Cordoba - The skydive

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Cordoba is like New York (Id imagine - and ive heard from other travelers)... crazy amounts of shopping in densely filled streets, loads of cafes, traffic jams with loud and obnoxious cars and even a huge shopping district where cars cant pass through. We walked these streets every day, always ending up somehow extremely far from our hostels. Suzan, Bastiaan and I walked to find Tango hostel which was to have a "Lonely Planet" recommended agency that we would inquire about SKY DIVING. The prices were good and I had people to go with - I figured Id do it once in my life but I didnt know when. It felt right! (While at the same time hoping I didnt die). We booked for the 3 of us as we hadnt heard an arrival time for Z and Jessica, we were to go the next morning. Turns out conditions werent perfect, so they cancelled for the following day - Sunday (the fact that they turned us down the first day was calming...).
On Sunday we arrived a little earlier than Karoline (another girl who would join our group), turns out no one had notified her of the "new" departure time. At 3pm we both recieved a text saying we would leave at 10am, and another saying the same thing at 915pm. I recieved a call at 10pm to say "Nope, were going at 9am!". Karoline just happened to be finished her morning errand early and stopped in at 920am - so we had time to go get her.
Our driver was a large guy, probably should be working as a bouncer... not as a "driver". The sky was totally clear other than some beautiful wisped clouds which we would soar through at 200km/hr in a 30 second free fall. We were all quieter than normal in the car.. quite nervous! In 10 minutes we arrived at the landing and departure site, the atmosphere was calm with people laughing and drinking their coffees and yerba mates (the photographers, mechanics, pilots, guides etc.). This made for a more relaxed self... Even when Bastiaan went up first they were on lawn chairs laughing drinking their yerba mates ahaha. Bastiaan and I both jumped seperately with a guy named Leonardo. He was the "Yaaaa lets go jump out of a plane!" kind of guy, where as Suzan and Karoline had a guy who was the sort that said " We will jump strategically and follow the plan. You must do this & this....". We were happier with our guy Leonardo, he s relaxed, Im relaxed!
Watching Bastiaan fall out of the sky and then seeing a chute go up was so exciting! A relief but also a success. I was next, got my white and orange jump suit on and within minutes of Bastiaan landing I was in the air. We would spend 10 min (felt like 30) flying to climb to 2500m or 2.5km .
"Okay! Over here!"
Leonardo directed me over to his hips to be strapped tight and snug to his clasps. This is what worried me the most - the clasps breaking and Leonardo leaving me in the sky, not the chute not going off! The photographer opened the door and we scooted to the opening.
"Feet to the right!"
He sat on the plane floor - I in the open air, feet dangling on nothing. I had no control now! It was so real... What am I doing!? Oh mmyyy godddd. When are we going to jump?! A count downnn ----------- ? Nope. Scariest split second of my life - caught on camera. Amazing. Before i knew it I was laughing, hands up, thumbs up. Relaxed. Then the chute was pulled, I felt Leonardo grab me - which scared me more than anything - and i thought for sure he had gone without me. Then I was floating, so so beautiful. Relaxed. Again letting my guard down - fffffumppp I drop 10 cm without him!
"Easy! Easy! Mi estomago! "
Ya right. My worst fear nearly true. He had detached the bottom two clasps so only the top two by my shoulders held me 1km in the air. I didnt relax after that ahaha. He said it hurts his stomach...
The view was unbelievable, not comparable to being in a plane - you have a 360 view of everything, even below your dangling feet. I asked him if we could do a flip or something (we didnt do it in the free fall - probably for the best) so he pulled hard on the right pull to swing side ways so we were perpendicular 90 deg to the ground for 5 seconds as we spun in 2 circles. Good thing I wasnt relaxed. His landing was smooth, I didnt feel us hit the ground.
The whole day (we went shopping again) we d stop and say "Oh my god, we jumped out of a plane this morning... and now... we are shopping in Argentina". I loved that I could share the experience with a couple people and talk about it for days - You all would get tired of hearing this story if you heard it more than once! - We all seemed to have the same thoughts the whole way threw so... Thank you Suzan and Bastiaan!!

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