Paragliding in Lima

When we got back to Lima on our to do list was paragliding off a cliff in Miraflores. After trekking a canyon why not run off a cliff with a strange man attached to your back, right? Friday morning after breakfast Angie and I walked to the Park of Love, where they do the paragliding and grilled the owner about all the risks and exactly what would happen during the flight. After watching a larger grown man take off and not crash we decided that it would be safe and we signed on the dotted lines. Then got strapped into the parachute and pilot and ran off the cliff. Once we were in the air and I realized that I would be okay I started to relax and enjoy my 10 minute ride high above a busy street, cliffs, shopping mall and beach.

At one point my pilot was talking to me and said that we might need to land on the beach. I was thinking that he was trying to scare me and it was just a joke, so I brushed it off and laughed a little. A minute or so later we turned around to start heading back to the park and he told me, “Look down there the white went down. They were the ones that took off after us.” And sure enough I looked down and saw a white parachute on the ground in between the cliffs and the road. I guess the wind had changed directions while we were flying and we had a hard time getting high enough to clear the cliffs. That is when the pilot said that we might be landing on the beach (so it wasn’t a joke). He was able to get us high enough to be flying safely but the white parachute wasn’t as lucky. They landed safely but had to then pack up the parachute and catch a cab back up to the top of the cliffs.

I had a blast paragliding. When it was over I was joking with the owner that next time I wanted them to do tricks while I was up there. Then we got to talking and he said that he would be coming to Ayacucho in a few weeks and that he had pilots here that paraglide. So who knows more paragliding might be in my future.