Post 31: Did today even happen?

My last day in Brazil was a dream.

At 9am, I ran off the edge of a cliff. I ran off the edge of a cliff with only a glider on my back. I still cannot believe it. It feels like it was all just happening in my head. 

Justin, Jennifer, Jason, Sarah, Maria, Emily and I all took a 30 minute uber ride in the morning to Sao Conrado Flight school where we signed up to go hangliding. The process of signing in and training took a lot shorter than we expected. We gave them ID and signed a waiver, and then they drove us up to the top of this mountain. As we drove up, we all got more and more nervous and excited at the same time. We hiked a bit up to an opening in the forest where they had turf laid out for take off. This is when we first saw the view as well, which was pretty terrifying. To train, we practiced where to hold our hands while in flight to prevent us from grabbing the bar that our pilot would be using to steer. We also practicing our running takeoff. It was important that we kept running at the same speed and didnt hesitate because this could be dangerous. My pilot, Pedro, said that I did perfectly and was ready to fly. This took all of ten minutes. 

I watched a bunch of my friends go before me, which made me even more nervous and excited at the same time. And then it was my turn. Pedro connected my harness to the glider, and we practiced flying position, as you can see here. 

Then, he told me to stand up, and within 30 seconds, he asked me, "ready?" and then I said yes and he told me to start running, and the next thing I know, I'm in free fall for a few seconds and then the glider gets its lift and I'm flying over Rio de Janeiro. It doesn't seem real now, but even as it was happening, I couldn't believe it was real. It looked like everything under me was a painting, and when I look back at these pictures it feels like I'm looking at a green screen. I really cannot describe this in words. I will just say, try this for yourself. Even if you're scared of heights, (because I'm terrified) it's totally worth it.  

I reunited with everyone after picking up my pictures and paying. We were all in shock. Everyone had the time of their lives. We grabbed some Acai and sat on the beach and looked at the incredible view and tried to take in what had just happened. I'm going to miss this crew. We shared the experience of a lifetime together. 

After we got acai, we met up with a few people from the rest of our group at a market where people were shopping for last-minute gifts for family and friends. We got lunch here as well, our last real meal in Brazil. It was kind of sad, actually. 

We spent the rest of our day at a beach nearby. It was perfect weather, and nearly everyone was there. Kyra and I went on a walk down the beach to this rocky area where we hiked up to the top for an incredible view of the beach and ocean. 

We Ubered back to the hostel, packed up a few remaining things, and then we started saying our goodbyes. We gave Renato, Jen, and Courtney our gifts to them. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but everyone was happy that we had such a wonderful experience. It was truly bittersweet.