December 27, 2012

After 48 hours travelling, I made it to Adolfo Gonzales Chaves. My trip started when the alarm clock went off at 3:30 am on Christmas day, followed by a quick drive Vancouver to the airport with my mother, who volunteered for the duty. I boarded the 6:30 flight to Houston, Texas, where I had an 8 hour layover before getting on a plane to Buenos Aires. I landed in Buenos Aires at 10:30 AM the following day (5:30 Vancouver time), and then took a taxi to the Lennox hotel in the downtown area, checked in for one night, Skyped home to let them know everything was OK and then took a 30 minute walk down to the main bus station called the Retiro Ombinbus terminal. There I bought a bus ticket for the 11:35 PM bus to Adolfo Gonzales Chaves (Chaves for short) and then walked back to the hotel, stopping in a deli to buy a sandwich. After a shower and a 3 hour snooze, I took a 15 minute taxi ride back to Retiro (I couldn’t have walked down because of the 120 lbs of luggage I was carrying). I also managed to phone Luis, my Argentine crew, who told me that he would be driving from Cordoba to Chaves (a 1000 km trip) the next day with my Standard Cirrus 75 glider (call sign KY, or “Kilo Yankee”) in tow.


The busses are the preferred mode of intercity transportation in Argentina and they are very comfortable. The one I took had luxurious plush seats which recline waaaay back, so I managed to get some sleep during the 6 hour overnight ride to Chaves. I arrived at the Cahves bus station at 5:45 AM, a little earlier than I expected, so I waited till 7:30 and then sent a text message to Marcel, the Brazilian team captain, to see if he could come pick me up. Since I didn’t get a reply (It turned out that Marcel was still in bed), I arranged for a 10 minute ride to the airfield in a local unmarked taxi, which didn’t even have the license plates, let alone a “taxi” sign.

At the airfield everything looked pretty wet, as the night before they had a thunderstorm with high winds and lots of rain. The first order of business was to locate the Brazilian camp and figure out if I can stay with them, as previously agreed. A bit of background information is due here: I meet Gugui, Marcel and the Brazilian team a year ago during the pre-world’s competition in Chaves. Then, past September I spent a week flying with them in Bahia (I wrote an article about that experience for Free Flight – the Canadian gliding magazine). While in Bahia, Gugui invited me to stay with them in the Brazilian camp during the World’s, which I gladly accepted.

I had no trouble locating the Brazilian camp and was cordially welcomed in. I felt at home right away, exactly like I felt when I stayed with them in Bahia.

The Brazilians had a couple of extra tents, which I was welcome to use. However, the tents were rather small, considering they had to accommodate me plus all the luggage and gliding equipment I had brought with me. Instead, we decided to check out the local stores and see if I could get a bigger tent. Gugui and his wife Carol took me to Chaves, and after about an hour of local shopping, we came back with a nice big new tent, a pillow, a sleeping bag and a towel. Carol gave me a good mattress with a blanket and a set of bed linen and Marcel helped me erect the tent, so by 1 PM I was fully set up in my own loggings.

Next, we had lunch, prepared by Gugui’s wife and mother-in-law. As I discovered during my visit to Bahia, I really enjoy the Brazilian cuisine and love the Brazilian coffee. Judging by the lunch and supper on the first day in Cahves camp, it looks like I will become even more spoiled over the next three weeks.

The large Brazilian team of about a dozen people is very well organized, equipped and well connected with the locals, so all of the logistics are taken care of and everything runs smoothly and with the least amount of fuss possible.

I also bumped into a number of people from Argentina and elsewhere around the world, whom I met last year during the Pre-World’s. It’s a wonderful feeling to meet and greet people who share with me the same passion for gliding. I had a couple of beers with Art, the other Canadian here, who’s official duty is doing the scrutineering of the all the gliders competing in the Championships, i.e., checking that they comply with all the rules and regulations, and most notably the official weight limits.

During the day, the weather was quite nice, with the temperature in low to mid twenties and some very nice looking Cumulus clouds in the sky. Several pilots, including Gugui, took advantage of it to do some practice flying.

In the evening I phoned Luis to check in on his progress. It turned out that he had some trouble on the road, so he was expecting to make it to Chaves by 8 AM the next day.

Brazilian (and Serbian) Camp