A Sense of Adventure

Whenever an opportunity arises to do something adventurous and different, I try to take it (although I chickened out on bungee jumping!). Here’s a taste of some of the fun activities I’ve tried here in Colombia.

1.       Horseback riding

Okay, horseback riding isn’t overly adventurous. But, it’s not readily available in Chicago so I’m including it. And I was riding for a few hours through wilderness -- it seemed adventurous!

2.       Caving

I’ve had several opportunities to do some spelunking and explore caves in Colombia. The best part is that we hike for an hour or more to get to a deserted spot (with a local guide, of course) and then just wander in. No sign, no admission fee, no maps, just a hole that we explore. So cool!

3.       Rappelling

Sometimes, that hole is in the earth (and not a mountain side) so you can’t just walk in. So, I tried my hand at rappelling.

I’ve tried rappelling several times before. Always in the past, we hiked up to the top of something and then rappelled back down. This time, it didn’t occur to me in advance how we were going to get back out of the hole. Turns out, they expected us to climb. . .that was a fun, unexpected challenge!

4.       Trekking

One afternoon, a couple of us went on a hike in the middle of nowhere with a local guide. No marked trails, no maps. He told us about a trail along a ridge that was very beautiful. It’s called the Paseo del Angel (Angel’s Stroll). Sounds lovely, right? So, turns out, this ridge is between two canyons: one 150 meters down, the other 160 meters down. And it’s quite narrow. The pictures don’t really show how steep this is!

At one stage, the path narrows to about 18 inches wide. And while I can normally walk across 18 inches without thinking about it, when looking over the edges on both sides, it can play tricks with your mind! Took me about 5 minutes of positive self-talk to walk across that path.

And after I did it, Augusto (our guide) laughed and explained that we weren’t actually going that way and we needed to cross it again to head back! More positive self-talk. . .

5.       Paragliding

I’ve always wanted to paraglide. It just seemed like such a cool, adventurous thing to do. In San Gil, a town in northern Colombia, I had the opportunity. I got strapped into the seat (and attached to a professional) and within 2 minutes, we were airborne. The wind just lifts you off of the hill – so quick and easy. No time to overthink it and get nervous. Once up there, it’s so peaceful and relaxing. And the views are incredible! I would recommend paragliding to anyone – nothing scary about it! 

6.       Bullriding

Given the opportunity to safely ride a bull, what adventure-seeker would turn that down?

Okay, so it wasn’t a real bull. Yes, I seem to have developed an obsession with sitting on oversized stuffed animals!  Yet this one did have real bull horns and hooves. So it was sort of like riding a real bull, right??? Right??

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