Chicamocha Canyon: Paragliding Flight & San Gil Pickup

4.99

(138 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

There’s this weird silence right before takeoff — not the kind you get in a city, but a real hush, just wind and the faint shout of someone down the slope. I was standing on the edge at Palo Blanco, shoes digging into loose earth, trying to look braver than I felt. Our pilot, Andrés, checked all the straps again (he’s done this for years — you can tell by how he jokes about his “paragliding tan”). The Chicamocha Canyon opened up below us, green and brown folds stretching out like some giant had crumpled Colombia and then tried to smooth it back out. It didn’t feel real.

When we finally ran those first steps and lifted off, my stomach dropped — then everything went light. You don’t really hear much once you’re up there except wind in your ears and Andrés pointing out where the river cuts through far below. He kept telling me to look left for condors (I never spotted one), but honestly I was too busy staring at the way sunlight slid across the canyon walls. There’s this smell too — dry grass mixed with something almost sweet that I still can’t name. The flight lasted maybe 20 minutes? Time got weird up there. At one point I tried to ask how high we were but my voice just disappeared into all that space.

Back on solid ground, legs shaky but grinning like an idiot, they handed me bottled water and showed me photos from a camera I didn’t even notice at takeoff. Everyone clapped when a kid landed after me — his mom cheering louder than anyone else. The drive back to San Gil was quiet; people either napping or scrolling through their new photos. I kept replaying that first silent moment before we launched. Still gives me goosebumps thinking about it now.