rio part 2

So we didn't end up staying in buzios. Ben and i got trashed our one night there, and just hung out in this bar talking philosophy, which was fun. The enxt day was really jsut a day of traveling, going back to rio. The next day, tues, Ben and I went hanggliding in Tijuca national forest. that was SICK. hanggliding over rio was definitely not in the original plan, but it was totally worth it. The wind on tues wasn't great, so there was a long line to jump, and we had to wait for like 3 hours. finally, the wind got better, and ben and i got to fly. we were lucky enough to be in the air at the same time, and were actaully the last people to get to fly that day.

little recap of the experience. First, waiting. waiting in line was ok, waiting on the ramp, ready to start runing as soon as my pilot gave the word was wierd. we were super high, with an incredible view. The camera on our glider died before we jumped, so i don't have any pictures, but ben has a few which i'll post later. finally, the wind changed, so we started running balls out. then the dive. the dive off the platform was so cool, like a roller coaster. it was too fun to hold back, so let out a pleased "WOOOOHOOO!!!!!" i had total confidence in my pilot, so i wasn't worried that we wouldn't pull up, but we definitely fell for a little while. when we came up, it was like we were floating. after a few seconds, ben followed us intot he air. at one point we crossed behind them and the lag of their stream caused us to dive a little, which was alot of fun.

we soared over the city, over the water...at one point I could see corocvado and pão de açuca in teh distance between these two moutnains that had a large favella between them (might've been cidade de deus). flying over the water was gorgeous. the way the sand got churned up into the water made the whole coast look like some sort of abstract/fractal painting.

the ride was only about 15min cause the wind was low. coming in for the landing was strange, first the pilot touches down then you just start running on the beach.

so yeah, hangliding was awesome. it's now two days later. Ben left for the airport about 2 hours ago, so now the only friends i've got aroudn ehre are my family and a handful of kids i've met in bars and in the city. I still think i wanna move to rio. if i do, i need to decide FAST, because i'm on the verge of solidifying some jobs around here, and it would be really uncool for me to do that and then bail, since 1) the jobs are at schools and they will start to form schedules based on the assumption that i'm around, and 2) my family has helped me land these jobs, so it would reflect very poorly on them.

so now i'm hitting the phones, getting ready to teach, and evaluating my priorities. i'm pretty sure partying is high on the list; if so that's Rio: 1, SP: 0.