Cuenca, a city a couple hours of Madrid, is rich in history and culture...
BUT
That's not what I'm going to talk about.....
CLIFF DIVING is what I will remember most about Cuenca....
Imagine trying to fit your body into a uninflated ( yes I make up my own words) balloon.....it was a good 20 minute process that included a five minute break once I got the suit over my hips.
Once I have the suit on, I walk outside..excuse me... I waddle outside, like a 4 year old with five layers of clothes on to play in the snow) and get in a van. That takes me and others in my group to a tunnel....
We walk thru 3 tunnels in order to get to what seems like a slow moving river....we CLIMB down a ledge (as we were climbing I realized I did not sign ANY TYPE of release agreement or safety agreement...and it hit me that I was in a foreign country that could have different laws concerning safety....there was a strong possibility that I could slip down this ledge and fall to my death) But I continued climbing down because I figured I already put on my wetsuit and I was NOT going to take that thing off before it got wet!
The water was FREEZING!!!!!!!! and it was hard to swim because the wetsuits had built in lifejackets, which made it difficult to maneuvor ( sp?) So we started swimming/floating down the river and we come to this little waterfall ( maybe 2.5 ft) and the guide looks at me and says go for it....I of course say what do you mean....then he of course demonstrates the correct way to "ride down a water fall" .... You lay on your back with your arms crossed and let the current take you. Now I can say I've ridden a waterfall :) We ride a couple more waterfalls...and come to some little cliffs that are fun to jump off of.
I thought I had conquered all the cliffs with ease and then...
We come to a cliff that is 25 or 30 ft high and of course I think its nothing when I look from the river up to the cliff....it doesn't seem that far. But after I spent 8.5 minutes climbing up the cliff...holding onto TWIGS to keep me from falling and I slipping on muddy rocks.... the perspective from the top is very different. I feel my knees shake and all of suddent the only words I can say are "oh Jesus...oh Jesus" My guide of course is laughing at me offers me his hand and I grab it for dear life and I tiptoe to the ledge...look down and look back at my guide's smiling face...he says "on the count of 3....1,2"..I interrupt him and say he needs to count slower!!!
But he gets to 3 and i jump! I screamed like I had never screamed before!!!
It was sooo much fun! It was like a rollercoaster and waterpark combined into one! It wasn't really a life changing experience but it was ALOT of fun :) That has been my favorite experience thus far in Spain!
BUT
That's not what I'm going to talk about.....
CLIFF DIVING is what I will remember most about Cuenca....
Imagine trying to fit your body into a uninflated ( yes I make up my own words) balloon.....it was a good 20 minute process that included a five minute break once I got the suit over my hips.
Once I have the suit on, I walk outside..excuse me... I waddle outside, like a 4 year old with five layers of clothes on to play in the snow) and get in a van. That takes me and others in my group to a tunnel....
We walk thru 3 tunnels in order to get to what seems like a slow moving river....we CLIMB down a ledge (as we were climbing I realized I did not sign ANY TYPE of release agreement or safety agreement...and it hit me that I was in a foreign country that could have different laws concerning safety....there was a strong possibility that I could slip down this ledge and fall to my death) But I continued climbing down because I figured I already put on my wetsuit and I was NOT going to take that thing off before it got wet!
The water was FREEZING!!!!!!!! and it was hard to swim because the wetsuits had built in lifejackets, which made it difficult to maneuvor ( sp?) So we started swimming/floating down the river and we come to this little waterfall ( maybe 2.5 ft) and the guide looks at me and says go for it....I of course say what do you mean....then he of course demonstrates the correct way to "ride down a water fall" .... You lay on your back with your arms crossed and let the current take you. Now I can say I've ridden a waterfall :) We ride a couple more waterfalls...and come to some little cliffs that are fun to jump off of.
I thought I had conquered all the cliffs with ease and then...
We come to a cliff that is 25 or 30 ft high and of course I think its nothing when I look from the river up to the cliff....it doesn't seem that far. But after I spent 8.5 minutes climbing up the cliff...holding onto TWIGS to keep me from falling and I slipping on muddy rocks.... the perspective from the top is very different. I feel my knees shake and all of suddent the only words I can say are "oh Jesus...oh Jesus" My guide of course is laughing at me offers me his hand and I grab it for dear life and I tiptoe to the ledge...look down and look back at my guide's smiling face...he says "on the count of 3....1,2"..I interrupt him and say he needs to count slower!!!
But he gets to 3 and i jump! I screamed like I had never screamed before!!!
It was sooo much fun! It was like a rollercoaster and waterpark combined into one! It wasn't really a life changing experience but it was ALOT of fun :) That has been my favorite experience thus far in Spain!
