Okay, so if you know me, you know that my biggest fear is falling from high places. I have nightmares about falling; it's an activity thats not okay with me. So whenever someone mentions skydiving or bungee jumping, my automatic reaction is no, but when our group decided they wanted to go paragliding (paracaidismo en español) this weekend, for some reason jumping off a mountain in the Andes with nothing but a parachute and a guy who doesnt speak my language strapped to my back saving me from certain death sounded like a totally great idea.
And it WAS. When I got picked up by one of the pilots, I was the only person of our group and I got picked up in a jeep that was prally around during the mesozoic era, which was awesome/really sketchy. Then, when we arrived at our destination after a 30 minute drive, my initial reaction was, ¨oh, great, this is the part where they kill me¨ because it was an incredibly run-down building (more so than what Im used to seeing here). The rest of my friends arrived around 20 minutes later and they all had the same reaction. There were eight of us and we went in two groups since they could only take up four at a time. I went in the second group bc I wanted to hear their reactions to the experience first. When they came back down, they were all incredibly excited and had a blast, but told us it was really cold up in the air. Fortunately, none of them said they were scared either.
Our pilots told us it was our turn once they had all of the chutes folded back up, and we loaded into another sketchy off road vehicle. We soon discovered as we made our way up Cerro Arco that the reason the girls who went first werent scared of paragliding was that the trip up the mountainside was terrifying. I think our driver drove as close to the edge as possible because he had a good five feet on the side closest to the mountain that he could have driven on if he had so chosen. It was fun tho. As we kept getting higher I kept thinking that we must be near the top because we were so high, but it took about 30 minutes to reach the top of the mountain. We were so high. It was incredible- you could see all of the city around you and so far into the distance.
When our instructors handed us our equipment, we thought we were being prepared for a trip out into outerspace because we definitely looked like astronauts; it was hilarious. My instructor turned to me and told me that once the chute was up in the air i needed to run off the mountain and then sit when he told me to. I started freaking out a little bit, but once the chute lifts up and starts pulling you, you dont really have any other option but to go. Once we lifted off however, it was such an incredible feeling. It's not really fast like skydiving, it's actually really relaxing and exhilerating at the same time.
We spent about 20-30 minutes in the air and during that time my instructor and I spoke in Spanish some, and he let me pilot the chute for 5 minutes, too. We got really close to other chutes at some points which made me a little nervous, but apparently its a game the pilots like to play. I was completely fine and couldnt understand why they told us not to eat lunch before we went until my pilot started doing tricks. Not okay lol. The phrase ¨no me gusta¨ was uttered many times haha. Landing was really easy, too. You just stood up and walked when the time came.
The rest of the evening was great, too- Sarah, Emily and I had McDonald's which was the first time I had had American food in over 3 weeks lol. (I know, I'm pathetic lol) and then we went to Havana for dessert and used their wireless on Sarah's laptop there.
So if anyone is up for paragliding or parasailing back in the states, Im totally all for it.
