Friends said there was nothing to it. You just run forward a few steps and whish! you're in the air. 

This sounds fun! And it was, but the wind had other plans for us. We were picked up at our hostel and took off on our para-gliding adventure climbing up the most awful road (they call this a road?). This goat trail required 4-wheel drive at about 2 miles an hour. At the top we met the rest of the crazies who jump off cliffs for fun.

If you've never been para-gliding you should know that it really isn't scary. Once you know what's expected of you, that is. But the wind was pretty strong yesterday afternoon and the guy in front of us was lifted off his feet and flew a few hundred meters before a gust of wind slammed him backwards, and he landed on the gravel on his back.

I don't want to do that, Bob hollered, as he stood there harnessed into this apparatus that keeps the passenger hooked securely to the driver. We flew in tandem with an experienced para-glider, so all we were supposed to have to do was walk forward a few steps and sit when we were told to sit.

Nothing to it.

So I'm standing there waiting for the guy I'm hooked to to tell me to walk and we're waiting and waiting and I tell him, ok, I need some words here. What do I do again? 

You just take three steps forward, he says. That's all. Nothing to it.

Just then a big gust of wind catches our kite and we're thrown backwards. There's a helper in front of me and he and the kite driver are skidding in the gravel trying to stop the thing from taking off and they're dragging me so I'm skidding too and then so suddenly I don't even know when it happened we're in the air.

Whoa! Was THAT exciting. 

Once in the air we're flying softly, noiselessly above the earth in the most glorious way. We dip and turn and the hills below us twist weirdly with every gust. One minute my stomach is in my throat and I think I'm going to be ill, and the next I'm drifting along wanting this ride to never end.

My companero has been doing this every day for 13 years, so I simply relax and let him do his thing. The only time I was fearful at all was when they were trying to get the thing to NOT go up.

I take lots of pictures of the dry desert hills below us and Mendoza in the distance, then catch sight of Bob taking off in his bright orange kite.

Landing was simple. We just glided in and he says, run, run, but all I did was sit and we were stopped.

Bob's take off was even worse than mine though. He came up bleeding from his drag through the gravel, but you know him. He's up and flying much higher than I am, and comes down a little after me, so I could get pictures of the landing.

He said the biggest surprise of his life was being all ready to walk forward when suddenly he's slammed backwards into the gravel and dragged bruised and bleeding.

What's next? Friends here are trying to talk us into skydiving. They say it's a piece of cake. Will let you know...