Itinerary | Buenos
Aires | Buenos Aires (2) | Montevideo | Punta
Del Este | Day at Sea | Itajai | Santos | Paraty |
Rio de Janeiro
I was jarred out of bed in the morning by the cruise
director informing us that we were entering Rio's port and
that it was a great opportunity to take photos on the pool
deck as
she explained the sights to us. I managed to get myself out
of bed, throw on some clothes, make sure I didn't look like
death
warmed over, and left the suite with my camera in hand. On
the pool deck there was a breakfast waiting. Coffee, tea, bagels,
pastries, etc. were available as well as champagne. What
way
to start the day, huh? |
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Left: I did this for the trip to India,
so I had to do it here to be fair. This is a picture of Rio's
smog layer. At least here you can see an END to the smog layer!
Right: You can see the statue of Jesus on the mountain that's
on every marketing flyer for the city. It was really a very
nice morning.
I will not bore you with the other pictures I took of other
buildings and bridges. If you're really interested, just let
me know.
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We got off of the ship and went through the port building where
we caught a bus to take us to the hang gliding area. Already
my stomach was in knots. I must be insane. Jumping off of a cliff
for no good reason?!?
I tried as hard as I could to rationalize it. My mom was doing
it. Kim's parent's were doing it. If they could do it, then
I better not chicken out! The company running this is the Sky
Center Rio
We arrived at the "base camp" where you sign away your life
and pay for the trip. This ended up costing about $140 for
the flight, and $77 for the creation of a DVD and photos. |
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Left: You see the point where we will be
jumping. It's about 2,500 feet up in the air. I put a red box
around it so you could see it.
Right: A close up of the platform
with my zoom lens. I watched others launch from this point
and saw how graceful and easy
it was for them to glide down. That made me feel better. "It's
not all that bad!" I kept saying.
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So we're paired up with a pilot and we drive in a little bitty
car up the side of this mountain to the launch point. The car
has to climb up some pretty steep inclines to get to the parking
lot. The engine on this poor thing was whining...but we made
it just fine.
Left: Suiting up! You wear this harness
thing that supports your body weight from the center of the glider.
your legs are held up with straps during most of the flight.
Right: My pilot and I are testing the balance of our weight
on the glider. His harness is more like a pouch...it almost
has a tail on it. He stored stuff in that pouch for use when
we got back to the base camp.
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Left: This is the platform. Scary, I know.
It's tilted downward to help you get some speed as you run. Right:
That's me while we're preparing to go. I'm so nervous and
it's so hot, I'm sweating buckets. My pilot reminds me: "Just
RUN! Think about nothing else but RUNNING." |
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Somehow, I manage to focus
and force myself to run. Before I know it, we're airborne!
There was barely any
free fall, but I'm yelling my head off anyhow!
Left: About half-way down, you can see how high we still are!
The view is spectacular and the wind is wonderful!
Right: My legs are unlatched
from their bindings as we come in for a landing. I made sure
to run as we hit the ground, pumping
my knees just like I did in high school football practice.
We had a perfect landing! |
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Don't ever tell my mom to take a flying leap off of a cliff.
She'll actually do it! (Yes, that's really her running off
the platform!!) |
This is Will coming in for a landing.
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This is Kim's dad as he's landing.
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For those of you who know me personally, there
is a DVD of this event that I can show you, if you want to
have a good laugh. I'm SO glad I got the pictures and DVD done
so
that I'd have some proof of my flight! I'd like to thank the
people at the Sky Center Rio for doing such
a great job with this experience.
Once we were all done, we got back on a bus and went back
to the ship. I needed to shower, dress, and finish packing since
I had to leave on a flight that evening. I couldn't stay for
the last day of the cruise since I had to work on that Friday.
I said my goodbyes and got into a taxi to the airport. I was
on my way home!
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Since I was unable to stay,
Mom and Will sent me the pictures they took on the excursions
I missed. One of them was a trip to the statue. You can see
from the photo, that's it's HUGE.
I wish I could have stayed. From the photos, it looked like
I missed a lot of fun, but duty calls! I went home relaxed
and feeling good.
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The flight home was uneventful.
The planes were pretty punctual and my luggage was not lost.
Yener came to pick me up at the airport. It was good to see him
again. It was even better to be home. However, I did miss the
gourmet food room service. :-)
If you get a chance to go on a cruise. GO. It's so much fun.
You don't need a vacation from your vacation when you get home!
If you're interested in booking a cruise, I highly suggest
letting Concierge
Travel handle the planning for you. Kim and
his staff were wonderful!
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