Saturday's Skydiving

It all started in January.  After Alma had introduced me to Iván at Mayra's birthday party in December (remember that I couldn't keep anyone straight still at this point), she told me that he organized a skydiving event in Culiacán last year and was going to do it again.  Did I want to do it?  No way.  I had no interest in skydiving.  Never have.

When I was home for Christmas, I mentioned it (only that a friend was organizing it and Alma was considering doing it) at Lori's on Christmas Day and realized based on the reactions from Lori, Mom and Grandmother that it was not to be brought up again.  And it was not to be done.

Sometime in January, Iván mentioned it to me and asked me if I wanted to do it.  I told him the same thing.  I'd never wanted to, so no.  And I added the part about being scared of heights and valuing my life.

Over the course of the next few weeks, he said that I could still go up in the plane and watch if I wanted without having to jump.  That seemed possible and much more likely since he and Alma would both be jumping.

As time got closer (the original date was March something), those "25 things" lists on facebook started being passed around.  Oddly enough, something about skydiving was on the majority of them.  I remember one in particular from a Mom from my school (probably early 40s) saying she had never been skydiving and regretted it.  She still hoped to do it before she died.

It's like that sat in the back of my mind.  Not that I wanted to do it, or ever had- not even once, but there would come a day when I'll be 40 (it's creeping closer all the time!).  Will I regret it then?  Here I am in Mexico, having the time of my life.  I've been presented with the opportunity to skydive and while it's no safer here than in the US (no comments here please!), at least I knew the coordinator.  Something about that was comforting.

The theme of this trip has been "no regrets."  The whole reason I applied for this was a regret from college for not studying abroad for a semester (I just did summer programs).   So I pretty much don't turn anything down here.  If it's offered to me, I take you up on it.  Life's too short to get back home and wish I'd done something.

From the time I told Iván yes (sometime in February I think) until the actual day of, I pretty much didn't think about it.

The night before, Iván had a cookout at his house for his friends and the instructors (who are now also his friends).  The three instructors that I remembered from that night were Pipo, Hernando (I think was his name, though they all called him Fer), and Héctor.  Alma and I got there around 9 I think and Quinantzin was there.  She's a teacher at Centro de Idiomas and a good friend of Iván's and a decent friend of Alma's.  She actually was at several birthday dinners I went to with Alma back in the fall.  There was carne asada and there were quesadillas.  I had a quesadilla, which is good because I was hungry enough that I would be getting cranky soon!

At one point, Alma and Quinantzin got into a deep conversation about work (and gossip) and I couldn't follow (mostly because they were whispering!), so Héctor came and sat down beside me.  Héctor is one of the instructors and he lives in Chicago 9 months out of the year.  He wanted to practice his English, so he did.  When I could keep my mind straight, I would respond in Spanish.

The first 20 minutes was fine.  Then it got to be an annoying monopoly.  Finally Alma and Quinantzin came to my rescue (they had long since gotten up and moved to another part of the patio).  I went over to where they were with two other instructors, Pipo (who will be called el loco) and Hernando.  Or whatever his name was.

So those two tell me they speak English, too, and want their turn.

Done.  So we all start talking.  These guys are crazy, which I guess youwould expect of Skydivers.  But also of people whose lives consist of traveling to a city, camping out there for a week while providing Skydiving services, and then off to another city.  

Pipo was the craziest (hence el loco).  He and several others were drinking.  I took notes and decided I would jump with Hernando since he wasn't drinking!  

Pipo assured me that they live crazy lives- that they take advantage of every opportunity to have fun.  BUT- that once up in the air, I would see different people.  That they are responsible for lives once they get up there and take that very seriously.  I had a hard time believing him at the time.

The whole party ended up joining our little circle, and as it turned out, I was the only one there who would actually be skydiving.

My friend Jared (the one who spun me around at the Superbowl party and who constantly and inappropriately tells me he'd ask me out if he didn't have a girlfriend) is about 6' 4" and huge.  And he talks a lot and is in on every conversation.  He also likes to interrupt.  He speaks great English.  Well, at one point I was trying to explain something to the whole group.  All eyes were on me and I was wishing I weren't a gringa speaking Spanish to all these natives but whatever.  Well, Jared kept interrupting.  I'm not sure what the story was, but about the third time, I gave him the "shoosh" (not to be confused with "shush").  The gesture was a mix of "talk to the hand" and "zip your lips."  My tone was a bit squeaky, so everyone lost it that I was getting onto Jared.  The theme for the rest of the night was "shoosh."  It was kinda hilarious.  Then later, after we talked about how scary it is to skydive, etc, I gave Jared a hard time-in front of everyone for being too scared to go.  That I, a little American girl could do it and he couldn't.  It was funny.

We left from the carne asada and had plans for my jump time of 4 pm on Saturday.  Alma had to work at her Saturday job, but Mayrita had said she'd pick me up.

And so it was.  I woke up on Saturday like any other Saturday.  I did some laundry, cleaned my room a bit, and piddled on the internet.  Mayra called at 2:30 and was on her way.  She and Karla showed up around 2:45.  We decided to leave around 3:00.  It was a little after, of course, and Mayra didn't know where we were going (even though Alma had assured me the night before that she did!).  I texted Iván and he quickly called back, giving directions to Karla since Mayra was driving.  We were about 40 minutes away!  We stopped to get horchata de coco which is not my typical horchata.  It has hunks of fresh coconut in it.  It tastes a bit salty to me, but it was good.  Different, but good.

