Paragliding, Bungee Jumping and Rafting

Sorry for taking so long to write about all of these activities but as I always say I have been busy with other stuff. As I was one of the only few people doing both Bungee Jumping and Paragliding it was organised so I was to do both of them on the same day. Probably one of the most adrenaline filled days of my life!!!. The night before I did both of them I also worked as a bartender in the disco connected to my house which my Peruvian parents own. I loved working there and although before I began I was nervous as to how I would go I managed suprisingly well. I finished work at about 2am (although the disco actually closes around 6am) and woke up 4 hours later to catch a bus to Urubamba for Paragliding. Paragliding After arriving in Urubamba around 7 am we met the paragliding instructor (an American who works in Peru in the summer and then moves to work in Brazil in the winter where it is still warm) and were driven up to the launch zone at around 3600m. I was the first to go as I then had to catch a bus to Bungee Jumping. The flight lasted for about 35-40 mins, mine longer than most others because we had trouble landing and had to fly down to the bottom of the valley to land (this meant we had to catch a 30 min bus to get back to the launch zone). Although not as enjoyable as I had expected it to be it was still awesome fun and during the flight I reached roughly 4200m high. I also had a good chat to the instructor and he told me he had flown to about 6500m and that the record height was in Australia (around 10000m) and that the German girl who had done it passed out at around 7000m but was still being sucked into the air and regained consciousness again when she had come back down to about 3000m. She survived but got some brain damage I think!!! Dont worry I didnt get any!!..After paragliding I caught a bus to Bungee Jumping which is 11km away from Cusco... Bungee JumpingArrived at ´Action Valley´ to find everyone who had already done Bungee Jumping Paintballing (which I am yet to do but would love to). Ten minutes later however I was being lifted up in a cage to the top of the 122m Bungee - one of the highest in the world. While in the cage I was also being interviewed for the DVD they made of me, however answering questions was the last thing I felt like doing. Anway, got to the top and was told how I was to jump and after a quick 3,2,1 off I went. The freefall lasted for roughly 4-5 seconds (enough to scream out F%&K twice very loudly) and because it was a lot bigger I found it more fun than the one I did in NZ. I didnt hurt myself or do any damage but while I had stopped moving and was just hanging probably half of the blood in my body rushed to my head and I was very dizzy when I got down. Nevertheless I loved it and will do it again in a different country for a 3rd time. I will also show people the DVD of me when I return to AUS.. White-water RaftingAlthough 2 weeks after the first two activities I had decided to speak about them all in one group. As we were to meet in the main square in Cusco early on Friday morning a few of us decided to spend Thursday night in Cusco and although getting to sleep after going out at around 4am I made it to the Plaza by 8 to meet the instructors from SwissRaft Peru (the company with the best reputation in Cusco). Four hours and a very bumpy and dangerous ride later we arrived at the Apurimac river where we were to spend the next 3 days (2 nights) rafting. We were to later find out that after a river in Zimbabwe and one in Chile this is the 3rd best river in the world for rafting. In the wet season a river close by becomes the best in the world and it has a 3km section which is constant grade 5 and 6 rapids. If you know anything about rafting you will know that this is both very very dangerous and scary. Anway, after blowing everything up and having lunch we began some practice exercises in the calm water and then we were off rowing. The first day was only grade 1 and 2 rapids and only 1 hour of rowing. At camp we slept in 2 and 3 person tents. Although you would assume sleeping on sand is comfortable it is actually very uncomfortable. On top of this when you wake up in the morning you are covered in sand fly bites as they can bite you through your thermals - if you are itchy under your wetsuit it can get very annoying. All food over the 3 days was awesome and about the only thing that we had to do over the 3 days, apart from raft, was to clean our plates after dinner. Day 2 we rafted for 6 hours and reached grade 4 rapids. This was a lot more intense than day 1 and also much more fun as we did some ´surfing´. Surfing is when after you go down the rapid you turn the boat around and paddle back into the rapid. Once you reach the bit where the water cascades down the front of a rock everyone in the boat jumps forward making the boat front heavy and the nose gets stuck in the rapid spraying tonnes of water into the boat. Aside from being fun the aims of surfing are to stay surfing for as long as possible and if it is safe to flip the boat sending everyone flying. There were some rapids where we had roughly 10 goes at surfing. My boat was the only boat to actually manage to flip but that was on the 3rd day. On the 2nd day there was 3 rapids (one class 5 and two class 6) which we had to walk around. Day 3 was another 5 to 6 hours of rafting and we did two grade 5 rapids which were awesome fun. Although I didnt fall out it is very easy to as you sit on the side of the boat and get bumped around. There are some parts of the rapid where the guide says ´down´ and everyone goes to the bottom of the boat to avoid being thrown out. I forgot to say this before, but at camp on the 3rd morning we also played a few rafting games with paddles which was a lot of fun. Overall rafting was awesome and although expensive well worth the money. The guides were also very fun and I felt safe at all times as there was a safety Kayak following us in case people fell out. The company also made a DVD for us and took around 250 photos, some of which I will post.