Birthday Flight

To add a little adventure to my birthday celebration, we went paragliding! There were 5 of us from the language school and another eight people from hostels and other parts. You can see some of us sitting around the base camp just outside of Mendoza while the first group went out. We had to wait about 2 hours for the first group so we chatted with the others and I wandered around taking photos of native Mendozan vegetation. Finally, it was our turn. We rode in the back of a big jeep up a very narrow, winding road to the top of Cerro Arco (see aerial view - mountain with all the antennas on it). Once at the top the pilots quickly unfurled their paragliders and suited us up in a sling like thing. Each person rides with a pilot. They then attached themselves in their slings to us. One at a time, waiting for a light wind, you walk forward downhill, the pilot lifts the sail, you run a few steps and suddenly you are off the ground suspended in mid-air!

The sling was quite comfortable, like a chair, and you can hold onto straps or keep your arms free. I held on with one hand at all times and with the other hand managed my camera. The camera is tied onto the harness with a cord. We drifted quite high above the mountain and hung suspended there drifting very slowly. The pilot could turn the glider in circles for a 360 view. You can opt to try acrobatics, but as I was somewhat dizzy as soon as we took off I chose the slow, gentle flight and watched while another pair did loops in the sky. Things happened so fast I wasn't sure what color Jake's glider was, so it wasn't until he was one of the last to land that I could spot him again.

I think the photos will speak to the beauty of the scenery especially as the sun set.

After everyone had landed and all the gear had been packed up, we piled into a pickup truck for the trip back to town. After cleaning up, we went out for dinner to a Spanish restaurant we had discovered a few days ago just a block away. It has an amusingly old Spanish atmosphere. You are greeted with a glass of sherry and the wings of the small restaurant are named things like Salon of the Shields. Jake ordered a garlic soup that was heavenly. Floating in the rich broth were many crunchy pieces of bread fried in olive oil. We shared a plate of hams and cheese and for main courses Jake had sea bass with a parsley butter sauce and I had chicken with sherry sauce. Neither of the main dishes were exceptional, but they were pretty good. For background music we had an enthusiastic piano player playing show tunes.