Where the wild wind blows

On a chilly morning in late March 2025, thirty pilots from ten countries gather atop a remote mountain in the Departamento de Francisco Morazan in central Honduras. The atmosphere is charged with anticipation as the mist begins to lift around 10am, giving way to massive cumulus cloud streets that suck moisture from the sun-swept cane fields in the valley below.

“Pacific southerlies pushing up through the valley,” murmurs one pilot, studying the clouds.

“No, it’s the Caribbean trades moving southwest,” counters another.

With merely three weather stations throughout the entire country, there’s no surefire way to predict conditions here. It’s precisely this meteorological unpredictability that brings a small international group of adventure pilots back year after year.

A vision takes flight

When Jeffrey Miller first arrived in Honduras in the early 2000s, paragliding was virtually unknown in this mountainous Central American nation. A skilled Canadian pilot with an explorer’s heart, Jeffrey saw beyond the rugged, undeveloped terrain to the perfect playground for free flight.

“I flew lines off some massive drop-offs back then,” Jeffrey, 65, recalls, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he gazes toward Mount Capiro, the site he eventually chose as home base after exploring countless peaks around the country. “Around Yuscaran especially, the potential was obvious to me, but finding the right combination of launch sites, accessibility, and community support took time.”

Two decades later, his persistence has manifested as the second annual Honduras Paragliding Festival, drawing decorated pilots from around the world to the skies above...