I got up again very late today (I was seriously lacking a lot of sleep). Daniela picked me up at 1pm. Today, I was going to fly like a bird and hand glide over Rio. Daniela knew a friend that took people hand gliding for not a lot of money. We were going to Sao Conrado beach where everyone either hand glides or paraglides from. When we got to the beach, we had to wait for her friend (he was probably in the air somewhere), so we decided to have coconut water while waiting. Daniela told me how usually Brazilians do not like Argentineans and that got me thinking about other rivalries. I came to the conclusion that most countries do not like their neighbours. For example, Peru and Bolivia hate Chile, Chile hates Peru and Argentina, Brazil hates Argentina, Canada does not like the USA, USA does not like Mexico...

Her friend Popo finally came, but with bad news. He did not have any place available for me to hand glide today. Professional hand gliders can only make a maximum of five jumps per day, meaning that they can only take in five people. I was bummed, but minutes late, a friend of Popo called and said that he had an available space.

We had to drive to the top of a mountain (520 meters high). Driving up the mountain was probably more dangerous than actually hand gliding. The guy that was going to hand glide with me (my tandem) was one of the craziest drivers I went in a car with! He would swerve back and forth along the curvy road at amazing speeds. When we got to the top, I asked Daniela to film me jump off. Hand gliding down was an incredible experience. I felt so free. My tandem did not know how to speak much English, however every 30 seconds, he kept saying "picture" which meant for me to turn to the right and look at the camera attached to the right wing. When we were about to land, he asked me whether I wanted a smooth landing or a crazy landing. Obviously, a picked the latter...

Hand gliding was a great experience, but it was nothing compared to the emotions that you go through when you bungee jump. After the jump, Daniela and I walked around the beach a bit, looking at the different kiosks that sold all types of things. She then invited me to her place where her mother had cooked food for us. Daniela lives in a very cute semidetached. The rest of her family (aunts, uncles and cousins) are her neighbours. Her mother is extremely nice. We were able to communicate with each other, her in Portuguese and me in Spanish. After supper, Daniela and I went to one of her favorite bars to have a drink. We ended up talking until 1am. We both knew it was the last night that we were going to see each other since I was leaving tomorrow to Sao Paulo. It was a weird night, because many emotions were going through me. I had become very close to Daniela and was attracted to her (a lot like I did at the beginning of my trip with Mireilla). Daniela had this charm to her that was unexplainable. However, I knew that it was best I did nothing. She drove me back to my hostel, and gave me a birthday gift: a DVD of her favorite movie. Saying goodbye to Daniela was really hard, like a lot of people during this trip, but again, I had to move on to another location and continue this journey. With my trip coming to an end, I had one more destination: Sao Paulo.