Paragliding
Intense
Canyoning
Squeezed between two mountain ranges and two rivers Merida is a charming town which, given its location, hosts a litany of extreme sporting activities. During my time here I opted to go Mountain biking, Paragliding and Canyoning.
Mountain biking consisted of a 13km downhill cycle on a Tarmac road, followed by a 3km cycle along a highway (in order to get to our restaurant for lunch), culminating in a final 20km cycle on a gravel undulated track with a killer hill at the end - sadly I must confess that this bested me and I had to push the bike uphill to finish, tragic circumstances indeed, but considering my level of fitness, not to be unexpected! This was my first effort on a bike in a long time (sorry Mar, but I don't count our cycle in Scotland last year) and in places it was exhilarating to be bombing along with no barriers between you and certain death - numerous unfenced sheer drops! Strangely enough I was hoping to become unseated so that I could banish all notions of doing Death Road in Bolivia, however since I emerged unscathed, the foolish notion is still floating around in my daft noggin. It was tough going so perhaps 60km would be too intense, and insane! Time will tell...
Directly after mountain biking I went paragliding with two others from the group, Duncan and Francois. It was an utterly serene experience. Taking off a little before sunset and watching the sun go down from high in the sky was spectacular. It was so quiet and peaceful (but bloody freezing) up there; plus simply an amazing feeling to just be hanging mid-air with only a harness between you and a couple of thousand feet. Breath-taking and immense, there are not enough superlatives to describe the feeling of floating, completely unobscured, in the air - superb!
My final activity undertaken in Merida was canyoning. Don't ask me why someone who is not completely happy with water would sign up to do this, but crazily I did. First up we had to provide our own footwear. This was awkward as the only shoes I had were trainers that specifically have the word 'Hydrophobic' written on them - hmmm, I'm guessing this will not end well for the shoes! Next up I was given a small wetsuit for the day, which proved highly comical when I went to get into it. (The medium was too big according to the guide). Thankfully a galant Tony helped me into the suit by hoisting me up by the sides of the wetsuit and shaking me into it - absolutely hilarious and I am sincerely thankful that no-one opted to photograph or video the debacle as they were all too busy getting into their own suits.
All was going well, I had managed rappelling down the 6m waterfall no problem. We reached a water slide and while I wasn't keen I somehow managed to muster up the courage to plunge into the water at the end of the slide. Foolishly I kept my eyes open at the moment of impact and it felt like my eyelids were pushed well into my skull; my vision was a wee bit blurred for a while. Still, I recovered and continued on.
Next was a 20m rappel down another waterfall, again no problem! But woe is me, after completing the 'scary' bit I then had to do a plunge pool jump. For those that know me, you will understand that this is my worst nightmare, I never swim in water out of my depth. The guide informed me that there was no way to abseil down the nearby rocks, I had to jump, no other bloody option. It was at that point I thought to myself "what the fuck have you gotten your self into lady, you are terrified of water but too foolhardy for your own good". It took me a few minutes, and a lot of encouragement from the group, before I managed to drop myself into the plunge pool, which was a narrow gap between two menacing looking chunks of rock. On hitting the water, it was everything I dreaded and then some, water in my nose and eyes, noise of swirling water in my ears, seeming like I was under for ages before surfacing, yea what kind of fool of a took am I! Utter madness. A few of the other guys, Geoff and Tony, were also of the same opinion, only because I encouraged them to do the activity, they were all cursing me and wondering why they had listened to my daft notions. (However they were raving about it at the end! So all ended well). Still, I had faced a fear and survived, only just! Hopefully that was the last of the terror - and thankfully it was.
The final waterfall was a 30m rappel; this was thoroughly enjoyable and everyone had a blast doing it. So, despite the awkward slide and the terrifying plunge pool, I really enjoyed Canyoning. Will I do it again? Probably yes, but I'll definitely do better research into how many plunge pools are present and if there is an alternative option to jumping off a rock!
Heart rate has now returned to normal, time for some more chillaxing on a beach methinks!
