Watch the Gringos Fly!

Today I went bungee jumping.

They had told me before I came that this would be an optional activity, and I’d thought about it ever since. I’m terrified of heights and jumping, as anyone who knows me can attest- I can’t do the Intimidator at Carowinds, and it took me 30 minutes to jump off of a 20 foot rock into a pond once (and that was not entirely sober, either!)

So when they collected the money for this activity, I gave it to them only because I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. I mean, how many times in my life will I be able to bungee jump off of the second-highest bungee-jump in the world, in Colombia? I’ve had moments I haven’t done things before that I’ll never be able to do again, and I’ve regretted those, so I didn’t want to make the same mistake again.

About 16 of us decided to jump, and we met bright and early at the bus station to make the trek to the bridge.

Kimi and I (and everyone else) were quite scared, so we talked about the politics of our countries during the drive up. (Mainly it was Flynn, myself, and John bashing US policy, domestic and foreign).

So we get there after a 3o minute drive through the mountains, and all of the girls have to pee because, you know, we’re all about to pee our pants we’re so scared. So, only having a single port-a-jon, we all crammed into one car and took rounds. (Sharing Kimi’s toilet paper because apparently they don’t believe in that here, either).

This is the bridge:

So then there were obligatory “Look I’m on a bridge!” photos to keep us occupied from our fear. The company also had music (American music, no less!) playing, so we all had a blast singing and dancing around until it was our respective turn to be terrified.

Then we had to have a North Carolina picture! Flynn and I are only two of four of us from NC (Lucy and Ryan are also from home).

This is the first picture of the drop I could get. And the only one, because leaning over the railing was terrifying.

Then we got “before” pictures. (Can you tell we were doing literally everything in our power NOT to think about jumping?)

Kimi went first, and this is her getting suited up and everything.

They also had people puenting, which is like swinging back and forth so you’re not actually upside down, and these are two random people doing just that. I don’t really know how certified this company was, because usually you don’t use tractors to throw people and cars to pull people back up, right?

Anyway, here’s after Kimi but before everyone else.

This is Ben, from the U.K. (He’s one of two, Eitan’s the other)

At that point, my camera almost died and I saved it until I got suited up, about 10 people later.

I’ll just let the pictures take it from here. I paid for a go-pro video, so I’ll post that eventually (you might want to mute the sound, I kind of threw two or three or fifty f-bombs, not gonna lie), and Jamie and Sebastian took really good photos, too.

Easily the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done, and 10/10 would do again. This was our group victory shot:

And this was our America victory shot (only three of us chose to go).

This is our final group shot:

And what I like to call our “terror-buddy shot.”

Afterwards we went home and watched Colombia beat Uruguay, and I had pizza with my host family as they told me they thought of me as an adopted daughter, asked me to stay forever, and told me to bring my family back. 🙂 I also learned that my host mom had lit a luminary for me in front of their altar, because she was scared of my jump. I was flattered and thought that the cutest thing ever.

Until tomorrow! (It won’t be nearly as exciting as today, I’m sure).

-Kristina