Monday, January 10, 2005

costa rica travelogue (3)

In the Cloud Forest (Continued)
. . . Shouting "Adios!" I was projected out and into whiteness, although looking down at times, I could see the treetops 421 feet below me (honestly that far). Landing on the other side, water streamed out of the corners of my eyes -- I couldn't tell if it was tears of excitement, my eyes watering, or just water from the rainy mist I had just penetrated.

The next line, not quite as high (but close), supposedly propelled us at up to 40 miles per hour. I could believe it. This was rapidly followed up by the longest cable: 2500 feet long. That's about half a mile! We figure it took us about 35 seconds to go all the way across.

Our guides paired us up to go across with a bit more weight. That was a fun bonding moment with Mom. Unfortunately, we did not weigh enough! We stopped moving about ten meters from the platform so we had to spin around and pull ourselves the rest of the way -- this was surprisingly easy.

After our marvelous adventure, we were given free coffee and a chance to mill about in the souvenir shop. In our group of people, there were some interesting personalities. one older couple from Israel braved the speeds and heights so they could brag about it to their grandchildren. A lone guy (with a loud Hawaiian tee shirt) took hundreds of photos and talked smart the whole time. There was also a father with his daughter (he reminded me of someone from Back Home). I found out during the milling that he and his wife had their first date on a skydiving expedition! That's amazing.

I was a little disappointed that we did not get to see any wildlife on our tour, but it was neat to get a hawk's eye view of the cloud forest.

This was a Sky Trek tour (Link). I'll post some of my pictures later.

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