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skydiving
At the end of my spring break, I spent two days in San Juan Argentina. It is a small town two hours north of Mendoza. We found on the Internet that a flight school there offered tandem skydiving for $165 U.S dollars. An incredible price for skydiving. Therefore, my two friends and I decided to pounce on the opportunity. We arrived at the bus station at ten in the morning. We called the people taking us skydiving, and they said they would pick us up in fifteen minutes. After fifteen minutes, we noticed two people walking towards us, one girl one guy, and they just made a “b” line for us and kissed us on the cheek (A typical Argentinian greeting). We were just like um... are you the skydiving people. It of course turned out they were. They then proceeded to take us to their club. I was the first to go. They spent ten minutes explaining to us what to do when we get in the plane. It sounds like not a lot of time, but there is not a lot of explaining to be done. As I was in the plane getting ready to take off, the instructor who I was going to jump with noticed a problem with the plane. The plane had to be repaired and it took about three hours to do so. Then came my turn to actually jump. We climbed to 10,000 feet and I had a great view of the whole city and even the Andes Mountains. Then you get strapped into the instructor. Sit on the edge. Afuera, Aldentro, Afuero the count goes. You sail out of the plane like a ride in Disney World you forget where you are and just feel the wind hit your face. You flip and spin and close your eyes and pray. Then, all of a sudden you feel a pull and you notice that your parachute is up and the hard part is over. You then have five minutes to sail tranquilly down to the ground. I had kind of a tough landing. When I hit the ground, I couldn't stick the landing, and I fell backwards onto the instructor. I thought I might have hurt him, but it turned out to be fine. The people on the ground rushed to our rescue, picked us up and detached the parachute. It was the craziest thing I have ever done.
props
That is so awesome you went sky-diving. I have always wanted to go, but figured I would have to do it somewhere cool and totally random, just like you do. I am so envious of your decision. What a feeling to be flying through the Argentine air staring at the Andes falling to the ground. It must have been sooo beautiful. This will be a memory that you will never forget. I keep asking people to skydive, but everyone thinks it is too "sketchy" to do it outside of the US. But outside of the US is where all the magic is, makes the experience that much cooler. Good for you guys.