Aelfgifu Travels

Hi Aelf Crew,

Next on my whirlwind trip following a ferry to Montevideo and back again to Buenos Aires, was an overnight bus to Mendoza. I won’t go into too much detail about this, as I have issued a post on a bus journey experience in South America already – linked here, but it was not for me.

I stayed at Gorilla Mendoza Hostel, which organised local wine tours. As fate would have it, having separated after Buenos Aires in our separate ways, I bumped into my German friend here again and we went on a wine tour together. I am not a competent cycler, especially after a few glasses of wine, so we chose the option with a bus between stops. However, if I could cycle I think it would be the more exciting option to go with as would not have such a strict timetable, allowing you to go where you choose and flexibility. Our tour also included a local olive farm visit, which was new for me – I had never tasted olive oil so pure!

One day on my trip I was feeling a bit low – as sometimes comes with solo travelling – so I decided to throw myself off a mountain (with a paraglide attached).

I booked via Viator to paraglide off Cerro Arco, a peak in the foothills of the Andes mountain range located on the outskirts of Mendoza. We flew at around 1650 meters (or little over a mile) up.

Originally scheduled for the morning, the flight was pushed to the afternoon due to light winds.  We climbed Cerro Arco in the back of a 4×4 pickup truck along the dirt track road. As we climbed higher and higher, I finally grasped the full height of the mountain. Luckily, I’m not afraid of heights so this didn’t phase me too much.

My instructor turned to me and told me he was going to give me a safety briefing, which was as follows: “when I say run, run and when I say stop, stop”. Having lived in the Caribbean where health and safety does not exist, this was fairly excessive for me.

Once at the top, I got strapped up to the instructor, the glider laid out, waited for some wind and off we ran. Unfortunately there were a few “stops” as the wind hadn’t quite picked up and eventually, after the third or fourth false start, I was raring to get going and so we agreed, wind or not, we’re just going to go for it.

Luckily the wind picked up and off we went! 

A mile up above Mendoza, with the Andes around, this was amazing. My instructor had a GoPro camera and I got some really cool shots and videos!

Due to the lack of wind we weren’t up in the air for very long and the landing was rather bumpy to say the least. There was a green fake grass landing patch amongst the dry ground. We were not able to slow down much and in anticipating this, I lifted up my legs as much as I could, but did land hard onto my ankles and bum, the former of which were recovering from an injury so this did leave me in shock for a few seconds. 

The lady who came to unstrap me didn’t make a big deal out of the crash landing and told me just to get up and walk around. Her unfazed and relaxed attitude stopped me from panicking and helped me recover immediately. As is well-known in psychology (and this goes to show): the way people react to events really can impact how other people feel!

This reminds me of when I had my first fall off a horse – I must have been 7 or 8 years old, and my riding instructor, rather than fussing over me and asking how I was, just held out her hands to give me a leg up. “Getting back on the horse” quite literally but metaphorically is also very important.

Tips to Learn from Aelfgifu:

• Do as much as you can in the time that we’re given – take the risks!
• Always get back on the horse (sometimes, quite literally).
• Solo travel can come with emotional ups and downs without a friend to help you through them, but is a great opportunity to learn what helps you self-regulate. For me, I learnt extreme adrenaline sports do the trick!

These are more life tips than Mendoza-specific, but that’s the angle this post has gone in today I’m afraid readers.

What’s your favourite adrenaline sport? Let me know below so I can add it to my list to try next!

Don’t stop believin’,

Aelfgifu