Rainforest and Flying!

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Today we woke up at 7 am so we could leave our hostel by 8 and head out towards the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reverse. The night before we booked a tour that consisted of a canopy tour, canopy bridges, and a hike through the cloud forests of Santa Elena. It took a lot to convince Karin to zipline through the forest, but I promised her that I would find a place for us to get a massage for cheap in Chile. When we finally got up to the platforms to start ziplining, her fear of heights really began to sink in. After a bit of shaking and tears, she finally braved through the first cable, but was attached to a guide. After a couple of cables, she was able to let loose and have some fun. I, on the other hand, was so excited to zipline. I have done some crazy things and ziplining through a rainforest half a mile above forest floor was definitely on the list. It was so beautiful and completely safe for all of you who think we are absolutely insane. The guides took a liking to Karin and me because she was scared and easy to mess with and I was one of the only tourists who were able to communicate in Spanish. I am pretty surprised at how well my Spanish is coming along. I’m becoming more comfortable speaking to locals and have actually been complemented on my semi-fluency. I still have a lot to learn. Well, flying through the rainforest was an amazing experience. It was just so liberating. I would definitely recommend it to everyone, young and old. There are some great pictures and videos that will go up as soon as we can find some reliable wireless internet. In the middle of our ziplining experience there was a Tarzan swing that was optional. Amazingly, Karin went first. Her screams woke the rest of the forest, those of which who did not wake up with her previous screams. I went after her and it really was quite terrifying. It was sort of a mini bungee jumping experience because you have a 5 second freefall until the rope tightens and you just swing. That was definitely my favorite part of that tour. After ziplining was done with and Karin could finally breathe again, we sat around, had lunch, and prepared for our bridge walk. Once again, Karin’s fear of “Alturas” struck and she wasn’t fond of the suspension bridges that swayed and bounced with every step. Sadly we didn’t get to see any animals, but we got to see tons of insects! The trees and plants were absolutely lush and gorgeous and it was just such a pleasure to be able to take in all the beautiful scenery that Santa Elena had to offer. It rained on and off throughout our entire hike, which made our chance of seeing any animal life basically none. So we decided against the ground hike we had planned higher up in the reserve and made our way back to our hostel. Once again we attempted to go out, but once again, the sleepy town of Santa Elena disappointed us. Instead we hung out at the hostel and met some more wonderful people and just relaxed after an insane day. Tomorrow we have a private shuttle booked with a lovely, young, Dutch couple to Playa Hermosa so that we can take in the sun after all our wet hikes in the rainforests. Black sand beaches!!!!!!! We’re so excited!!!!

Oh my! I almost forgot to include our little animal experience. Karin and I were sitting on our bed writing emails and he heard a strange high pitched squeal in our bathroom and so I told to hurry and go lock the bathroom door. As I kept guard at the bathroom door, Karin went and got one of the people who worked at the hostel to come check it out. Apparently we had a BAT fly into our bathroom because the roofing at the place sucks and flying animals can easily get in while looking for food on the roof. You can only imagine how terrified we were after that. We decided to sleep with our doors closed and hope for the best. That was quite an experience.

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Comments

[rosie]

heyy babe
Your entire trip so far sounds amazing ro...live it up while ur there babe!