More pictures to follow when I can find somewhere with useful amounts of bandwidth, but a snap from last Friday.
After months of threatening Gil finally threw me off a cliff and I tried paragliding.
It's amazing!
It is something I had been looking forward to for a long time, but the weather in Lima is a bit unpredictable and so I'd not had the chance to do it when I was last in Lima. I was hoping that the weather gods would smile on me this time.
On Friday the weather looked possible and a quick call to one of the pro pilots down at takeoff and the results was "it's amazing conditions". We took a cab down (15 min) instead of a combie (about an hour), as we both wanted to fly.
My tandem pilot for the day was the guy Gil called and someone we'd happened to go out with the night before (a Peruvian jazz fusion music thing - don't ask).
As much as I was looking forward to it the cold reality of what I had to do hit me as I was waiting for my turn - I had to walk off a perfectly good cliff.
Logically in knew that physics would work and that all would be ok; logic doesn't always apply - walking off a cliff is scary.
After being strapped in and given basic instructions ("walk off the cliff, don't sit down until I tell you to") we were off.
Walking off a cliff is scary. The brief moment until physics catches up with you is interesting and then it becomes amazingly awesome. You fly.
No machines. Just you, a wing, (a pilot for a tandem flight), and that's it. It's utterly amazing.
The flight is only 15 minutes, but that is enough to realise how much fun it is. To fly with the birds, fly along the side of the Mariot Hotel (which is next to the Embassy - I hope Cynthia saw me ;-)), and down along the cliffs - all with an unrestricted view of the world. Amazing.
I'm already trying to arrange something for Santiago. :)
