Tarzan and Jane
Trip Start
Nov 20, 2009
1
4
10
Trip End
Dec 02, 2009
Where I stayed
flora de blanca
Manuel Antonio National Park, Province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Saturday, November 21, 2009
On Saturday morning, we woke up early for our zip lining excursion. One perk about Flora´s (there so many I lose count) is that we get free breakfast. We had 4 options: 1) rice, beans and eggs,¨sausage¨ or sour cream; 2) fruit plate and toast 3) eggs and toast 4) I forget, so it obviously was not worth remembering. We ate option 1 with eggs - it was quite tasty.
Alan, our zip line guide picked us up at 8:30am. We stopped along the way to pick up this girl that looked all of 14 years old. Alan told us that ¨she was going to become my girlfriend.¨ Mind you, Alan looks about mid-20´s. He also informed us he was terribly hungover, which is just what you want to hear from your guide. We talked to Luis, the photographer, while Alan and his young friend made out in the back seat of the van. I mean, you can´t even make this shit up! Luis talked to Nathan and I for quite awhile and I really wished he would just stop talking. He did ask us if we felt safe. We said yes, thinking he was referring to the area where we were staying. He then says, ¨Well, you shouldn´t. It´s quite scary. [insert pause]. I mean, your first time zip lining can be scary.¨ I was relieved he was talking about the zip line. Nathan´s face also had a look of relief as well. Then, I got to thinking..I never even looked into the safety records of these zip lines. I had no idea if they were safe or not. Eh, too late to turn back now.
We arrived at the area of the zip lining around 9:15AM. We walked a little bit to the first platform. We got a brief safety instruction and then we were on our way. There were 7 zip lines in total. The 6th one was the longest and the last one was the fastest. It was thrilling to be gliding over the jungle/rain forest. It was quite a rush. The 6th zip line was abut 2 minutes long and we were about 300 or so feet in the air. I am really bad at judging distance, so give or take 200 feet. Once we have a better internet connection, I will post pictures. After the zip lining, we went back to someone´s house and they made us lunch - rice and fruit. I knew at this point, I would be eating a lot of rice this trip.
We made it back to Flora´s around noon and geared up for the beach. We went to Manuel Antonio beach and it was absolutely beautiful. The ocean felt like bath water and was quite clear. We met Ray and Mary. Mary used to live in Chicago but moved down to Costa Rica to sell beach chairs and beers on the beach with her brother (Ray). I would trade the cold weather for an ¨office on the beach¨. Nathan and I were very good customers. We got some chairs, umbrella and loads of Imperial beer. I lost count at the beers we consumed - that´s how you know it´s a great day.
Once the sun set, we made our way to find food. We had a lovely meal of nachos and fajitas. This is where we met Todd and Eric from Montana. I couldn´t tell if they were friends or ¨really close friends¨. I swear my gaydar is broken. Turns out, they´re were down there celebrating their 10 year anniversary. They splurged and rented a house for a week and made us feel like the biggest cheap asses ever. They introduced us to their friend Johnny. We all talked and drank some Imperial for awhile. Nathan and I were spent from day drinking, so we called it a night early...we did have to get up at 7:30am after all for white water rafting the next morning.
Comments
Wow. You are much braver than me! Sounds like you had a great time on the beach! I envy Ray and Mary!