Sky and Telescope - March 2017 - 68

Outrageous Outreach

From February to April 2016, we made our way from
Bucaramanga to Cali offering workshops, celestial observing, and small ecology experiments. We put on programs
for almost 30 schools, associations, and sometimes just on a
village's central plaza - an event every other day. Often we
met with an entire school, from the youngest through the
graduating high-school class. In the most remote places this
could mean only 20 or 30 children, but in the slightly bigger
villages, we had up to 300 kids to entertain for an entire day.
Parents, grandparents, and preschoolers joined our sessions;
everyone was fascinated by the telescopes.
During the day we observed the Sun in hydrogen-alpha
light with a Personal Solar Telescope, and at night we used a
LightBridge Mini, both generously donated by Meade Instruments. All told, we educated and inspired 1,600 children and
adults. We still receive messages such as, "You really changed
my perception of the world." These make it all worth it!
Because we faced trials and tribulations indeed.
But let us invite you to join our expedition from the start.

Launch Day

p TRAVELING BY UPDRAFT One member of the expedition would
often cover the daily distance flying, with some luggage in the backpack
of her harness, while the other led horses and a mule with the rest.
Here, Marja takes flight.

M A R C H 2 0 1 7 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

Here we are in Bucaramanga, in Colombia's north. We're
staying with Ricardo Mantilla, a Colombian paragliding pilot
whom we met in Europe. His vast smile mirrors the ﬁndings of
a Gallup international survey: Colombia, yet again, has ranked
as the happiest country in the world. This may surprise North
Americans who never hear about Colombia except for drug
cartels and guerrilla war. But the country is so much more.
Ricardo's place is a little paradise, a hostel next to the
takeoff on the Ruitoque mountain overlooking the giant
city. Between scouting local stables for horses and enjoying
excellent ﬂying conditions, we offer our ﬁrst public observing sessions. We set up the solar telescope at the takeoff
site in the afternoons, entertaining local families as well as
the paragliding community. At night we observe the Moon
with the hostel's backpackers. Everyone is excited about our
project and cannot really believe that we two young women
will set off alone with three horses, two paragliders, two telescopes, and a bunch of other educational materials through
remote and perhaps dangerous terrain.
A couple of days later we're off. While Kira loads the horses
we've acquired, Marja sets off with her paraglider. We choose
a meeting point on our GPS units, remain in radio communication for much of the time, and meet up with no problems
after covering 15 kilometers. Our concept seems to work!
And then our guardian angel apparently decides "They'll
be able to handle it on their own," and goes on holidays.
The El Niño phenomenon has Colombia by the short
hairs. Extreme temperatures and a 100-year drought complicate our plans. Kira gets sunstroke, Marja injures her
ankle, and one of our horses falls ill. And now we are about
to cross the Chicamocha Canyon, a dream for paragliding
pilots, but for horses? It's a breakneck descent on a steep dirt
track. While Marja tries to take off with one lame foot, Kira
is responsible for too many feet: her own and the 12 of the

Sky and Telescope - March 2017

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