Adventures in Costa Rica: ISL Physical Therapy Volunteer Trip!: Ziplining through the Rainforest, then Pacific Ocean Beach Time!!!

We left the hotel at 8am. It is Friday the 13th, so we were hoping nothing sketchy happens today! Our team leader Luis brought his girlfriend and the other team leader Jenny brought her younger sister. They're both pretty cool. On the way to the ziplines, we stopped over this river to view the crocodiles! There was like 15 of them and they were HUGE. I swear they're not that big on Animal Planet. There was a king croc I named Bubba because he was the biggest. We also saw a little otter which was cute although it had a baby croc in its mouth. We also saw a grey and yellow iguana. (On the way back at the end of the day, the place was crawling with cows...odd.)

ZIPLINING!!! We all got strapped up in our gear and loaded into a transport cart. We rode up the mountain to the first canopy balcony. It was definitely building up the anticipation as we saw how high we were going up the mountain. I was nervous, of course. There was a guide up there who explained to us how things worked, so that was comforting as compared to just throwing us on the zipline. I was towards the end of our group. I considered going first for a moment but I'm glad I thought otherwise so I could see how it worked. When it was my time to go, I was definitely nervous. More nervous than excited. Although, once you stepped off, it was quite exhilarating zipping your way through the rainforest! I was glad for the tree top canopies so that I couldn't see straight down how far it was. The slower lines were lines that were more parallel to the ground. The slow lines were actually a lot scarier than the fast lines, believe it or not--because the guides make you hold on to your harness strings with both hands--allowing you to spin around and end up backwards--instead of being allowed to hold the cable behind your head to keep yourself straight. If you held the cable on the slow ones you could get stuck in the middle, also not very desirable. The first slow one we went on I really wanted to hold the cable--I was not at all happy with the guides when they made me let go--especially when I ended up backwards anyways. To slow yourself down while you're backwards, you have to concentrate on where your body is in time and space, and place a hand BEHIND the pulley before stepping onto the platform. It wasn't that bad when it was all said and done, but needless to say, the slow lines are not my favorite. Luckily, the half way break was right after that line, so we could rest for 10 minutes. Everyone asked me if I went upside-down since I looked so shooken up. I guess that was the only line where you could go upside-down--apparently the guides didn't even bother to tell me seeing as how I was having a hard enough time just holding onto the harness and not the cable. I don't think it helped that I can't wear contacts--so not seeing things as sharply added to the uncertainty of my surroundings. Anyway, a few brave souls went upside-down, but I knew my limits. Maybe the next time I go ziplining somewhere I will go upside-down. There was probably about 15 lines total. The last half of the ziplining was a lot more fun than scary for me because I knew what to expect. I got a lot of great pictures from the balconies--which were just wood planks attached to a big tree, by the way. All in all, it was awesome!!!! They had a guide who took one photo of us each on the zipline, but we all forgot to purchase our pictures! It's ok because many of us took pics anyway--but I don't think there are any of me head-on, just from behind or from the side. It is on Tessa's camera and I don't think she's loading up pics until we get back to the US, so I'll have to wait on that one. We stopped at this cute restaurant to have lunch. It opened up in the back to lead right out onto the beach and the Pacific ocean. We stayed at the beach for 4 hours. It was super pretty! It was sunny when we got there, so we got lucky seeing as how it's monsoon season. It didn't rain until right before we left around 5pm. I got lots of pics of the beach, too. We even saw parrots! We got back to the hotel at 7:30pm and we all needed to shower, so we decided to just stay in and snack on stuff we got at the market instead of going to dinner. Now I'm just uploading pictures to Facebook and Skyping family. Then reading some more, maybe watching an episode of Walking Dead that I put on my phone. P.S. We did ask if we could see an active volcano while we are here--one where you can actually see the lava flowing down at night--but since its monsoon season, it's either too cloudy to see the peak or the lava would just look black and smoky from the rain and moisture in the clouds. That's ok, I'll just have to add it to my bucket list!