Advertisement
Published: January 24th 2011
5AM I woke looking forward to Costa Rica. Our boat was already docked at the port of Puntarenas. The peer is so long that it can hold 2 ships of this size, there is actually a shuttle provided to take you to the town.
It is a beautiful sunny day 31C, the port is beautiful with coconut palms and small buildings, it looks like a small island there is actually 4000 people living here.
Costa Rica was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 he named it Costa Rica which means Rich Coast. The people, were mainly farmers but those numbers were depleted when they were introduced to European Disease. They declared independence from Spain in 1821. Coffee had been introduced from Cuba which now plays an important role in their economy. This port was once the main port for coffee export to Chile where it was packaged and sent to England.
Costa Rica has tall mountains some peaks reach as high as 13000 feet above sea level. The country side is covered by forested slopes, green pasturelands and lush vegetation. All along the
shores is a succession of white sandy beaches.
I am a bit nervous because I arranged this tour myself from home via the internet. I was worried “what if he does not show up or worse what if it is just crap and a lot of people are counting on me”.
We were ready and by 7:10 leaving the boat. Leisa and Rick met a couple of people that live in the same place as them in Sundre and Don wanted to come with us. So, now I am worried if there will be enough room. After walking 2000 feet to shore I saw our guide just around the corner. Leisa and Rick had gone ahead and already found him and arranged for the extra person which was great!(one worry over). Our guides name is Alvero from Odyssey tours and the first thing he said was “I am very sorry but the Waterfall Zip is closed due to excessive rains (I could feel my worst nightmares coming true) but he will take us to another one that is just as good. Oh crap, here we go again,
but what could I do its arranged so off we went.
Costa Rica is really beautiful and reminded me of Thailand in some ways. We followed the Pacific on a really good highway for about 45 minutes. There were small houses and some really beautiful houses. Cows in the fields and farmers (driving new John Deer’s) were plowing their fields to plant cantaloupe. They are large fruit producers. One interesting thing was instead of fence posts they planted trees and then strung the wire around their pastures, this way there are no posts to replace and it created beautiful shady pastures for both cattle and horses. The countryside here just seems so peaceful I fell in love with it right away.
We eventually got to the zip; it was called Chiclets Canopy Tours (after the trees which all the platforms are on because they are so strong, as well they were used for making chewing gum). I think all of us were nervous. The crew of 5 guides and a photographer joined us. We were harnessed up and taking our first lesson and demonstrations before we had time to think
about what we were doing there. There was a couple of fighting iguanas that broke the ice a bit before they disappeared into the jungle. Rick kept saying he could not do this, he is very afraid of heights (and 120 feet in the air is definitely high. Since I arranged this I really did not have that option and knew that if I decided not to go Rick would be right behind me.
An old 6 wheel drive army truck pulled up and we were all loaded into the box; with our helmets and heavy gloves clipped to our sides off we went! I was thinking right now I would be at home worried about when I should take the turkey out to unthaw and cleaning the house. But no…., here I am, going up a very rutted dirt road in the back of an army truck about to Zip line through a rainforest; I must be insane!! I was still worried about the type of Zip line we were on; I had done a lot of research on the other one and was sure it was reputable. This one I knew nothing
of. The guides seemed great they were very friendly and cracking jokes. One was very quiet and never smiled or anything I think he could not speak English.
Finally we are at the top of the mountain or as far as the road goes and they back up and we walk onto a plank platform. The guide said “we walk up the rest of the way but not to worry he has already called the ambulance which will be waiting back down at their shop until we get back!” There was a lot of nervous laughter. Then he explained that there are 14 lines and we are going down back to the place we started from. I had been watching as we were jostled all the way up here and I knew it was a long way down. Then he told us we have to walk over a swinging bridge to get to the first tree. Anyone that knows me knows this is impossible I don’t do bridges.
We walked up for sometime and then finally I stood there looking at this thing (roped swinging bridge)
that was 25 to 30 feet over a gully that was probably 100 feet below me.I waited to make sure everyone was across and knew Ron was behind me and would not let anyone rock it. Here I go one step at a time; I just looked at the platform ahead and listened to Leisa’s encouragement and said in my head “I am not on a swinging bridge” over and over again. At the end the guide ropes were too high for me to reach. So very slowly I took one hand off at a time and moved to the lower ropes and eventually made it to the 1st platform.
Ok, here I am at our first platform 14 to go. Our guide now gave us more instructions, the two that stuck was do not put your hand in front of the pulley or you will cut your fingers off and pull down on the line behind you to stop or slow down. If you brake too soon you have to switch and go to the platform hand over hand on your back.
