Bungee Jumping in the Andes

Getting ready to jump
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I think this was one of the only days we could sleep longer. We had to be at 10 am at Hacienda Huayocari for our horseback riding excursion. We had breakfast and met our driver at the front gate. The drive was short, like 20 minute away from the Villas.

Once we arrived, we found a group of tourists already trying out the horses. After trying out at least two, I found one that didn’t want to jump up and down as in a rodeo. Unfortunately, I don’t have cowboy blood at all (or cowgirl).

The gate opened and I took a step forward. As I was standing on the ledge, I could feel the weight of the rope pulling me down.

At Mandelas
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The excursion was great, we went pass the river and through some corn crop fields. It lasted for 2 hours approximately and then we had some drinks at the Huayocari Restaurant. This restaurant is like an old Hacienda, and it has some paintings from Cusco Art School.

Afterwards, we started our return to Cusco through the road to Chinchero, a small town. This town is very small, but the view from its main plaza and church is beautiful. Since the rainy season had just finished, the fields were piercing green, instead of the usual yellowish tone.

Mandelas Rooftop
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Then, we made a stop (at my request) at Cusco’s Action Park. I had always wanted to do bungee jumping, and if I didn’t do it now, I knew I would regret it. So, after drying my sweaty hands more than 10 times, I decided to pay the guy and get ready to jump. As the thing was going up, and they guy explained me the “best jumping technique”, I noticed that now not only my hands were sweating, but my knees were trembling… a lot. There was no way back, I just could not chicken out know. Suddenly, the “elevator” stopped, at 300 meters of altitude. The gate opened and I took a step forward. As I was standing on the ledge, telling the guy not to let me go yet, I could feel the weight of the rope pulling me down. I was only standing there, because the guide had not let go of me yet. What the heck, lets get this over with. This was what was going on in me mind, and I did just that; I told to guy to let me go and I jumped. The rush was better than I had expected. I didn’t shout, but once I had stopped bouncing and was just hanging there from my feet, I had the feeling that I would just fall into the ground, so I wanted to get down… and fast.

Chinchero
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Finally I did, and Nata, showed me the video she had filmed. I could see that she had done all the shouting for me.

I didn’t stop trembling after we had been in the car for like 20 minutes or so. We arrived in Cusco and checked into Casa Andina Koricancha. The hotel was ok, much better than the first one we stayed in Cusco.

We had dinner at Baco Restaurant, which I barely touched. It was really good, but the altitude had made me loss my appetite, and I ate little the entire trip.

At night we visited some bars. First Mandelas, located half a block away from the Monasterio Hotel. It was very nice, with live music. Then we went to the Irish Pub (I really liked the decor here), and finally we ended up (again) at Mama Africa.

I went back to the hotel early because I was really tired and left Nata there. The trip was over, but I had done a lot in very little time and was ready to call it a day.