Volando entre los arboles
Trip Start
Aug 08, 2008
1
10
42
Trip End
Oct 12, 2008
Santa Elena / Puriscal,
Costa Rica
Sunday, September 7, 2008
The weather gods were smiling on us again today. It was sunny and warm and beautiful until the very moment Gustav dropped us off at the Home Base; then it started to sprinkle. As I type this, a few minutes later, it's pouring like the world's going to end.
By far, the scariest part of the zip lining experience was shuffling around on the crowded platforms up in the treetops prior to departure. Once I was hooked in, I relaxed.
We made a half-dozen trips on the zip lines, some through narrow gaps in the trees, others high above the canopy. Some lines sloped more steeply than others, making for a faster ride, but none of them was as fast as I'd anticipated
Gearing up
. Nevertheless, it was immensely thrilling. On the fourth line, high above the verdant foliage, the roof of the butterfly garden, the hillsides studded with shrubbery, and even a few hawks circling in low thermals, I had a morbid thought: this is how I want to die. Not by falling; I wouldn't want to spend my last moments in fear and pain. I'd just want to be soaring through the air, with the sun on my face and the most beautiful countryside on earth below me, and close my eyes. The Tarzan Swing was more like the adrenaline rush I'd been expecting. From a tall platform, we were hooked up individually to a rope that had enough slack to give us an instant of freefall before we swung out over the canyon and back, like Tarzan on a vine. They stopped us by slapping our ankles as we passed through the landing zone, then grabbing our feet to slow us down until they could catch us with what looked like a rubber slingshot. I lost both my Crocs in this process, but the operators brought them back to me.
I think the worst part was the occasional discomfort of the thigh straps creeping up, which was intensified by my soreness from horseback riding yesterday. After the Tarzan swing, Alli finally said what we were all thinking.
"How do guys do this?"
