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Costa
Rica Adventure
March 5-20, 2005
With only one full day to
spend in the Monteverde area, we aimed to pack a lot into a short time. The
morning’s scheduled activity was an included guided hike through the cloud
forest, followed by a stop at a women’s co-op and bakery for lunch. Unfortunately, just as I’d
feared, the previous ten days along with the lack of sleep caught up to me,
and I awoke feeling like a truck had run over me. It was pretty clear I wasn’t going anywhere. Everyone left for the hike and I did my
best to catch a few hours of sleep.
The Monteverde nature hike that I missed featured beautiful plants, scenery, and cool birds (Photo credit: CD) By late morning, I had to make
a decision as to whether I felt well enough to get up and ready for the
canopy tour. I’d been looking forward
to it for the entire trip, ever since I saw it advertised in the San José
airport, and this was my one chance to go.
I pushed myself to get dressed and walk down the road to the nearby
soda for some lunch. That helped a
lot, so I swallowed some Tylenol cold and decided to make the best of
it. And I’m extremely glad I did,
because the canopy tour was probably the highlight of the entire trip. A canopy tour, for anyone
unfamiliar, is not really a “tour”.
Instead, it’s an adventure where you go ziplining over the treetops
from one platform to the next. Only
three of us had signed up for it; everyone else was either afraid of heights
or not interested for whatever reason.
In my opinion they missed out. We took a van ride up to the
base lodge for Selvatura, the company running the tour. Upon arrival, we got suited up in helmets,
gloves, and climbing harnesses with clips to hold us up on the ziplines. The guides gave us a brief tutorial on what
to do. Basically, it amounted to
crossing your ankles, keeping your knees up, using your back hand to control
your speed, and having a good time.
Simple, right? There was a very large group
and I was wondering how everyone would go without it getting too crowded, but
it worked itself out because things just kept moving. We waited in line for the first zipline,
but after that, we were off. The first line was a true
rush. I’d had no idea what to
expect. But flying over the treetops
was absolutely exhilarating. It
didn’t even feel all that high, since the treetops created an illusion of
ground.
Monteverde zipline canopy tour (Photo credit: SHS) At each platform, a guide
would unclip us from one zipline and clip us onto the next one. Sometimes,
they hand-signalled to us to control our speed by either gripping the line to
break, or not gripping the line to speed up. It was very easy to control and
even kids were doing it. The ride was exciting but we felt totally safe in
all our gear. Kirsten, Allen and I all kept switching cameras in order to
take photos of each other flying through the air.
Another photo of the zipline tour (Photo credit: SHS) About two-thirds of the way
through the ziplines, there was a spot where we could go on a Tarzan swing.
Speaking of adrenaline rushes, this was the ultimate. Basically, it was what
it sounded like; a big rope that we would be clipped to and could go swinging
through the air. The scariest part
was letting go at the top, because you basically just step backwards off a
platform and freefall through the air.
What a rush!
Tarzan swing during the zipline canopy tour (Photo credit: SHS) After the Tarzan swing, the
remaining ziplines felt lower key, and they went quickly. By the end, we were
all disappointed that it was over and we wanted to go again. Unfortunately it
was all, and we headed back to town. When we got back to the hotel,
we were shown a short slideshow presentation about the history of the
Monteverde reserve. Founded by American Quakers opposed to militarism who
were attracted to Costa Rica because of a lack of army, the reserve and town
were very small and under-developed until recently. We saw photos of the
first telephone, the first tractor… it was pretty cool. The presentation was
given in Spanish, and Julie did a first-rate job translating. There’s also a
coffee plantation at Monteverde, and as a thank-you for our token donations
for the slideshow, we all got bags of ground coffee to take home with
us. Mmmmmm. After the slideshow, we went
out for a nice dinner and then went to sleep. Next: Drive to the Pacific coast |
