Hey I’m back with some more fun for you guys. This time I went paragliding very close to Santiago - Cajon del Maipo.
Paragliding is when you jump off a cliff with a very wide parachute already folded out. By using the wind and the thermals* you are able to rise high and stay up for a long time. I was about 500m up and could see most of Santiago and the sorounding area.
As we were going down the guide asked me if I wanted to try something a bit more extreme. Of course I did and he started spiralling down at speeds I have not encountered before. At times the glider were literally in an angle of 45 degrees BELOW us. The best rollercoaster ride ever. We hit speeds at around 1G. It was amazing!
*Thermals occur when the sun warms the ground, or mountains, and in turn warms the air directly above it. When a mass of warm air accumulates, it expands and becomes lighter (less dense) than the sorrounding air mass. The air of lighter mass will then rise, but as it does so it will cool due to expansion. This process will continue untill at some point the pool of hot air will have cooled to the same temperature as the sorrounding air, at this stage the air will stop rising.