Adventures in Zip Lining

Katie, Shuli, and Kirby at the start of their very full day at Los Canones in La Fortuna! Zip lining, crocodile viewing, leaf cutter ant education, volcano observing, hot springs, waterslides, and MORE!

Katie and Denise in Monteverde, opting for the purist zip-lining adventure.  More platforms, longer zips, a huge tarzan swing, a 1km superman ride, and breathtaking scenery!

We just said goodbye to Doug and he's already thousands of feet above the ground, on his way back home.  We had a wonderful time all together in Manuel Antonio, adding more monkeys, beaches, sunsets, and even a sloth to his Costa Rican adventure! 

And now it's time for blog overdrive! So much to write about, so little time!  Kirby was up all night writing and uploading photos from our time in Puerto Viejo with Amy and Doug, and we're determined to squeeze out another one before we leave Galileo and the free internet here!  We haven't had a chance to go through the hundreds and hundreds of pictures from the end of Doug's trip, so we're going back in time to share one of our favorite experiences: zip lining.

We zipped through the jungle in La Fortuna with Shuli, then I went to Monteverde with Denise.  Both days were so great and so different! We're going with the more illustrated than narrated version on this one.  Seems like they still end up being pretty narrated though...

Gearing up for a day in the jungle

It was Shuli and Kirby's first time zip lining, but they are READY!

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease, it's the daring young girl on the flying zip-peez

Shuli - a pro on the first try! So cool she's even got her shades on

Katie - so fast she's blurry! Or maybe it's just the photographer...

Once we mastered the standard zip, we moved on to more advanced techniques. Shuli is perfectly demonstrating what they call the "Superman". 

Super-Kirby!

Don't know what they call this one? Maybe "Dangerous" since we're only wearing harnesses at the waist. When Katie worked on the ropes course at Outdoor School, this move was FORBIDDEN! So she was extra happy to get to try it out!  Plus, Shuli made it look so easy

While we were sneaking glimpses of the volcano as we zipped from platform to platform, we had no idea how many hours we would spend gazing at it from our balcony at the House of Dreams

Antonio, who was our favorite guide during the day and then our least favorite guy at the bar during the night, first showed his interest in us by sharing his extensive knowledge of the leaf cutter ant. Later, at the bar, he showed his interest by skulking around and being jealous of every person we talked to.

Katie taking pictures of herself and the leaf cutter ant's house at the SAME TIME!

Antonio demonstrating the mind-boggling strength of the leaf cutter ants. He's holding an ant, the ant is holding the stick. With it's mouth.

THE QUEEN!!! She lives for 20 years and lays 60,000 eggs!

More amazing info. Educate yourself.

Our little sunscreen warrior! ALWAYS on the defense!

Shuli, close enough to touch this huge crocodile. Actually, we all touched him. Amazing how much confidence a simple chain link fence can provide.

Hiking up to the volcano observatory. Got us warmed up enough for our yoga, and then some...

Done with yoga, on to the hot tubs! Naturally heated by the Arenal hot springs

Shuli made a new friend in the hot tubs: DeerMan.  He was very strong, look how his back muscles ripple beneath his antlers.  We had lots of fun "hanging" out with him. haha, get it!?

Kirby's first drink ever at a wet bar! Hope we're together for the second one, too. Who knows where in the world it will be...

Party at the wet bar!

One of the best features on the Lumix: the Starry Sky setting.  When it's dark outside and you can keep your shutter open for 15, 30, or 60 seconds, the possibilites are endless! Kind of...

This picture was meant to capture us as we came barreling out of that slide, but at the top there were several slides to choose from.  We picked the one directly above this pool and were shocked when our long, dark ride through one of the most terrifying waterslides ever dumped us out at a pool we hadn't even seen! It was quite the adrenaline rush going down those waterslides - very short walls, very slick surface, very fast speeds, and very much asking for a lawsuit if they were in the U.S. Luckily we all walked away without any real damage. Actually, Shuli limped away. The massive velocity combined with the shallow landing pool took a serious toll on her heels. Good thing we didn't go head first!  

The waterslides were a wonderful ending to a wonderful day!  Luckily Shuli had many days ahead of her after that, so we had lots of fun in other parts of the country. Kirby is in the middle of a literary masterpiece detailing the rest of her journey.

After Shuli left we had a couple days to house hunt, find the House of Dreams, move in, wash every item of clothing we brought down here, as well as our sleeping bags, airplane blankets, and anything else that was washable, and then it was off to the airport to meet Denise! We relaxed with her at the House of Dreams for a couple weeks, enjoying the culinary masterpieces Kirby created and nibbling on the pounds of cheese she brought for us, and watching the volcano appear and disappear behind the clouds.  Then she and I headed out to explore the northern Nicoya peninsula while Kirby held down the fort (and saved some money:).

The first stop on our road trip was Moneteverde.  We went with one goal in mind: the Extremo zip line course.  Some of Denise's friends had visited Costa Rica and loved it, so we took their advice and made our way up through the clouds and into the mountains of Monteverde.  We booked the early morning tour, so we were up with the sun and got to watch the cloud forest come to life.  But enough talking about it, let's get to the good stuff: the pictures!

Suited up and ready to zip!

Denise getting ready for her 1km long superman zip!  At Los Canones we had to clip onto the guides and hang below then, but on the Extremo course they had chest harnesses for us, so we flew solo

The bright blue sky of the early morning was being overtaken by clouds, so our superman ride was a white, misty haze.  It's too bad we didn't get to see the view of the canyon below, but at the same time it was exhilarating to fly through the clouds and not know where you were and when you would stop.

If you look closely in the center of this picture you can see the zip line across the canyon and a tiny speck making its way across - that's Denise!

The trees that held the platforms were incredible. Getting to see the canopy of the cloud forest, draped in moss and plants, was just as amazing as soaring over the canyons

The mountains of Monteverde were so lush and green and literally dripping with life, hiking the trails and being high up in the trees was so great that I almost forgot we were there to zip line

One of the coolest snakes we've seen yet, 150 feet up in the tree

There were so many plants growing in the treetops, it was like a whole new jungle floor

The view from one of the platforms

It was Denise's first time zip lining and she was pumped up! Ready for action!

Then she saw the Tarzan swing platform she had to jump off of...

Then she wasn't so ready for action.  Turns out one of the guides had to give her a gentle push off the platform.  Most people screamed when they jumped off (like me) but she was so nervous that she was holding her breath and swung out in silence, then let out a huge yell of relief on the upswing

If you look closely at the center you can see her swinging out into the trees.  The black bubbly thing in the foreground is what they use to catch people and pull them back in

By the end of the day, she was a pro!

We saw this mural at the end of the day and I joked with Denise that it looked just like us! She's the one with the look of terror and I'm the one with just chillin.  :)

 Wow.  Just as I predicted. Still lots of narrating... And now, we're off!  Luckily we found out about a great place to stay from our friend Kai. It's a lovely home run by a very sweet lady and her husband.  He told us stories of delicious dinners, huge breakfasts, laundry cleaned and folded, and strictly spanish conversation with Yadira,  the lovely host. And we get all that for just $10/night. We couldn't be happier!  We're planning on just chillin until we leave, so catching up on the blog seems less daunting. At least we won't be adding much more to our list of things to blog about.