6. Saturday- Skydive argentina!

early saturday morning, amalia messaged marcelo, dasha and me that it was a go to jump- the weather had cleared. i'd love to say i was calm and collected while getting ready but now laugh at it. while brushing my teeth, i noticed that a piece of paper from the day before that had instructions written on it in pen, had bled the pen onto the counter and permanently stained the sleek white marble. 36 hours in and i had ruined an expensive counter (ale, if you're reading this, don't worry and don't rush to the bathroom- i got it out the next day!) i also went searching for my new gopro and it was no where to be found. panicked, i emptied both suitcases twice. it was the 1 thing i wanted on the trip and it somehow was gone between san diego and argentina. my stomach was also in awful pain from eating flour the night before. oh and i realized that in my search to find an adapter the day before, i totally had forgotten to get cash out and didn't have a single dollar. not a smooth start to skydiving in south america for the first time. it's funny now but in the moment - not so much.

the 3 of them picked me up and we drove an hour and a half from buenos aires into beautiful argentina countryside. we made one stop where marcelo introduced me to media lunas, an argentina pasty. my plan was to get cash back or stop at an atm- both i realized were not common there- and also learned skydiving is all paid in cash.

we showed up and it was the most opposite you can get from the southern california skydiving i'm used to. i come from a world of large drop zones, loud speakers, big planes, many people, everyone speaking english and surrounded by people i know. yet seeing the complete opposite made me fall in love with skydive choscomous immediately. it was surrounded by fields, cows, horses, dogs and had an amazing calmness to it. the last time i had felt total calmness was my last day at skydive san diego- and now as i stepped into choscomous i felt that same calmness- like i was at home.

that first jump was total thrill and excitement. it was my first jump out of a small censna, first jump in south america and first jump in argentina. in skydiving it's known that any 'first' means that you owe beer- that was a jump where i owe a lot of beer. with everything new- the people, continent, country, plane, my heart was THRILLED. my head also felt so stable because of the familiarity of the feeling of that skydiving joy when i'm home.

i jumped 4 times that day and each one i'll always remember. marcelo brought all the ingredients to make a healthy salad for the 4 of us. the dropzone had a little kitchen where we all ate his delicious concoction. the last jump was at sunset and the little cesna climbed above the clouds. as i was squished between the pilot, small door and other jumper, i had the biggest smile. i remember thinking- holy shit i am actually doing this- and not only surviving but loving every minute.

after just 6 hours there, it was so hard to leave. the comfort had made it immediately feel like home. that night dasha and i took a local bus back to the city. we had a powerful talk about how awful life times lead to such beauty- how for both of us this led us to skydiving. we talked about how important it is to support other girls in skydiving and how to not care about the ones who are competitive. we also opened up about our past scars and the recovery from them. all of the newness, adrenaline and friendship in that day reassured me all of the letting go was definitely going to be worth it.