* A Night at the Opera
* A New Respect for Fear
* Caribbean Style
* ¡Independencia!
* Cloud Forest Crunch
* Sally vs. the Volcano
* Zippin through the Rainforest
* ¡Una Buen Fin de Semana!
* Around Alajuela
* Excursion to San Jose
* ¡Hola a todos!
* Blastin Off
* Orange is the new Pink
* Bio
August 02, 2005
I have felt fear. Well, before today I thought I'd felt fear....ghosts, the aftermath of scary movies, aloneness, near accidents, standard stuff. What a lightweight...I had no idea what REAL fear felt like.
Until today.
Today a group of us went bungee jumping. What I didn't know before I got there was that we were bungee jumping off the highest locale in all of Northern, Central and South Americas....a 250 foot drop off a bridge in the middle of nowhere. For perspective, a 25 story building. The top of it.
I watched people get up on the platform, watched them jump off screaming and come up laughing. I was informed that the company we were using was the only one in Central America to use both regular safety gear and backup safety gear...no way anything could go wrong. They'd done 22,000 jumps over the years and not one death. Good odds! In theory. I am telling you people that when you are standing on a rusty bridge 250 feet in the air and you look over to the raging river below it will drop your stomach out of your feet to think of lurching towards it at uncontrollable speed.
Here is the bungee site as we approached it..
...and here's a picture looking over the edge of the bridge (that's a tiny, tiny person at the end of the long blue cord on the right)
I'm telling you right now that the moment I looked over the edge of the bridge I did NOT want to bungee jump any longer. Nope, no desire. None. However my girlfriends there wanted me to sign up with them and everyone was doing it and, well, you know how peer pressure can be. So I filled out the paperwork and found my zen place and kinda zoned out about it.
I was chattin with friends, hanging out, and watching other people fall over the edge. It was kinda fun!
Fun until they called my name. Seriously, when they called me over to suit up I was like, "Me? You want ME to go now? I have to do this too?!" I wasn't nervous, I was scared and had a deep and growing feeling of NOT wanting to do it.
But I got suited up....
...got ready, took the final picture....
....and walked out to the platform.
At this point I knew, really knew what it felt like to be so scared I would have wet myself if I'd been able to even do that. I was paralyzed, I've never been that scared. The guide was trying to talk me through it, seeing that I hadn't yet been able to peel my fingers off the metal support bar. I tried, I really did, to let go but every cell of my body screamed at me to get the hell off the platform!
So I did.
And I have to report that the pure white-hot blast of unabashed JOY and HAPPINESS and DELERIUM I felt when I stood on solid pavement rivaled the high any of those yahoos experienced on their bungee jump!
And so, at the end of this story I don't have any kickass pictures like this...
....only this picture representing pure relief.
YAAAAAY for you , I mean with 22,000 jumps and not one death you know the rope was due to break on your jump, so good job baby,
I LOVE YOU AND I MISS YOU ALREADY
This reminds me of what a group of wise men once said:
"Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother, You’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’,
And we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ aliiiiiiiiiiiiiive, aliiiiiiiiiiive, aliiiiiiiiiiiiiive!" :-P
Glad you're having fun, but I can't wait till you're back. Miss you, hippie chick!
Posted by: Kipp on August 3, 2005 11:13 AMYou are my super-girl soulmate. I wouldn't have jumped, either. You don't have to do scary things to rock! I miss you. I'm jealous that my other friend got a postcard. I know you think of me, why don't you just admit it and show me your feelings??!!
500 1/2 W. 15th Ave. 99203 Thanks, Lovey Dovey! ~Amy
Better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.... So, now you know you will never go to parachute school! I am very proud of what you have done. And again, you have great writing skills and the photos are priceless. This is a talent you have. love....
Posted by: jim on August 4, 2005 06:21 AMDamn it, I knew I shouldn't have written anything about the post card. Amy...you're not suppossed to read other peoples comments.
Christine, you look spectacular!!! Hope your last couple of weeks there are amazing.
13 days...
Posted by: Jessica Johnson on August 8, 2005 02:27 PMDamn it, I knew I shouldn't have written anything about the post card. Amy...you're not suppossed to read other peoples comments.
Christine, you look spectacular!!! Hope your last couple of weeks there are amazing.
13 days...
Posted by: Jessica Johnson on August 8, 2005 02:28 PMsorry, I didn't mean to post that comment twice...
Posted by: Jessica Johnson on August 8, 2005 02:29 PMOnce again, Christine, your writing just took me right along with you on your adventure!
Posted by: Bonnie on August 12, 2005 10:50 AMOh you sexy thing you! Christine we miss you and can't wait to hear more about all of your adventures, although your stories with pics you have here are quite entertaining as well. We are sorry we haven't said hello earlier, but we ourselves were gone for most of July to the most exciting and fabulous places, like the Oregon coast for example. Yeah, so not so much- you have us beat on location! We miss you and have fun in Mexico! Well well, muy beuno chica, I see you are looking mighty fine in your most flattering outfits. I have been dreaming of things since you left, most comes to mind of a conversation you and I had regarding boobs. Specifically naked boob pix of hot costarican honeys, Well tanned without tan lines of course? So far none, but there is hope for you. I understand your in Mexico now. Olah, Quienes tu Papa. . . Only in my dreams, right? We hope you are having a wonderful time and can't wait for you to come home and drink way to much at Mizuna and tell all of your stories in person. See you soon, Ciao Matt and Leah. P.S. IT'S A GIRL- oh lord!!!!!
Posted by: Matt and Leah on August 12, 2005 08:42 PM