Paragliding over Lima

Last week we were in Lima, on a brief one day stopover en route to another brief one day stopover in Sao Paolo, before re-establishing our journey south through South America that we were on before the Galapagos.

Enjoying the sunset

We’d got to the hostal last night at about 11pm, after a full day on planes and in airports, so in the morning, given we had some time, we had some downtime together watching Spiderman 3.  The last time we watched a movie together, about 5 weeks ago in Ubatuba, Frankie had been on the lookout for any teary moments - whch duly came towards the end of “Fried Green Tomatoes" and he took delight in pointing this out (to be fair, it reminded me of doing the same with my parents when I was little though.) Funnily enough this time around with Spiderman 3, during a slushy scene about being best friends, it was Frankies turn, and he smiled through his tears as I looked at him.  He said “I was just trying to get some water into my eyes, Daddy!”

......I see, so you basically just walk off the cliff, right?

In the afternoon, we headed down to the park at Miraflores that runs along the coast, and instantly noticed the colourful paragliders in the air, sometimes slowly making a winding turn, sometimes seemingly rushing past at speed. You could see that some were tandem riders so I went to enquire as to the minimum age for a ride. Apparently it was 5, although I didn’t see any children there. It was 150 soles, about £35 each, not within our daily budget, however this was one of those things you say to yourself, "how often will we get the chance to just turn up and do this?" - and what a great backdrop, being able to enjoy the coastline of Lima at the same time. I asked Louis if he fancied doing this as an early birthday present, he said he’d do it if I would.  Deal.

Are we supposed to go that close?

After briefly returning to our room to exchange flipflops for trainers, and getting a fleece, we headed back to the seafront, and I went over to meet Rafael, our pilot.  There wasn’t much in the way of a briefing, you just put the harness on, he gets on with a bit of faffing to line up the parachute, you follow his instruction to stand “here...... no here,” you then take a few steps, and suddenly the air fills the parachute and you’re up.  Looking down I could see the busy road below that borders the sea dotted by surfers. 

I didn't bother with the video, hopefully if Louis agreed to go then we could get one done for him. Speaking to Rafael, he explained that we were going about 45 miles an hour as we whooshed back on ourselves towards the somewhat iconic lighthouse. We descended below the level of the clifftop park where Jules and the boys were, and nearer the grey, very hard and not even slightly bouncy road below, and our conversation moved on to the mechanics of the flight. Even though it was in Spanish, I understood enough to learn that we'd been powered by the cold winds coming in off the sea, hitting the cliffs and being pushed upwards, therefore my "clever Daddy" speech earlier with the boys about circling eagles and thermals was in hindsight somewhat wide of the mark, even if the principle holds true.  I was really enjoying the ride and looked forward to get down and see the boys faces, and find out how they felt about it. I waved at someone on about the tenth floor of a building that we were flying surprisingly close to, who waved back. I shouted that I'll swoop past for a drink on the way back, which might have been funnier if I'd at least said it in Spanish instead of English...

I was wondering when we'd start some sort of discussion about landing, but as we approached I realised there wouldn't be one, "just keep your legs up in the air", he requested, before executing a very smooth and straightforward landing and promptly receiving my profuse thanks. Louis was still filming me when I landed, and I wondered whether he'd filmed the entire flight, in which case 9 minutes of this will be a dot in the sky. Asking Louis what he thought, he confirmed that it looked like really great fun and that he definitely wanted to do it........meanwhile Jules was getting ready too, and Frankie was left as the guardian of our bags as I followed Louis out towards Rafael and his big blue parachute. 

Here we go then.....

As I began to film Louis preparing, the camera bleeped.  Card full. I quickly went back and deleted some of the previous footage of the tiny dot in the sky to make room for Louis as Rafael calmly helped Louis get his gear on. There was an extra person with a yellow jacket who helps you take off, as the giant parachute and the winds can introduce a little unpredictability. It looked like they were trying to get on board a reluctant camel, as they lifted off the ground slightly and then came down again rather clumsily without actually getting anywhere.  Rafael had explained that with the lighter load of children, you don't go as fast, so that explained why he wasn't just running off the side of the cliff as he did with me. That said, moments later they were airborne, and Louis waved with a little whoop of delight. They turned and as the wind got behind them, picked up speed and flew off toward the picturesque black and white striped lighthouse.

I'm loving this

Hello down there!

Shortly afterwards, Jules was up with another pilot and able to enjoy a view of Louis flying from her own flight. It's left little Frankie on his own, and I went over to him and asked him how he was feeling. "I really want to do this too Daddy, can I do it?"  I was delight he'd changed from his earlier "50% status" and quickly sorted out the "it was all my stupid fault, not yours" sworn statement paperwork, a prerequisite for such activity.

No going back now then.....

Thank you thank you thank you!

Frankie said he was a little bit nervous but not too scared and if Louis could do it then so could he. Rafael landed with a very smiley Louis, and we congratulated Louis on how well he'd done.  After transferring all the gear onto a willing and enthusiastic Frankie, and being joined now by a vary happy Jules who had just had a safe landing of her own, we watched Frankie take off and enjoy the experience, making a very picturesque silhouette against the setting sun and also as he rounded the lighthouse. 

Frankie gets a closer view of the lighthouse

This is brilliant!

Thanks Rafael, you're a great pilot!

The boys have written up their separate blog entries about their experiences.  All in all this transformed a quick city stopover into a highlight of its own!