Paragliding

Rio is an unbelievable city, one of the most unbelievable I have ever been to. A unique entry could be written about the the beaches, the people, the food (both the street vendors and the fantastic restaurants), the nightlife, the music or the general feeling of excitement that accompanies all these elements while in the city.

One of the best days I had in Rio, I was sitting on the beach in Ipenema. This was another experience where I was limited only by my imagination, as practically anything you would want while sitting on the beach is yours for the asking. Would you like a whole sliced pineapple? No problem; a guy calling himself John Travolta will walk by wearing a basket on his head filled with the organically grown fruit, and will cut one up for you. How about a water, fresh squeezed fruit juice, tea, soda, beer, mixed drink (caipirinha anyone?) or whole coconut to drink? Of course these are available, and will be brought to you. Then it gets interesting. There are also countless other foods being sold by walking vendors. You can buy ice cream, beef tenderloin, sandwiches, empenadas, shrimp on a stick, banana bread, peanuts and roasted cashews. My personal favorites were a grilled cheese, which was literally a piece of white cheese that had been skewered and that is cooked over a small charcoal stove the vendor carries with him, and acai, a smoothy-like substance that is a blend of bananas, ice and the fruit the product is named after, mixed with granola. If you factor in that all these food vendors wander the beach along with others who sell hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, shirts, jerseys, jewelry and who knows what else, it probably sounds pretty overwhelming. It´s actually not bad, though, and the convenience and extremely low price of what is being sold make it easy to tune everything out and simply watch the waves or the locals playing futevolly, a sport I had never seen before that mixes elements of soccer and volleyball (consider two on two volleyball where the contestants cannot use their hands). Pretty cool scene, all in all.

This entry, however, is not about the fantastic beach scene, or any of the other fun that we got into in Rio. This is about paragliding, an activity that conforms to what seems to be my typical "adventure tourism."

Now, I probably would not have seeked out paragliding as an activity in Rio. There are many other things to do in the city, and hanging out there doesn´t really make you want to jump off a large rock strapped to an oversized kite. Berger was really interested in checking it out, though, as he had decided that he had never really had the opportunity to hang glide before and probably would not have the opportunity again (don´t worry, many of us pointed out the flaw in this argument). I support Berger in his decisions, though, and it turns out that Mike and I will follow him to the ends of the earth, and then to jump off. Here is a picture of Mike when he took off from the platform:

The process is actually pretty interesting. When hang gliding for the first time you ride with a certified instructor (of course). The main concern that the instructor has before leaving the ground is that you are prepared to run off the platform. If you stop running, say, near the end of the platform, it could cause some problems. Yikes. With instructions to look into the horizon and to run, without jumping, with the instructor until we are airborn, each of us took our turn defying death.

I was surprised with how calm I was during the take-off, although my instructor did do a great job of putting my mind at ease. We had a good launch because I was determined to keep running until there was nothing to run on, and we ran hard. Once airborn we quickly soared up in the sky as we caught a gust of wind. I could not help but think that it was as close to flying like a bird that people have ever done; this perspective was aided by the fact that as we twisted and turned, back and forth flirting with the wind currents that were sending gusts northeast, there were birds who were essentially doing the exact same movements as us. It was really sublime.

The views were incredible: We soared over a huge expanse of beach, next to a large mountain and over large estates and tall apartment buildings, all with views of the hillside favelas.

It was an amazing experience, and one for which I owe Berger thanks for being the engine behind the decision to pursue it. Once again, I am happy to report of an extreme adventure that has turned out well, as I am safely here in Salvador giving news about it. In all truth, I called my mother right before going up the mountain, but I did not tell her I was about to hang glide.

Tomorrow I will post a story about the street festival in Salvador, which was off the chain.