It’s my turn. They snapped
me onto the pulley I went to the edge, raised my feet and with a push off I went. I would like to say I saw some amazing views and wild life but I just focused on the next platform waiting for the brake sign. Since I did not get that, I decided I was going in to fast and pulled the braking position myself. I stopped 10 feet away from the platform. Ok don’t look down, be calm, turn yourself around, lay on your back look up at the sky, Ahhh that’s better. Ok, you can do this; hand over hand 1 at a time, your strong, keep focused, you will make it. Then I felt the strong reassuring arms of the guide. With a jump I was unsnapped and on the platform shaking. I said ‘how many more’’, 13, I panicked “I can’t do this”. Fortunately the guide could not speak English, he did not even smile as he hooked me up and with a push sent me on the next line.
The first three lines were short. I realized that I did not need to be so heavy on the brake.
Zip classes
Notice there are no smiles here One time he even got me to just hold on to the top without holding the cable to brake; it was great!!!
The forth line was long and you could not see the platform. Since it was on a steep incline he told me to brake all the way lightly and hard at the end. I had the proper speed now in my head, zipping through the trees I landed with no problem at all. This tree was lined with protective padding which was good; as Leisa slammed into it with her head and Ron did a good full body smash into it. I was very proud of myself and gaining a lot of confidence proceeded without any difficulties afterward.
Every platform I asked how many more, now I am glad there are 14 lines because I got really comfortable and even started to look around. The second last was the longest and had the most incline, again you could not see the platform. I kept my knees up and sailed through the trees making a nice clean landing. I enjoyed these the best; you do go fast, but
I was comfortable with the pressure required to get enough speed to land properly.
Leisa had to stand out before this one because she got her finger caught in front of the pully and it took sometime to get her finger out of danger and safely on the platform. She was trembling and had to rest her arms.
When we were done, I was surprised; believe it or not I still wanted more. It took us 1 and a half hours to get through the 14 lines but the time flew. The adrenaline rush was with us for next couple of hours as we toured the area. To sum it up the worst part was the small platforms; they are only about 3 ft around the tree and in some spots they are big enough to fall through, keep in mind there were as many as 7 of us on here at one time, the weight alone could have dropped one down. I looked down once and you have no perception about how high you are, one thing for sure it is way higher than I ever thought I
would be. I just hugged the tree and slowly went around it; this was probably the worse. I just kept doing this I’m hugging the tree thing all the time.
It is hard to explain the feeling of arriving at our last zip, sadness and relief swept over me. This is one of the most accelerating experiences in my life. I was not alone everyone was pumped and so happy they had done it. Thanking me for arranging a definite highlight in their lives. Life just could not get any better than this.
I could not believe I just did what I did as we walked back down a road that was all interlocking brick and admired the beautiful view. Our guide was busy trying to find us a Macaw to see when we returned to the main building, due to the high temperatures he said they were probably up high in the hills and he wanted to know if I saw any up there, unfortunately I was too focused on the Zip to see anything.
Before
we got back in the van our guide surprised us with a cooler full of drinks whatever we wanted, of course everyone grabbed a beer.
On our way again our driver saw a Toucan in the trees and stopped so we could get out and try to get a picture, sorry to say I was not able to get it. We stopped in this great seaside town where we stopped to shop a bit and bought some more beer.
Off we went again to a place by the ocean it had a few small bungalows there and they stopped to ask a couple little boys about Macaws so they ran around trying to find some to show us, but to their disappointment and ours no luck.
Back into the van we went up the mountainside to just see the country and a huge waterfall, this country is so beautiful it is hard to explain. I can understand why Columbus named it “rich coast.”
Later we stopped at a bridge and walked across looking down you could see the muddy banks were scattered with large
crocodiles tanning themselves on the shore. I hurried across; still not over my fear of crossing bridges with water under them. On the other side there were a few stores and stables. I noticed lots of horses in pastures; you can go on trail rides up into the mountains. I wish we had more time and would have loved to do that!
Our guide then took us to a local restaurant on the road. He ordered and paid for a delicious ethnic seafood dinner. It was all locals in the restaurant and the food was really good served with rice of course. They have this salsa in a bottle which was delicious, so we asked for a grocery stop which he later did on the way back to the ship.
One more stop at a little house by the ocean. People there feed the wild life and today we were in luck a bunch of monkeys and an animal I have never seen before a cross between a raccoon and an anteater. We had a great time feeding them. Even after my Vietnam scare; ventured out and fed one with no
drama.
It was time to go back, a quick stop at the store and then we had to say goodbye to our friend and guide Alvero. I just did not want to go back to the ship so we walked along the palm lined beach and looked at the street vendors.
The memories of this day will always be with me. I will return to Costa Rica some day. It was sad to say goodbye.
It was a quiet night aboard ship, great buffet with an assortment of German food which I enjoyed a lot. We retired early with nothing to look forward to but two boring days at sea.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.046s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0221s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
