Ziplining in Mendoza

Hanging upside down flying over a mountain lake, this is something I never thought I’d do

“Do you want to go upside down?”

“What? Ziplining? Upside down?”

“Yeah, it’s easy. Just trust me.”

“Errr… yeah, go on then!”

And so there I was, hanging upside down, ziplining, flying over a mountain lake in Mendoza. If you thought ziplining was adrenaline pumping normally, then doing it upside down is the next level. It completely defies logic, it completely defies sense, but who cares when it’s so much fun! Truly, this is something I never thought I’d do.

The last time I went ziplining was in Costa Rica a couple of years ago. There, we did the ‘superman’ where you’re secured horizontally facing forwards, arms out, zipping through the air, but I never knew you could do it upside down.

Located at Potrerillos 45 minutes from the city of Mendoza in Argentina is Argentina Rafting Expediciones. Here you can do a bunch of adventure activities like white water rafting, kayaking, climbing and biking, all up in the Andes Mountains towards the Chilean border, but we were here for one thing and one thing only – the ziplining.

I was actually on a Lonely Planet Snapchat account takeover that day, and I wasn’t entirely sure how it was going to look going ziplining, but with the vast desert landscape and bright blue lake it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing – everything looks great.

Like with most places when you go ziplining, there was a safety demonstration of what you’re supposed to do and how you control the speed, and then we were off walking to our first zipline, a short practice one of about 20 metres to build the confidence up.

Around halfway through the course our guide came up to me and asked if I’d like to go upside down and give it a go. At first I had no idea what she was talking about, but she said it was easy; all I had to do was hang there and stick my arms out, so I thought why not, may as well give it a go.

At first it seemed so strange having the world flipped upside down, the lake was now at the top of my eyesight, but it was something new and I loved it.

What I really enjoy about ziplining is it’s so easy; you just strap yourself in and off you go, but I have to admit that hanging upside down was pretty scary!

The last zipline was the longest back over the lake to where we started from, and we were probably flying through the air a good couple of minutes. It was such a good way to finish things off for the day!

Once we had finished ziplining we had lunch with the Andes Mountains all around us still buzzing from all the adrenaline.

After lunch we walked down to the lake, and from you get to see other people going on the ziplining course, their figures getting smaller and smaller as they went from one side to the other.

One of the best things about ziplining here is there’s a professional photographer taking photos of you on all the ziplines, and it makes for a really nice memento.

There are a bunch of outdoor activities that you can do near Mendoza, but if you’re looking for something that’s just good clean fun then you really can’t go wrong with ziplining and it’s an amazing activity to do for the day. After all the wine tasting in the region it’s something very different too! Oh, and if they ask if you want to go upside down, say yes!

A tour ziplining in Mendoza with Kahuak costs $640 (Argentine peso) and includes all transport costs and equipment. If you would like lunch then make sure you bring an extra $150 per person.

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