PUENTING!

So last weekend I went puenting. Puenting is Spanish for bridge-jumping - an extreme sport not unlike bungee jumping, except with a huge pendulum thrown in for kicks after the initial, heart-stopping drop. I took an earlier bus than the rest of the group and got to the bridge early. I confess: exhausted (running on 4 hours of sleep), sitting alone in the middle of nowhere (well not exactly, but the closest town was 10 km), under the hot sun, waiting for everyone, I was grumpy and kept thinking how I should've gone to the beach. Boy was I wrong. It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad I made that leap of faith.

You have to climb the ladder, stand on the railing of the bridge, and jump out.

Cheering squad waiting and watching from below (way zoomed in, just so you know) 

- we took turns, and the whole group (about 14 of us) all went - no one chickened out!

My face, when it really hit me that I'd be tied to the bridge by my ankles.

R and S were wonderful moral support!

It takes just one moment of bravery, and then you're committed. 

The bridge the little person on the left of the photo is standing on 

isn't even halfway to the bottom of the canyon.

 

S.y. was the first one to go. Climbing up that ladder takes guts.

S doing some meditation before getting the all clear to approach the ladder.

R sang/screamed some Tom Petty while standing on the ledge, 

before taking this beautiful, bird-like leap.

Oh, K. Topless puenting? When I first met her this stuff surprised me. 

After the initial drop and violent up-swing, the pendulum like motion over that beautiful canyon was absolutely lovely. 

I was the second-to-last one to jump. The guy that put on my harness told me "No hagas como tus amigas" (Don't do it like your girlfriends). Most of the guys had jumped more or less quickly, but a few of my female friends (some of them legitimately afraid of heights) panicked and waited, standing on the railing for 5 or 6 minutes (there is about a 3 minute time limit within which you can jump, after that you are at risk of being unharnessed and losing your money). I knew if I paused to think even for a moment, I wouldn't get up the guts to jump until everyone was yelling at me to do it.... so I literally crawled up the ladder, stood up and leapt off.... K said she didn't even have time to get a picture of me standing on the railing, I did it so fast! The initial drop - eyes open, watching the tiny river far below quickly expand as I fell head-first towards it - was the scariest part. After that drop, swinging like Spiderman back and fourth as you are slowly lowered down, is when you are flooded with relief and euphoria. It is then that  I realized that, for just a moment I had conquered the world, because for just a moment I had completely conquered my self. 

It sounds super cheesy because it is, I know, but in a way, puenting is a representative experience for my year abroad. Not that I am afraid of heights (oh let's be honest - who isn't afraid of heights when standing on the railing of a bridge 110 meters above the ground?), but I don't know that I would've agreed to try bridge-jumping on a whim just 8 months ago. I feel that living here in Spain and all that it entails (immersion in a totally unknown environment, separation from my family and culture, a new language, brand new friends, etc, etc) has changed me in a way that 10 years of the same-old-same-old could never have done. I expected study abroad to broaden my world view (make me more considerate of other people's opinions and life experiences), but I confess that the enormous leaps of pure, selfish, self-discovery rather took me by surprise. I'm curious to see if my family and close friends perceive any difference whatsoever when I get back, because I sure do. Heck, I've jumped off of a bridge and survived - if that isn't outside of the pre-study abroad Kristian's comfort zone, I don't know what is.