Catch Up: Pt. 1

At the end of August, after months of time working in site, Becca realized that she still had 13 vacation days about 30 days to use them. So she waited until Fiestas Patrias when her students and socios would also be on vacation and took nearly two weeks i the south of Peru. 

The original plan had been to explore the southern attraction (Ica, Paracas, Lima, Nazca) and then fly up to Tarapoto and Chachapoyas. But plans are hilarious in that, they’re dumb and Becca doesn’t like them. Instead, Becca started her trip in Lima where her and Jeannie went on a day long “puente-ing” adventure. 

Puente-ing is a little little bungee jumping, in that participants are hooked to bungees and jump off a bridge but it’s also like a giant swing because they jump away from the bridge and swing back and forth underneath a few times before safely coming to a jarring halt at the whim of the ropes specialist. 

Jeannie and Becca found themselves on a bus heading two hours outside of Lima at six in the morning. The most surreal part was the stop in Chaclacayo, where they’d both spent 10 weeks as Peace Corps trainees nearly two years before, to get snacks. Now it felt like a different world. Luckily, they didn’t have much time to ponder it and after another long haul in the van filled with intermittent napping and chatting, they found themselves parked on top of a long mountain ridge, staring out at a bridge and the beautiful canyon below.

While Jeannie had already started feeling the nerves that accompany an impending bridge jump, Becca was still feeling pretty normal. She had warned Jeannie early in the trip though that she tended to stay calm right up until the last couple of minutes before something happens.

“Yeah, I was there when you got your tattoo, I remember the giggling,” Jeannie replied simply. 

The group got their harnesses on and made a list of who would go first all the way to last. Somehow, Becca became the second to last and Jeannie the last, something they would quickly find was not great for their nerves. Before the first person went, Coco, one of the guides (who had chosen the nickname from Freddie because two of the other guides were also named Freddie) explained;

“You had three options of how to jump. One, you can step outside of the railing, facing outward and jumping, pushing away from the bridge. Two, you can step outside of the railing, facing inward and push off backwards from the bridge. Or three, were can lift you up and throw you face first into the canyon,”

Becca leaned toward Jeannie, “Three please,”

“Duh,” was her only response.

And so started the tale of how Jeannie and Becca were thrown off a bridge by four grown men. When Becca’s turn came around, she immediately felt the giggling nerves that she’d warned Jeannie about. 

Freddie and Coco led her to the edge and did two full checks of her gear while explaining the process to her again. They both told her not to be nervous; this did not help un montón. 

As Becca’s feet left the ground, she suddenly realized that she was about to be thrown off a bridge. Following her first instinct in nervous situations, she turned to Jeannie and made a joke.

“It’s happening,” she said. But even as a laugh escaped her, the men rocked forward and she caught a glimpse of the canyon below. The words began to spew from her like a fountain, “It’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening—,”

Her words were caught short by a scream as she plummeted toward a rocky death but seconds later the scream broke into laughter when the bungees caught and she swung gracefully under the bridge in a long arc. 

After a few flying swings, the ropes specialist reeled her in under the bridge and gave her a big hug.

She raced back up the hill as soon as she was unhooked, to see Jeannie’s equally hilarious toss. 

Half exhausted, half exhilarated, they sat for lunch and enjoyed the sunshine before piling back in the van and heading down into the canyon where they were taken on an impromptu spelunking adventure. 

“Hey, we were just there,” Jeannie pointed up toward the bridge as they hiked along the rocky ridge toward a cave.

They climbed through tunnels and down ladders, hooking into different clips along the way and following the pathways in the dark until the came to a magical waterfall that seriously could have been out of a fairytale. 

As they walked back toward the van, after finally emerging from the darkness underground, the girls laughed and talked about the ridiculous day they’d had. Minutes after they’d fallen into their seats in the van, they were out and didn’t wake again until they reached Lima three hours later.