Da Flying Frog Canopy Tour

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It rained like hell last night. But luckily (and surprisingly) we stayed perfectly dry in Casa Feliz. This morning the rain finally broke around 9AM. Perfect timing.

Got up and got some coffee and banana/chocolate chip pancakes at Gato Negro. I bought an awesome knockoff DVD of "Machete" and though I never buy knockoff's it just seemed appropriate to buy a cheesy movie with Danny Trejo down here. Then we check out the farmers market at Big Wave Daves, but it amounted to 4 or 5 tables set up by a buncha gringos.

At 11AM the truck showed up to take us to the 2.7kilometer, 17 platform, Zip Line known as "Da Flying Frog". Jose was our awesome guide and safety instructor and explained everything very well in English to us. Then we were off; the first 5 lines were "practice" lines, slightly shorter and slower. Then the fun really picked up as we rocketed along suspended between enormous trees while the coast and waterfalls flew by on all sides. Back and forth we zigzagged down the mountainside. The rain sprang up, but didn't put out our spirits. It's an awesome exhilarating experience that I've wanted to do for over a month now. So worth the wait.

We tried to go see the turtles in La Flor, as we tried last night, but because of all the rain no one is taking tours. When it rains, the rivers overflow and make the 1hr drive down to the beach fairly peligroso.

The circus is in town though, so after enjoying the sunset at the the pier we made our way down for tonight's entertainment. I haven't seen the circus since I was a boy with my Grandfather, but this circus was something else entirely. In the USA, the circus is fun and there's an element of danger for the performers and lots of safety nets and harnesses and backups if something goes wrong. Down here, the circus is real ballsy stuff and makes me think it must be like seeing a circus in the US at the turn of the century. First of all, it's truly mobile and shoddily put together. When it started raining, the rain came through the holes in the big top and not only onto whatever unfortunate spectators sitting beneath, but also onto some things that just might be nice to hold onto if they were't wet. Like the trapeze for instance. Which brings be to my second point - there's real danger here. The tension was definitely ratcheted up, and though the acts were not as spectacular as ringing bros might put forth, the likelihood for disaster seemed so much more real that it kept us preyed to our seats. The best was the final act, where a rather rotund man (the same one that drove the motorcycle upside down in the cage) ran around a big spinning wheel in the air and tried to jump rope while at the very top. He seemed almost drunk and I swear he almost bit it at the end. A good show overall. Barnum would have enjoyed it.

After the show we dined on a President pizza at my favorite SJDS pizza spot called San Juan pizza. We ran into several fun people from S22 as well as Fidel my dive instructor. The shrimp, garlic, arugula President pizza was amazing and a great end to our time here in San Juan.

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