Come Fly with me over Chicamocha Canyon

"Put your arms through here..bla, bla, bla, bla...we'll run then jump...bla,bla,bla,bla..over there and then here...bla,bla,bla..ready?"  This is really all I heard as I was standing on the edge of a cliff over looking the largest canyon in Colombia. 

I was wearing the equipment that they gave me for my end of the paragliding, which consisted of a soft chair with backpack straps attached to it and wondering "when are they going to strap me in?".  Looking over the cliff and feeling not so confident about my security situation did not help my Spanish translation skills, which in turn made me think that I was missing something important.  Something like, "If you don't put your legs like so, you will die".  I didn't have to much time to worry about this, though, because before I could realize what was happening, I was running towards the canyon.  You know, the part of the canyon with lots of jagged looking rocks.  Fortunately, before I was able to contemplate my fate if my body went splat on the rocks, there was no more ground underneath me and I was moving up in the air.

Wearing the gear they gave me

From there it was actually pretty easy.  It felt like I was in a comfy couch while my pilot glided me around the canyon, hundreds of meters above the ground.  In fact, it might have well been a living room as my pilot actually answered his cell phone while we were flying around.  ("Hello?...What's up?..We're flying the canyon right now...Talk to you later.")  If you didn't know a word of Spanish, his matter-of-fact tone might have sounded as if he were talking about a TV show.

Me over the canyon

For the 40 minutes that we were in the air, I tried to talk about things that weren't related to how high up we were or worst case scenarios.  And actually, I found out some pretty neat things about paragliding.  Basically, he told me that the sun heats up the air in the canyon which makes the air come flying up the sides of the canyon.  These are called thermals and paragliders use these thermals to get more altitude.  Since the thermals are actually cones, if you turn at a 33 degree angle, you can stay within the same thermal and keep gaining altitude.  And we're not the only ones that do that, either.  All around us were birds using the same technique to fly without using very much energy.  I learn something new every day.

Bessie flying over the canyon

All in all, it's actually a pretty relaxing experience, after I realized what was going on and how beautiful the scenery around me was.  In fact, I would go so far as to recommend it to anyone who gets that chance to do it.  Ok, one warning though: if you get motion sickness, you might want to take some pills.  All that spinning to get altitude doesn't suit some stomachs, especially ones attached to Bessie.  If you are in Colombia and you want to do it, contact the guys at www.fenixtreme.com.  Who knows, they might answer the phone flying hundreds of feet in the air!