Our Second Day: Adventure Sunday

Sunday was our day to get some adrenaline adventure in. We'd planned to do the zip-line and with the referral from Jose at the front desk of Camino Verde, we went with 100% Aventura, since they had some good zip-lines, and an included Tarzan swing that was about 200ft high. Extremo Adventure, or some such business, had another Tarzan swing that was massive - about 400ft high, strung off a cable car over the valley floor - but it was an extra $50. I figured I could wait until next time.

We had met some nice folks from Canada, Connor and Nicole, and we thought we were going to be going to the same zip-line joint, but it turned out that they got wisked away in another van as we were leaving too. Funny because it wouldn't be the last time we'd run into them.

Our breakfast was a real nice fruit plate with some pancakes. I even got an extra plate of fruit, then we were off to frolic in the trees.

All types of flowers met us at every turn, although they weren't always a big as the forest they lived in.

The bus picked us up right a the hotel, and after one or two more stops we were at 100% in 20 minutes or so. They must be a model of efficiency during the high season. We paid then started getting suited up with about 30 other people.

Don't we look ready for anything? You can never be too safe out there.

J. was a little apprehensive about the whole ordeal, but took right to it. It was such a rush flying through the trees. All you would do is zip from platform to platform, which were high up on some trees, or on the high points of the valley walls. After four or five platforms, all the crew which were busy hooking you up would all zip on ahead and get ready for the next set of platforms.

This bridge is one of their attractions on the pamphlet. It's a wobbly, wooden planked Indiana Jones style cable bridge, which was pretty cool, but not so much an adventure attraction at about 20 ft off the deck. String that up at about 200 and now you're cooking with oil!

 

I was able to take some video of the zip-lining by hanging my camera from my belt. Not the most gracious type of filming, over which I had zero control, but some worked out such as the one above for the Superman. Yeah, they strap you up by your back and let you fly like Superman. It was tons of fun and the line was about 1/2 mile long too, probably 250ft high. Way cool.

Here's another, regular type zip-line, but it was a big jump in size from some of the previous ones we were just on. It got me a little excited, zooming out, way out, over the trees. Super duper mucho fun.

After all of the zip-lines, the last attraction was the Tarzan swing. It was suspended above the jungle floor by cables, with the fulcrum for the swing even further out. This meant as someone jumped and pulled on the fulcrum, the bridge would start bouncing up and down as they yelled, "Next!" and you had to walk out there with the bridge bouncing up and down at least 6 feet. It was hairy.

This is the result of jumping off the swing. It was too much fun. I want one for my backyard. It felt like jumping off of a roller coaster. I need to try out the Extremo swing next time.

Here's a vid of a random jumper after me. I would love to go back and do it again. I don't know how I ever got myself to jump off that platform. Here's a nice first person vid of the same swing. Imagine, the Extremo is over twice as high. Oh my!

We were pretty jazzed after the whole experience, and after picking up a few trinkets, realized that all the buses left without us - not that they let us know. Way to treat the people that are spending some extra dough! Sheesh! So, 20 minutes later, we were picked up and back on our way to the hotel. After another lunch at La Amistad, we made plans for a night hike to check out some night life.

J. did find time to befriend the local wildlife, of course.

We did get to see some cool stuff. Mostly bugs, but we did see a fuzzy ball of fur high in the trees that was a momma sloth with a baby and also a kinkajou running around in the treetops. And we hardly hiked that far at all! The jungle just teemed with life. What we saw most of though were bugs like this little spider above. And there were spiders everywhere.

This leaf bug has the leaf thing down, but not quite the color.

The guides knew where this fella lived, so we were sure to stop by. A little gentle coaxing and he came our of his burrow to say "Hi".

On the way out, as we were almost dropped by the rest of the group because I was too busy checking out some spiders, we ran into this huge stick bug. He was a good ten inches long!

We got back from the hike, which might have been 1.5 hours and decided to head out for some dinner so we had the driver drop us off downtown, not that it's much of a downtown. We wanted to try a restaurant we heard of, the Treehouse, which had a tree as its centerpiece, and supposedly good food. Too bad it had high prices and no veggie stuff so we moved on to La Tierra y El Mar. Here we were met at the door by a four year old hostess that did eventually talk us into coming in for dinner. She was pretty good, listing a few dishes and drinks for us. Pretty cute. Mom was the waitress, it turned out.

View from the restaurant.

J. opted for some tasty pasta.

I went for the Chuleta Tipica, or typical pork plate. It was good. Here, the tortillas were a nice touch.

The second day was great and went by fast. The excitement from the zip-line and Tarzan swing carried through the evening and into dinner after the night hike. On the way home, we got a 40 of Imperial that we split on the patio, for a few minutes, until we went to the room for a rest. We were out in no time, and probably only put down 30 of the 40. Busy day!