RTW: Exchange in Chile

I believe I can fly

"..I believe I can touch the sky.." Yup, did some paragliding in Iquique. On my way back "home" to Santiago I stopped over in this city in the Northern parts of Chile, as it has a geography quite unique (basically, huge sand dunes close to the sea) and especially good for paragliding.

I had to take a tandem jump as there was no time to take a course and quite frankly, the prices were ridiculous. I paid 40 euros for under 30 minutes of flight time, doing it tandem. And, we had to wait for 2 hours for the wind to pick up. I told the instructor not to say I am too heavy for the slow winds so he did not say much in the remainder of the trip. Conclusions are being drawn as we speak.

Ok, the airtime itself was fabulous. We were just floating in the sunny air over the beaches of the city (something this country could use some more again) and landing smoothly on the sand. Still, nothing compared to a good bungee-jump. I was just left with the urge to do a real skydive. Sorry mom, there must be something wrong in my head..




Coming to Santiago was a real no-thank-you. The last five hours of bus moving south towards Santiago was pure rain. The fall is here. I also read from the newspaper, that there are major floods in the place in mid/south Chile where I am supposed to go with Johanna soon. But that is not all - in Santiago a major strike has begun, by the students! They are negotiating with people four times their age for better financial possibilities to study and who knows what else. My "local" school that usually lets out hundreds of annoying teenage "gringo"-shouters on weekdays had today just about every chair of the building thrown into the entrance portcullis with very threatening signs all over the place. Good thing is that the strike came now and not weeks earlier, as I'm not so sure how I could have explained in Finland the courses I did not pass with the phrase "But we were on strike"...

posted by Kassu @ 11:47 PM