on him!
I was greeted by a beautiful welcoming committee on the field where I landed. I asked around if anyone would like to try to pick up my glider - and it was only the girls and women who were really keen and interested, so I happitly taught them a bit about our sport! So cool to see how proud they were and how much they enjoyed it!
When they carried my glider to the road, I was invited to their verandah to wait for my retrieve car. They set up a hammock to make it really comfortable for me, and kept asking lots of questions. Even if I felt pain to loose a day like today, it was still really valuable to meet these wonderful people I would have never met otherwise! It´s a cool sport, even if you fail, you kind of get rewarded with interest, hospitality and friendship! Amazing country, this Brazil!
Sure we went back to my landing field from two days ago, where we really found the batten! Luckily!!! Compay Segundo was really happy to see me again, trying to talk me into staying with him, he really needs some company and would look after me well. I have a project and need to fly some more years, I told him.
We left and hopefully have a week of great days ahead of us!