Hasta Luego, Argentina

Beautiful

The happiness we felt in our first week as fiancés more than compensated for the sadness we felt having to leave Argentina.
We’ve had a great time, and would have loved to stay longer. But as we have limited time left, we had to push on.

As one last thrill, however, to further celebrate our metaphorical leap into engagement, we got into the pimped out, natural gas powered roadster of a coco leaf chewing teenager and went to a nearby lake for our first ever (and quite possibly our last ever) bungee jump.


Leap

Other than the slight head ache that lingered for several days after the jump, it was nearly as good as the brochure had promised. After a nerve-racking drive from Salta, our teenage driver parked by a custom built metal ledge on a concrete bridge. Before we had time to say ‘No way, this is crazy’ we had had our shoes taken off and a greasy haired and bearded ‘extreme sports dood‘ had attached us to some scary equipment.

As we waddled towards the edge of the daunting metal structure, ankles bound together as if we were on death row (which, judging from the 25 meter drop below us was not entirely inaccurate), we listened one last time to the fool proof instructions (‘jump’). Then, after a few seconds of fighting every Darwinian instinct in our bodies, we jumped.


Troopers

Lunging forward in slow motion, we felt the wind in our hair, and then the top of our heads splash into the cold lake below. As we recoiled and continued to bounce for what was a very long minute, we felt the entire 3 litres of blood in our bodies suddenly gather in our heads.

The upside down support boat appeared and we returned as red-faced heroes to the applause of a gathered crowd of local kids. In the car going back we concurred - we’re glad we did it. But we don’t need to do it ever again.

And with that, our time in Argentina was over. We don't know what was more beautiful - the people, the culture or the scenery.

But one thing's for sure. One day we'll be back.


Adios