Paragliding!!

Up at 6. Collected at 630 by Micha, who I will be attached to, and Richard the driver. I quickly found out that Micha has owned the company for 6 years and has others working for him. He is very experienced with thousands of flights under his belt. Phew. For as long as I can remember, whenever I have seen paragliders in the air I have been fascinated and almost driven off the road a few times straining to keep my eyes on them. And now it's MY turn! I'm SO excited! We drive for an hour out of La Paz and up a very windy and narrow road up to the top of a mountain. There I watch as Micha unpacks his "wing" and lays it out ready.

I am feeling strangely much less nervous as I usually am doing these things. By now the trembling and tears would have begun. I am strapped into a harness thing, then attached to Micha (behind me) and given my instructions. The important one being "run as fast as you can!". There is a sheer edge only 50m in front of me and I hope to god we take off before we get there cos I'm not sure my body will allow me to throw it off a cliff like that!

The first attempt is unsuccessful as the ropes get tangled up and we need to start all over again. After everything is set up again we wait. For the right amount of wind and in the right direction. Then off we go. we sidestep to the left, then to the right while he's doing something behind. I'm told to keep looking ahead. Then he shouts RUN!!! So I run! As fast as my short fat hairy legs (as my mum would say) can go! We're getting closer and closer to the edge. I'm screaming! Then I realise I'm still running and there is no ground under me. We're in the air! I'm flying! Omg the feeling is incredible. I have no idea how to describe it! After the initial scary part, it was so relaxing. So peaceful. Just looking down and seeing the view and looking up realising the only thing keeping me from plumeting to the ground is a thin piece of material! Micha swooped and turned in all directions as we sailed through the air.

The flight lasted just over 10 mins but it was totally long enough! As we come in to land I'm told to keep my feet up. We're heading for a field with cows in it. We're heading straight for one of them!!!! Apart from crashing into a cow and putting a whole new perspective on cow tipping, I'm scared the landing is going to hurt. But we're expertly guided past the cow who simply looks at us with disinterest and come to a smooth, albeit wet and muddy stop.

The whole thing was videoed but I won't be able to put that on here, the same as the zip line. Sorry. Mostly it's just me screaming as you would expect.

I mostly just chilled for the rest of the day but at one point, when getting up from my (bottom) bunk, I smashed my head against the top bunk. Falling onto the bed holding my head in agony I waited for the pain to subside and thought there would just be the usual bump. But as I took my hands away they were all covered with blood! I got up and the blood was dripping down my arms and onto the floor! OMG! I mopped up my head and inspected for damage. As usual there was more blood than damage and the cut was pretty small. I asked someone to look and at first she said I might need a stitch or two as it was quite open, but then seemed to change her mind the more the blood was mopped up! I spent the next 2 hours feeling very sorry for myself and just lay on my bed, pretty shaken up! Early night :(