This is our crazy cat...
This is my crazy life
This was my crazy view from 5000meters up in the air.
I used to have a magnet that read,"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you've imagined." I could never have imagined a life as crazy as the one I'm living right now. I'm currently reading Augusten burrough's 'This is How' and he talks about confidence being about being in the present. With this life, why would I want to be anywhere else, but here and now at any given moment.
When I went paragliding last week with some of the volunteers and a regular from work, one of the guys asked me where I'd been. After I told him, he asked me what other cool things I'd done. I rattled off climbing a fourteener, living on a ship for six months, and doing stand up comedy and eventually he responded, ' wow I haven't done anything cool.' This of course was untrue as he'd previously told me he'd been mountaineering glaciers in Chile, which is pretty fucking cool. He also climbed three fourteeners. He lives in Colorado on occasion. I told him he was young and he had time. He's twenty two. Yeah he has time, but I have time and look what I've done already. Yes I had opportunity which I said yes to every time I could, but at the same time I'm also just really fucking awesome for my age and I really should start owning that a little more, rather than weirdly making up some bullshit reason as to why I'm not as cool as I seem. I am THAT cool. So much so, that I keep coming across people throughout my life that present me with some blind faith.
A volunteer recently asked me if I could do anything and money was no object what I'd do. I said cook and he asked if I'd consider being a housewife. I told that to a new older friend of mine and she responded with a scoffing response that I wouldn't be happy doing that and that I'm going to be some "powerhouse business woman who can go off to France for a month and fuck a twenty five year old when she's forty if she wants." Those aren't my heartfelt aspirations, but I think it was a compliment and I do appreciate the blind faith to be something greater.
Ok, enough about how awesome me and surrounding parties think I am. Paragliding. I think I mentioned being bored in my last post, if not it was the previous one I was writing that got deleted. Point is, I was getting really bored in Cusco doing just the volunteering and not a whole lot else. This was causing me to be quite unhappy in the situation. However, in this particular situation I was in complete control of my unhappiness. It's not like I was so overworked and underpaid I couldn't do anything but slave over my 9-5 then go home and bitch about it. I could literally do whatever I wanted within a budget. South America is huge on adventure tourism and although I'm not a huge fan of hiking or standing for that matter, I do like a lot of adventure type things; Like bungee jumping, rafting, occasional motorcycle conquests. Although I've never had a desire to skydive, when I saw adds for paragliding a light went on. I like jumping off things and I don't like falling on my face. I shall paraglide. Conveniently enough, the next day two of the volunteers told me they were going to check out prices the following day. I went with them and we ended up booking a trip. We drove up to 3800meters and hung out waiting for the winds to cooperate. I went first and with a small Peruvian strapped to my back telling me to run, I watched as my feet still moved underneath me while distance grew between me and the ground. With that we sailed off the edge of a cliff into the sky. I could see the Andes stretching out in every direction with glaciers topping a few of huge mountains. We could overlook Utamaba and a big lake with a hillside covered in Lilacs on the other side. After about twenty minutes of flight time we landed in a field with a bunch of very panicked sheep. We received a few dirty looks from nearby cows, llbut no one was hurt and the farmers seems unphased. Me and the pilot chatted in what was probably the worst Spanglish he'd ever heard and eventually a car picked us up and drove us to meet the others who were waiting for their ride on top of the mountain. I spent the rest of the day getting sunburnt (despite applying sunscreen) and watching a few sketchy take offs and some very cool flights.
When we got back, we stopped for a beer before heading to a Brazilian steakhouse to binge an ungodly amount on meat. It was delicious, but rarely have I felt more disgusted with myself than I did the next morning. However, Amanda and I are taking part in a thirty day plank challenge which is going rather swimmingly I must say. We are aiming to stay and work in Vina del Mar, a beach town in northern Chile so a beach conditioned body would be nice. As part of this and a few failed promises, I finally attended Amanda's yoga class. It worked out that it was also her first time teaching the class. She didn't exactly take it easy and they used all the yoga names for everything so as usual, I did a lot of guessing. After about thirty minutes another more intense woman took over. I was shocked and impressed that I could do most things she presented to the class. Balancing on one foot and one hand and 'opening my heart to the sky' wasn't one of those things. We also had all the lights off and only four or five candles around the room. One happened to be right behind me, so if I lost balance I easily could have lit my hair on fire. Anyways, I felt great afterwards, and the next day my whole arm was in pain. I can't say this was in any way, shape, or form, relaxing, but it was a good class for sure.
Today Amanda graduates from the course and we will have a few free days before we head to Machu Picchu where she will do the hike up to it and I will do Huanupichu. I'm looking forward to the train ride which is supposed to be gorgeous and the actual hike, which is also known as the 'Stairs of Death'. Bring it on. My friend who was visiting last week did the Inca Trail and Huanupichu and said they were both so amazing. My friend who did is is actually a raft guide from Colorado, who I met in the Fort Collins post office after coming back from SAS. Tonight we will have a light dinner to celebrate and attend a salsa class of one of Amanda's classmates. Tomorrow we'll be hiking in the morning in some caves and sometime in the next few days Amanda's boyfriend will arrive from California to stay for a week. Hasta lluego!
PS: My Spanish is awful...still.
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