Costa Rica Day 7

Way too early of a start for a girl who is sick but I found enough energy to pull myself out of bed.  I had to be at breakfast for about 6:30 and left for the walk through the Cloud Forrest around 7.  This walk (as the San Jose walk) is included in the tour package.  I could have just said "screw it, I'm sleeping in" but its so tough when you are only in locations for such a short period of time.  I want to make sure that I do everything that I can and wanted to do because who knows when the next time I'll be back.  So really I'm just fighting with myself on whether I should just sit back and relax or see what I came here to see.  Well...my body didn't win today.  I plugged through and did the Cloud Forrest walk and zip lining!

The Cloud Forrest walk was really nice but it was at a very slow pace.  I was actually concerned at the beginning that my body couldn't take a vigorous walk but it was the exact opposite.  It was a guided walk and the guide was very knowledgeable telling us about the various types of trees, plants etc.  We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife but we did get to see a hummingbirds nest with a little baby inside it.  Adorable!  Just at the end of the walk we saw a bunch of spider monkeys too.  It's a beautiful place and I would go back again to walk around at my own pace.  The weather was all over the map during our walk.  At one point it was cold, another it was misting rain, and another it was sunny and warm.  Very unpredictable.

I had a couple of hours of downtime before the zip lining which I took to rest.  I was really looking forward to the zip lining and I wouldn't let this darn cold get in my way!  

Zip lining was absolutely awesome!!!!!!  What amazing views!  It's actually quite free feeling being up so high and just suspended by a wire above such a beautiful landscape.  There were about 12 zip lines with the Superman zip line to finish it all off (i'll get to that in a bit).  At one point we even did some repelling.  We repelled down 30m but we really didn't control anything ourselves.  I think the guides try to scare you a bit since at one point it felt like I was just falling.  I didn't know we would be doing any repelling so it was a fun and nice unexpected surprise.

The other thing I didn't know about that there is this thing they call the Tarzan Swing.  This is where you pretty much jump (or get slightly nudged in my case) off of a 30m platform and then swing through the forrest getting up to a hight of about 50m.  I really wasn't sure if I was going to do it.  I was really not feeling that great so 1. I didn't want to barf all over the people below me and 2. It just looked plain scary.  I somehow made it to the platform and I was telling the guys...uummm I'm not sure.  And of course they say "It's easy...don't worry".  Ha!  Easy for them to say since they seem to be like little monkeys up there in the trees.  Quick side note, all the staff were really great.  Everything was very safe and it all was run really efficiently.  So I'm stepping to the edge of the platform and they tell me to bend my knees, but I said "no, no, no, no" and a quick little nudge from them and before I knew it I was falling and then I was swinging through the trees.   The no, no, no from me was because I hadn't psyched myself out enough yet to do it.  If I didn't get that little nudge, I probably would still be up on that platform contemplating jumping or not.  All in all, I'm really glad that I ended up doing the Tarzan Swing.

So a couple more zip lines and then you make the last climb up to the Superman zip line.  It's a zip line that is 1 km long and about 180 m off the ground.  They harness you up so it looks like you are superman flying through the air.  AWESOME!  It really felt as though you were flying.  Nothing around you but a hawk flying through the air and a view that is to die for!  Really, really cool.  I would do it all again in a heartbeat (minus the crappy cold that I have)!  The company that I went with was Monteverde Extremo Canopy and it was all done really well.  They snap photos of you throughout the course so I was able to buy the cd off of them before leaving.  They played a bunch of the photos while we were all waiting for our ride back to our hotel and there was a funny fake smile picture of me just before doing the Tarzan Swing...too funny!

I just had a quick dinner with my roomie this evening.  We went to a little pizzeria around the corner from our hotel.  Good food, good service and we were in and out quickly.

Heading out tomorrow at around 8am for Manuel Antonio.  It should be around a 4 hr bus ride and then I just may do some relaxing on the beach.  Sounds like a plan to me!

KK

If my passport could talk...
                                          "AAAHHHHYEAAAAAHHHYEAAAHHH!"(that is supposed to be the Tarzan call)