This was my last day of a three week trip to Brazil. I was in Rio and what had been an absolute dream of a trip was about to culminate in a sensory explosion of another world!

My new best friends and I were in search of a way to put a stamp on the incredible time we shared together! We spent a week exploring Rio and all the samba, Ipanema and Leblon clubs we could find. Weathered many hangovers together while baking under the hot sun of Copabana beach. Traveled to see the powerful Iguazu falls. And three days before my departure, brought in the new year dressed in all white at one of the greatest parties the world over! Now it was time to end it all. The question was how? What could we possible do that would be an appropriate farewell to the time of our lives?

We pondered the answer to that fateful question for several days and let me tell you something, thinking while hungover is not easy, especially when under the extreme pressure of a rapidly approaching deadline! We were mulling over several ideas. One was renting a grand hotel room and having the loudest, steamiest party ever. Another was hiring a boat with several of our closest friends and sipping champagne to the backdrop of the Copacabana skyline. Or we were thinking of possibly spending our last evening on top of Sugarloaf with close friends, wine and a tasty dinner. All were great ideas, but all seemed to involve drinking and we had done plenty of that over the last several weeks. And then it struck me like a lightning bolt. It came to me the day before my last, over dinner at a beachfront cafe in Ipanepa!

The next day we woke up bright and early, around noon, hired a taxi and were on our way to the grandest farewell of all time! When we arrived, there were only two groups ahead of us. The man in charge came to meet us and took us around. A bit of training was required before we could engage so we got to work right away! Over the next several hours, the instructor took us through several drills, fitted us for the proper gear and had us fill out all the appropriate paperwork.

At around 4:00 in the afternoon we were done with all the requirements and it was simply a waiting game from then on. As the minutes ticked by, our anticipation began to mount. 5 o’clock came a round, then 5:30. It is Brazil after all! Finally around 6 PM, the man in charge pointed to us and said ”Come with me!” It was a tense moment and after hours of waiting in anticipation, the knot inside my stomach was wound so tight that I thought it would swallow me whole! “We’re actually doing it!”

Exhilarated and scared, we slowly approached the craft and began to board! I was the last one in! The engines started and after a short warm up, we were off! 1000 meters,  then 2000…I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life up to that point! It was like we were gods looking at the most exciting city in world from an altitude of 3000 meters! It was dusk as the sun was starting to set. The red-orange glow from the horizon cast the perfect light on this beautiful city. For the first time, I was seeing Rio the way it was meant to be seen…as a red hot, steamy metropolis, bursting with life and excitement as intense as the sun!

The tranquil confines of our cab provided the necessary shelter for us to enjoy this momentous ascent to the heavens! That very tranquily however, was short-lived as the eye of the storm quickly gives way to thunder and lighting. One minute, I’m looking down at Rio and everything is calm. I’m in a dreamy haze with a lullaby twinkling in the background. Next minute, the latch is engaged and the door swings open with a loud bang. Heavy winds began to ravage the inside of the cab. The ascent was slow and dreamy, but now everything moved faster than my mind could register. I couldn’t hear a thing except a faint sound behind me saying 3-2-1, GO!

For the first few moments after jumping out of the plane I couldn’t utter a sound as this is not a natural thing for human beings to do. My body was in shock! The world was spinning around me and I felt completely helpless. But suddenly, after what felt like hours, my mind gained composure and I became fully aware of the fact that I was hurling toward the ground at 140 miles per hour. The adrenaline suddenly kicked in and I began to yell as loud as I could. These were not shouts of fear but of unbridaled exhilaration!

The freefall lasted only about 45 seconds, but it felt like hours! And it was loud! So loud that I couldn’t even hear myself scream! The louder I tried, the heavier the wind pounded my eardrums! In those 45 seconds, I traveled about one and three quarter miles with the wind punding every inch of my body along the way! I have achieved similar speeds on my motorcycle but that was nothing compared to this. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, the parachute swung open and instantaneously everything became still…

I was floating! The dreamy haze began to settle in again. The temperature was perfect at that altitude. Rio was under me and the horizon seemd level with my eyes. Seeing this site from the safe confines of the airplane was one thing, but floating in the sky, and feeling that very atmospere was something completely different. I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing. My buddy, who jumpled shortly after I did suddenly came into my line of site. I grabbed the toggle strand that controls the parachute and swung to my right as he was moving in the opposite direction. We circled each other for a few moments, excited like small children. I could see the expression of sheer joy on his face, and I knew the he saw the same on mine!

We floated for a few minutes, slowly coming back to earth, laughing the entire way down. As we neared the ground, our training kicked in and luckily we both landed safely. I burned so much energy from the adrenaline that I simply fell asleep during the taxi ride home. When we finally returned to the hostel, everyone there was excited to hear our story. We sat for a while and told them all just how incredible the entire experience was. As the night drew to a close, we said goodbye and promised to keep in touch on facebook, hoping that someday we can meet again somewhere in the world and create more amazing memories.

Written By: Bert Bogomolny