Day 12: Paragliding Scared Valley

We decide to do something a little crazy today. After our delicious buffet breakfast, we took a taxi to a small farming village in the middle of the Scared Valley where we met up with our paragliding pilots. Yes, we went paragliding in the Scared Valley…pretty amazing! This was Jeff’s idea by the way…

The pilots drove us to the top of one of the foot hills and prepared us for our flight.  We were both a little nervous looking down off the cliff we were about to run off of. There was another couple from Seattle who were going too and a few other people who all had their own equipment who were taking off from the same spot. We waited around for about an hour waiting for the best wind conditions. Then all of a sudden, the pilots jumped up and said “ok, the girls first” and quickly prepared us for takeoff. The pilot strapped me in and told me that I had to run as fast as I could straight ahead  and not to stop until we were in the air. I was shaking (partly because it was really cold up there and partly because I was nervous), but I did as I was told and before I knew it I was in the air! Soaring around the Scared Valley, surrounded by the Andes Mountains was an incredible experience. It was surprisingly clam and relaxing up in the air. My pilot caught a really good thermal, so we went super high and I was able to stay up in the air much longer than some of the other paragliders. After about 15 minutes in the air, we landed in a field just barely missing landing on a heard of sheep.

After I went, the wind changed directions so they said that we had to wait for Jeff to go, which ended up being a three hour wait. The wait wasn’t too bad though because we packed a box lunch from the hotel and we had our books, plus you couldn’t beat the scenery! However, the weather looked a little iffy for a while and they weren’t sure if they were going to be able to do another flight. However, just like when I went, suddenly without warning they jumped up and said “ok let’s go!” and within a few minutes Jeff was off.  I would have felt horrible if I got to go and Jeff didn’t! Jeff loved it and I think he may be buying paragliding equipment now…

After paragliding we hung out at the hotel pool for a while and then had dinner and drinks and the hotel’s really cool bar. It was another amazing day and one in a life time opportunity