Yesterday, I had an opportunity to try tandem paragliding in Carmona, Cavite, Randelle (or Buko as most of his friends call him) who owns Air Sports Adventure Philippines and the first & (take note!) only Filipino who is licensed to do tandem paragliding in the country invited me to a one day of fun-filled adventure.
From Makati, Buko, Armand and I travelled to Petron SLEX to meet Joy, Roy and Armand, our clients who are brave enough to try the tandem paragliding. We had a few briefing in Starbucks before we went straight to the area, Carmona was like 30 minutes away from where we had our briefing but the trek going up the jump-off point was the challenge, the road was quite a challenge, very dusty and large piles construction trucks and boulders were seen in the area for some part of the hill side is being developed to become a low-cost subdivision by a private company, sad but true. Anyway, going back to my adventure, when we finally hit the spot, I started to feel my nerves especially when I realized how high we were. We were 50 meters (or 164.04 feet) above the ground, that is quite too much already for someone who is afraid of heights. I was quite nervous, while watching the others fly, I was praying and asking God for protection not only for myself but for us all; I even sent some prayer request to few of my friends, asking for their prayer of protection.
After 3 hours or so, it was my turn to fly, to my surprise, my friend Buko told me that Armand (Dard) will be the one to take me on air; Armand is a French man who have been flying for 17 years, a license tandem pilot and been teaching paragliding for 13 years, so I told myself…COOL! Somehow part of me got a little excited since when I saw him flew with my friend Joy, Armand was quite a dare devil and were doing some “acrobatics”, even if he has someone with him….Then, my turn came, I must admit my knees were starting to get weaker and weaker but I told myself, I have to do it and my last words were Lord, please take care of me….
Then when we ran….after 3 to 4 steps, I started to realize that I am already running on air….I must admit, it was such an exhilarating experience!!!! I SUPER LOVE IT!!!!! It’s truly a different feeling to fly on air, I can feel the air run through my whole being, I can clearly hear the sound of the air rushing through the kite’s rope. I was literally 500 feet above the ground!!!!! Armand even gave me the chance to control the kite by myself --- 100% pure FUN!!! He even did some aerial tricks, we were not just gliding on air, we were literally rotating, swerving, swinging, and veering on air!!!! Wow!!!! It is truly an experience that one can never forget….
After our flying adventure, the fun didn’t stopped there, Buko took me to an Off-road trip to Tagaytay, he drove me to a way or road where I never thought that it even existed, only driver’s like Buko and tough 4x4 vehicles would dare to try that way, the road was really rough and tough and all I can see as we trek that way were either forest type trees or huge grass prairies; I was literally bouncing inside Buko’s pick-up, all the while I thought such treks are only meant for (walking) mountaineers, guess’ I was wrong about that.
When we finally got to Tagaytay, Buko treated us in Amoroma, I super love their pesto and anchovies pizza!!! And their caramel panna cotta was also good. YUMMY!!!!! It was truly a day filled with great new experience for me, on our way home, we were even treated to a buko station where I had the chance to straw the buko juice straight from the shell! Quite cool!
It was indeed a tiring day, I’ve tried things that I never thought I would or could, but I did! Being up on air made me realized how beautiful to see things from a birds’ eye view, it made me appreciate nature even more! And I was also somehow reminded that if God was able to create all these beautiful things, what else can He not do?
Thank you for Lord for the good weather, thank you Lord for the good flow of air, thank you Lord for the wonderful experience, for allowing me to appreciate your beautiful creation all the more, for the kids that you allowed me to meet at the jumping site, for moving me to get out of my comfort zone, for helping me to conquer my fear of heights and most of all thank you for reminding me that NOTHING IS TOO SMALL OR TOO BIG FOR YOU TO HANDLE…..
Btw, have I mentioned that I didn't spend even a single centavo on that trip? Buko (Randelle) generously shared his blessings to me. Thank you, Lord!!!!
I AM WONDERFULLY BLESSED.
So, who wants to join me in my next flying trip????
No comments:
Post a Comment