Birthday Fun in Costa Rica!
First view… walking out of the port area, With a semi-plan in mind, we headed to town. The sun has been a bit much for me so it was decided that we would play it by ear on an excursion. My friends from Amsterdam just did the Panama Canal in the other direction on Radiance OTS… they did the one thing I’ve always wanted to do but have always been entirely too afraid…
Jimmy, a tour guide, approached us as we headed toward the shops. His offer? An air-conditioned van. It was SO hot and muggy that even just sitting in air conditioning sounded great. We talked for a bit and explained that I had been a bit under the weather and wouldn’t want to hold up a group. He had a great idea, we got the van by ourselves and he told us we could visit a few different spots. If at any time I wasn’t feeling well, we could return. This was our first stop… a shop full of souviners but predominantly Costa Rican coffee. We did a little tasting and bought some. ***Our connection is bad so I will have to reload videos when I get home***
Driving along the coast, we headed to my bucket list item. Crossing the river, the area became more and more tropical. Lush green jungle all around.
We arrived! Our guides Pepe and Bryson (who Roxanne kept calling Verizon), strapped us into our gear and offered to take a photo. They took a few minutes to explain what to expect, some safety rules and hand signals that would be important. Riddled with fear, my ears closed so I barely heard a thing.
Jumping into the back of an open truck, we ventured up the hill. My heart pounded the higher we went. Reaching the top of the mountain, we got another quick lesson using a mock zip line. Two poles in the ground with the same thick wire that we would see at the first of TEN zip lines. Taking what I figured was “the last photo”… we smiled. Roxanne seemed calm, I was in a panic.
Across a shaky bridge… some might call a swinging bridge… to me it is just an unstable bridge, my fear was forcing my heart to pound in my ears. That’s truly all I could hear. It dawned on me that if I couldn’t get across the bridge, how on earth was I going to zip line?!?! One would think that once I was firmly on the platform, I’d be fine. There are two problems with that… one, you can see through the slats to the ground waaaaay below and two, I had reached the point of no return.
When we made these arrangements, I actually throught we had ten ziplines to choose from and I would just get the shortest, lowest line. Nope… we had to go on ALL ten!
Of course, Roxanne looked like a rock star! She had no fear… zipped down the line without hesitation… I on the other hand…
… had to be hand carried down the line. There was no way I was getting on that thing! Much as I wanted to, my legs were shaking, making it nearly impossible to jump up and be latched onto the wire. Pepe was awesome, he asked if I wanted to go tandem. YES! Because the alternative was me living in the rainforest of Costa Rica for the rest of my life… Even with Pepe, I felt like I was blacking out.
Again, Roxanne sailed through the sky. Loving the lush rainforest, she was able to look for monkeys in the trees. My eyes were closed the whole time! Doesn’t she look like a pro. For the first two lines, I was basically carried down to the platform. Feeling like I had expended enough emotional energy for 20 zip lines, I asked how many we had left… eight. What?!?! I thought we were almost finished… this was going to be a long day (in reality 90 minutes). Realizing I could not have them carry me on every single one, especially because of how sweaty we all were… I decided to try it on my own. Of course, I stopped breathing.
Okay… so it’s not pretty but I did it. My heart almost pounded right out of my chest! Bryson and Pepe were so encouraging. Fear actually blanked out the first “solo” ride. No one was there to give the sense of being in a cacoon… logically, I knew I was in a very secure harness and attached twice to the line… I had a helmet and gloves, everything I needed for safety… but I just could not relax. Reaching the platform this time, my legs barely held me up! The guides realized I was afraid, however the constant maniacal laughing may have led them to believe I was having fun…
For those who have ziplined, you realize it is important to keep your dominant hand back behind you on the wire to keep from spinning. The other hand is on the ropes in front that run between your legs. Roxanne pulled her arm forward and all gracefulness went out the window? jungle?… it just went away. With momentum stopped, she was short of the platform. THIS was number two on my list of worst case scenarios. Number one, is obviously falling into the jungle never to be found and eaten by wild jungle animals… number two is hanging on the line over the canopy, over the canyon. Ugh…
Our boys even had a solution for this! Each line, one of the guys went ahead, and one stayed behind until we were across. We traveled with the two of them, a photographer and a trainee. All of them seemed completely at ease… although, it would be a bit unnerving if they acted scared. That would take away from all the confidence I had haha… I had none! Zero. No confidence at all. From my vantage point on top of the upper platform, my fear factor elevated to a million. To think that Roxanne would be stuck out there forever… on her birthday. Yep, all kinds of crazy ideas filled my head. Hero Bryson pulled himself from the bottom of the platform, out to wear Roxanne was stuck. He then wrapped his legs around her and pulled the two of them back to the lower platform. By the way, “lower” is relative… it’s still way to high up for my liking!
It only took about nine lines to reach the point that I can open my eyes… extremely relieved to know that we only had two more lines to do, I was not sure if I was quite ready to let up my guard. Actually, I know that my fear of heights will never be cured.
Happy to have reached solid ground… a little proud of myself for conquering my greatest fear… we celebrated together. The guides cheered us on from beginning to end. Amazing! We had a group photo after completing ten zip lines. From the top of the mountain, high above the jungle canopy, back to the base. Truly glad I did this, highly doubt it will ever happen again. Everyone should try it once. There is an odd sense of accomplishment facing those fears.
Again… I’ll reload this video when I get home :-) Oh the suspense haha!
After being treated to a little fresh fruit and jumping back into the cool, air-conditioned van, Jimmy took us down a dirt road. It occurred to me that we could have been kidnapped but at our age, I figured we were fairly safe. He said he had a surprise for us.
Jimmy took us to his friend’s house. Very local living. Technically on the beach, a safety barrier of sand blocks any view. Our “host” sat and rocked her baby while we looked around.
From outward appearances, most of the living is outside. On the left is where we entered the property. The center is “food prep” area and on the right is the refrigerator. The cooking area looked just like the prep area. Yellow and green, wooden structures which seemed to do the job. Seriously, considering our kitchen is still not completed from Hurricane Harvey, this seems oddly comfortable and “normal”ish.
The actual house was probably not used to much because of the heat. Having a cool breeze makes all the difference in humid climates. You’re probably wondering why Jimmy considered this a surprise… it turned out to be a HUGE surprise!
Looking back toward the prep area, Capuchin monkeys came out of the jungle. Several of them. Apparently, Jimmy’s friends feed a 20-25 heirachy of the monkeys. They are matriarchal with an alpha female in charge. It soon became clear, from the interaction, that the roles are respected throughout the family.
Very social, these little monkeys climbed on us right away. Because my videos aren’t posting, I’ll have to save those for return, along with the others. A video day is on the horizon!
Such adorable faces! This is the same monkey Ross owned as a pet, on Friends. Marcel. They are so incredibly smart.
Since I missed a chance in Cartagena… this time I got to play with these playful animals. Climbing all over us, it was difficult to get a selfie. When the videos are posted, it will include a few more photos on Roxanne’s phone. These little ones are so gentle…
Gracefully crawling across, from arm to arm, our monkeys chased cookies. Ever so softly taking the snack from Jimmy’s hand, the jungle residents seemed equally comfortable climbing all over us. They had no fear or nervousness. Next post will have videos and our evening… it was such an eventful day. Happy Birthday, Roxanne!
