DAY 5 - PARAGLIDING

Up at 7:30, showered, then off for breakfast to the little shop near the hostel.  Returned to the hostel, checked out, stored our bags at the hostel and took a pre-arranged taxi to the paragliding site.  After about a 40 or 50-minute ride, we arrived at the paragliding office, did the necessary paperwork and then headed up the mountain by foot to the launching site.  It was about a 20-minute walk at an altitude of about 7000 feet, and I did find it some difficult.  I watched Todd and Ryan suit up and take off.  Now it was my turn.

I suited up, got hooked into the paraglider and pilot, and was then told to run as fast as I could until we were off the ground.  We took the first couple of steps and the wing rose up and caught the wind and gave us a great tug.  I ran like hell and in no time I was no longer touching the ground.  I looked down and there were my dangling feet with the ground maybe 200 metres below us.  It was like a dream.  It took me a couple of seconds to realize just what was actually happening.  It was amazing.  We were moving up and up as well as away from the mountain launch pad.  We weaved back and forth along the face of the mountain, making turns back and forth.  The pilot asked if I was feeling okay and I gave him the resounding YES.  We then descended slowly towards the city of Medellin and did a couple of turns over the city, slowly heading toward our eventual landing site.  I could see Todd and Ryan circling far below and eventually landing one behind the other.  The pilot asked if I would like to do some sharp turns while losing altitude.  "Sure", I said, and he started the turns.  I felt a little uneasy and queazy during the sharp G-force turns.  We swung so high on one turn I swear we were above the wing.  By now we were at an altitude to begin our final approach.  I lifted my feet as we made our way to the final landing spot as we were going to make a butt landing; basically, you don't land on your feet, you land on your butt.  Children in the area came running over.  One of the older ones unhooked me and helped me to my feet.  It was awesome!  Ryan was thrilled as was I.  This was Todd's second time paragliding but agreed it was fantastic.

We then made our way from the landing site down to the neighborhood street which was about 200 metres away.  Our taxi came by a few minutes later, picked us up for our return to the hostel to pick up our bags and take us to the airport for our flight to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast.

We arrived in Santa Marta around 9:00 p.m. and made our way by taxi to the Emerald Hostel.  We went out for a late snack and then back to the hostel for the night.

Some pictures and a video below.

Launch Site

My Pilot

Flying like a Bird

Awesome!

Loving every Minute

What can I say

Ryan Landing far Below

My Landing