We get to the site at 3:50.  I'm shaking because this is the first time I've really thought about what I've signed up to do!

I pose for a fake freak out with Karla (though I was literally shaking).  She and Mayra were my two witnesses on my liability form.  They all kind of laughed at me as I read the whole thing instead of just blind-signing.  I mean, I guess since I signed in the end, it didn't really matter but...

After I signed and filled out all my information, I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Alma showed up right at 4, and the plane filled up with two other jumpers and Iván.  He does solo jumps for free since he organizes the event.  Everyone else does a tandem jump with an instructor.
When they got back form their jump, it was supposed to be my turn (it's 5ish by now), but the plane needs fuel.  No one tells us this, of course.  We just have to wait until it comes back to realize what we've been waiting on!  While we wait, Iván asks who I want to be my tandem partner.  The night before, I had publicly said I wanted Hernando since he was one of the few sober ones.  But after watching the jumpers at 3 and 4, I realized el loco always landed on his feet, standing up.  You either land standing (still) or running.  His descents always seemed smooth and easy, so I wanted him.

I told Iván and he went to go set it all up.  But my plan was foiled.  El loco and Héctor (ugh) are the only two who can do the videography.  The other guy jumping the same time I did also wanted video, so that meant both Héctor and Pipo (El Loco) were unavailable.  That left Hernando and Raul (I think was his name).  I told Iván that Ashley had told me to tell him to take care of me and that I had told her he had nothing to do with it, but when it came time to pick an instructor, I said, "Maybe you should take care of me now.  Who should I choose?"  He said that they both would be fine, but that since Raul was older, he had more experience, etc.  Done.  He wrote it down.
A lot of good that did!  As it's time to get ready, Boby (green shirt above) asked me who I wanted to jump with.  I felt on the spot and in the spotlight with both of them there (they're both in front of me in the picture above).  I kept saying I didn't know, I didn't care and for them to choose...
I guess they got tired of waiting for me to choose because Boby pulled out a coin to toss.  I'm not really sure how that settled anything because we didn't determine what each side meant.  But I called tails I think.  Next thing I know, Hernando is suiting me up.  So I not only don't get the crazy one, but I don't get the experienced one either!  But I did get the one I had requested at the party...
These pictures are out of order, but my hate affair with blogger makes me just leave them.  You can see the nerves as I bite my fingernails waiting for our time to go up!  We were staring at the plane, where Raul was giving the other guy his 15th run through (it may have been more) on what to do.  I don't know if he was a slow learner or just scared.  I only got one lesson!
The girl on the left I don't know, then Mayra, Alma, me, Karla pre-flight.
Héctor in red was my video guy (and eventual stalker- not really) and Hernando is behind me getting me suited up.
We ran through the drill once.  Here, he's showing me that I have to lean my head back and then cross my legs.  The good news is, there's no jumping.  You sit on the edge of the plane and the instructor does everything for you!
One last tightening just to make sure!  I was thankful.  At this point, he told me that if I didn't remember everything he had taught me that it was okay.  All I needed to do was have fun.  That I can do!
So the six of us (two jumpers, two instructors, two videographers) got in the tiny, and I mean tiny plane.  Iván was going to go up with us, but there was no room!  In the picture above, Pipo was right in front of me telling jokes, scaring me, etc.  He's hilarious and lots of fun.  I didn't think of him as crazy this day.  He was still crazy, just not as bad.  He had to ride in the back of the plane for the ascent since Héctor weighs so much.  Midair, they changes places.  Since there's no door, that wigged me out a bit.

The ride up was scary.  It was slow and the view through the non-door was right there.  It was nerve wracking, but also really fun and excitement inducing.  
At this point, Héctor and Pipo had traded places.  (You can see he's crazy!)  Hernando had unclipped me which really made me nervous.  But it was for comfort on the way up.  It was also so they could all make jokes about jumping alone.  
The great thing about this is that I literally didn't have to do anything.  Once I got reclipped on, I sat on Hernando's lap and he scooted us over to the door.  I literally hung outside the door while he sat on the ledge.  Then he pushed us off.  I had nothing to do besides...scream.  The video is hilarious.  I'll have to show it to you when I'm home.
Again, these two are out of order.  But how cool are the pictures?!
There were two possible options for landing.  We would land standing, at which point I would leave my legs out in front of me until he stopped us, or he would tell me to run.
He told me to run.  And I thought I did, but evidence from the video is to the contrary.  Oops!  So I fell a wee bit.  But that didn't make it any less fun.
You can see the dirt on my jeans from where I bit it.  The free fall was 40 seconds.  We jumped from 10,000 feet.  After the free fall, Hernando pulled out the chute and we slowed down big time, obviously.  That part was relaxing, peaceful, and neat (to see the whole city), but I actually preferred the free fall.  It was so fun!  I had no strength to move my arms, but it was fun.
My fans and I got a picture with Iván after it was all over.  Then Hernando wanted me to sign his comments book.  It was a great day!