The final day of Pastor Brad and Pastor Joe’s trip here to Bogotá we went out for an adventure. Just a turn off the highway a short paved road stops and the fun begins. The road becomes dirt and starts a climb up the mountain. The view just gets better and better as we look below over small towns just outside of Bogotá. At the top we find a small restaurant and a small space of open lawn. Looking up we see two paragliders sailing through the sky. A few days before we had tried to go up ourselves, click but rain and clouds moved in and after waiting a long while we gave up and left. This day would be different!
We waited just a moment for the guide to show up and within minutes Pastor Brad was suited up and ready to go. The wind was strong enough that he didn’t even have to jump off the side of the cliff, medicine it just lifted them straight off of the ground. He took off and after just a few moments they landed – a slight malfunction and a funny story that is not mine to share! Taking off again they began to fly. We watched as they soared around and before long they were flying between the mountains, buy cialis rather low. We figured the pilot was just doing some tricks, but we didn’t see them come back up. The air had stopped and they had to make an emergency landing on the side of the mountain. Poor Pastor Brad – still adjusting to the altitude – had to hike halfway up the mountain with his pack on his back! We told him it was the two for one special!
Pastor Joe went next and had an excellent ride. I think he had the most perfect ride of all of us. Next went Pastor Aldo, the pastor of the church in Tocancipá. He and I were up flying at the same time. I went up with no problems. The experience itself was awesome. We were just floating above the terrain, over lakes and mountains. It was gorgeous and much more peaceful than I ever expected. However, when it was time to land the air had picked up. Pastor Aldo landed a little bit before me. Fabio, my guide, was trying to get us to land several times, but every time we came close the air would pick us up and take us up higher again. The ride up to that point had been smooth and awesome, but I could feel him working really hard trying to get us down. He kept asking me if I was okay and I told him if he was okay, then I was okay and he would reassure me that we were fine. We eventually landed, but as soon as we did they said the wind was too strong for anyone else to launch, so we’d have to wait a while. We watched as some solo gliders tried to get back to land – more danger for them because they had less weight to help bring them down.
Corey was the only one left to go. We waited for about thirty minutes and we knew we were almost out of time and we’d have to get back to get the kids from school. The instructor came in and said they could launch. I heard my guide say the wind was still too strong, but the guide who was taking up Corey said it would be okay. They launched easily and we watched as they gained altitude. They kept going, and going and going. We saw them doing a few spins and thought they were probably having a blast. It seemed like they weren’t up extremely long and they landed with no problems. Expecting Corey to be excited about how incredible his trip was we ran over to help him get out of the chute. His face said otherwise! He said he felt like he was blacking out when they got really high and when they were doing the spins. His ride was not the tranquil ride I had, but rather a pushing match of air currents. I don’t think he can say he truly enjoyed it! At the end of the day the pastors and I had an excellent time, and although Corey had fun he said he would only go again under better wind conditions. It was an experience I will never forget!
~Tona