Facing My Fears

Jan. 9

We made good time back to Rio with our speed-racer bus driver. It had taken us 4.5 hours to get to Paraty and only 4 to get back. We were crossing our fingers that the weather and winds would be good in Ri0 because this was the big day for hang-gliding.

We arrived back at 2pm and confirmed with the pilot that we were still on. He picked us up at our hotel and we drove up some more scary mountain roads (this seems to be a theme). When we arrived at the top we walked out toward the platform we would jump off. It was a straight drop down. Waaaaay down. Like forever down. Gulp. Matt was supposed to go first so he got geared up and I watched people take off. They would run down the platform, jump off, dip down a little and then pick up the wind and head up. I thought it all looked ok except for that dipping down part. What if I just kept dipping down and never went up?? While I was worrying Matt was doing his practice run and was ready to go. I had the camcorder and the camera ready as he ran off the platform (with the pilot, of course). They caught some air and I could breathe again...my husband was going to live. After about 40 minutes Matt and the pilot arrived back. My turn! I was scared and excited...mostly excited. At this point I had seen enough people take off that I thought I would probably live and I would do whatever the pilot told me too. I suited up and we prepared to take off. He told me all I needed to do was run...and don't look down. Ok, I can do this. 1, 2, 3, go! I felt like I only took about 3 steps and we were off. Flying! Soaring! It was crazy. We went back and forth in front of the ramp so Matt could take some pictures and then we soared over the beach. We flew along the coastline and out over the water. It was very peaceful. The flight lasted about 15 minutes. The landing was easy and I couldn't believe the only scary part was before the flight. It's all mental, I guess. We paid extra to have pictures taken in flight and we have the negatives for those so it will be fun to see how they turned out when we get back to the States.

I had done a good job dehydrating myself waiting in the scorching sun for my turn on the hang-glider. So we went back to the hotel to rest for a while before we headed out to dinner with Gabriela, a woman our age who had been an exchange student in Sturgeon Bay back in 1992. We lucked out with our hotel because the room we were given when we arrived was dirty. A nice guy who worked there gave us a new room and it turned out to be 3 times bigger than the old one and with a view of Copacabana!

Gabi picked us up at our hotel at 8pm and we headed to Porcao, the best BBQ place in Rio. We were excited - if a native said it was the best it must be true. And remember we had not been impressed with the other two BBQ places we had gone. The stakes were high - I had been going on about Brazilian BBQ to Matt for almost five years. When we got there we ordered the drink of Brazil - caparinhas - and they were really yummy. A good start. Then they started bringing the filet mignon around before we even hit the salad bar. The meat was so good it was like candy. I had to pry myself away to go to the salad bar. But, oh, there were sun-dried tomatoes. I was in heaven. Dinner was excellent (if you haven't noticed by now I am kind of into food) and we had so much fun talking to Gabi. She had some really funny stories about SB and we had tons of questions for her about Brazil. We laughed all night and were happy to make a new friend in Rio.