Paragliding!

This morning I paraglided over Lake Atitlan!!! It was amazing. It's something I've been wanting to do for ages, so when I read that it was possible here and relatively cheap, I had to go for it!

I booked it a few days ago and anxiously awaited this morning. Finally the time came! I was picked up at the dock by the French paraglider Guy (who would be my tandom pilot) and the El Salvadorian paraglider Julio (along for a solo flight). We boated off to San Juan, at the foot of the mountain called La Nariz (the nose). We had a TERRIFYING bus ride up to the top. (Recently the husband of my last Spanish teacher was in a bus when it went over the edge of a mountain, tumbled down for ages, and only stopped when it plowed into a huge tree. Amazingly, no one was killed, but I kept worrying that I'd find out how it feels to careen over the edge and down the mountain...without a parachute!) Luckily we made it just fine to El Mirador, a point way up high.

We hiked a short distance to a wee clearing of grass. In front of us was a gorgeous view of mountains and volcanoes all around the huge lake. I was a little nervous, but I was made more nervous by Julio, who was really cool but very nervous himself. It was his 19th solo flight, but he said every time he's still nervous. It took him about eight tries before the wind was just right, and he ran off the mountain to soar like a bird. I couldn't wait to see what it was like!!!

I got strapped into a backpack. Guy got strapped into his parachute. Our gear was hooked together, and then we just had to wait until the wind was right. He told me that as soon as he said vamos, I should run like hell straight ahead and over the cliff. As you do. We then had the following exchange:

Moi: ¡Por supuesto! ¿Estás seguro que todo está bien?
Guy: Oui!
Moi: ¿Y no quieres suicidarte?
Guy: Non!
Moi: Perfecto!

After what felt like an eternity of waiting, he yelled vamos. I managed to run about two steps before the parachute pulled so strongly that I couldn't move. ¡Vamos! ¡Vamos! He was yelling at me, and finally I managed to run right to the edge. Then before I could even be scared, we were in the air! Woo-hoo!!!

Never in my life have I felt such a thing. There were eagles flying around us and below us. People looked like ants down in the lake and in the pueblos I could see. Clouds and mountaintops were at my eye level. The bottom of our backpacks became seats for us as we soared in big circles and figure eights way up high. I felt weightless and totally secure, even when the wind decided to take us higher or drop us a bit. It was perfectly smooth flying. It was nothing short of maravilloso.

We were up there for about 20 minutes when Guy told me it was time to land. He brought us down really smoothly, and we skidded to an easy stop in the grass in front of where he'd parked the boat. Julio was already down there with a huge grin on his face. There were high fives all 'round; we were all thrilled.

¡QUÉ MARAVILLOSO! ¡Otra vez, otra vez!