Day 42 21.08.15
We woke up so very excited, because today was going to be a great day! We had a quick breakfast at the bakery, just a little apple strudel, what you get when you are not looking for something with chocolate :).
We got onto the bus and drove off to the zip lining. It was great as the whole group came to this activity, no matter if scared of heights or the uber-adventurer. We arrived, received a short security introduction and all got into gear. Luckily I was able to get a helmet onto which I could strap my go pro (which has produced some great footage :) I am still editing it though so it will take a bit of time).
All up and ready to go we headed out for our first zip line.
The first one was still quite basic and short and we had to break for ourselves. The second one was a little longer and we didn’t have to break as a pulley system stopped us and let us land safely on the next platform. From there we had a small suspension bridge, which we crossed to reach the next platform with zip lines. Our little group of three from our group decided to “lead the pack” and were keen to be at the front in order to not have to deal with people who were not as comfortable and needed a little more convincing. We had a blast and rode one zip line after the other. There was even a small rappel down from one platform. Sooo much fun! And then we got to the longest zip line in Latin America. It was 1590m long! So much fun! You literally fly over the canopy of a forest. So insane. Using this zip line meant no return, as you had to use the next two zips to get back to the other side of the mountain and back to reception. I think everyone from our group did this next bit, even though some only managed in tears.
Then it was time to take the superman zip line. Here your feet are hauled up into the air and you are flying over the canopy in a lying position. This was great too, although the harness pressed onto my ribs hard and it was a little hard to breathe. We had one more superman zip line until we reached the “main land” and with that the most thrilling of the exercises – the Tarzan swing. Figure this - you walk along a suspension bridge, left and right of you there is nothing but the tops of trees, and you walk on to a little platform in the middle of nowhere, where two guides are waiting for you to be strapped into gear and ropes, meanwhile you are leaning against a little gate. You look down and its really high up. Really high. You get pulled towards the gate a little harder and then you hear a click, the gate opens and you fall. Even the toughest guys of our tour screamed their hearts out, because that free fall is just scary and breath taking. You then swing around until you reach the middle. I had problems standing for the first minute after I got back down. My knees were definitely shaking, but I would probably do it again :). We then waited for the others of our group, who dared to do this swing and recorded their screams. Just standing at the bottom with the whole group waiting for everyone to pass by was great comedy!
We then took the van back to town and were dropped off at a place called Choco Café. The food here was amazing! I shared a tuna, salmon and beef carpaccio (unfortunately with smoked salmon), and had an Aztec soup as a main dish. This is a soup with chicken, and some avocado, spices and some tortilla chips. Really really yummy! I also stocked up on postcards in this restaurant and indulged on a lovely chocolate chip cookie.
We walked back to the hotel to get ready for another highlight. A larger group of us decided to go horseback riding. And even though it was raining, this was also a great experience.
Marvins horses were well fed, looked healthy and were excellently trained. All trained without bits, riding these horses was great for novices as well as for the more experienced. Just ask the people riding you about the specialities of your horse, if it gets a long well with others or whether there is anything you need to know about riding the horse.
We rode along small roads in town, however didn’t really ride through streams and the mountains. Nevertheless we trotted and even cantered a bit, which was all great fun! We stopped by at a little café and waited for the rain to stop.
Even though the saddles had large ponchos attached to them we did get fairly wet. At the café we enjoyed some coffee and tea and also got to see a swarm of hummingbirds. They are such amazing birds. So small and so quick.
We rode back in the rain and got back on the van back to the hotel. Everyone really enjoyed the ride and even the three guys from our group who had never ridden before enjoyed the experience!
We got dry for dinner and went to one of the Worlds top 10 most bizarre restaurants. We went to the tree house restaurant, which is literally a restaurant built around a massive tree, and you sit in the top half of the canopy.
The food was a bit pricey but still good. I had an octopus carpaccio as a starter and a beef fajita / quesadilla as my main. The atmosphere was quite nice, even though the live music was pretty bad. They should have probably gone for a different singer… We were up for a good night out (even though we were exhausted from the zip lining and the horse back riding) and looking for a nice bar.
Unfortunately, the one we picked out wanted 2000 colones entry, (which is about 4 dollars), and then we all suddenly realised that bed was a better option. We hoped into a cab and then off to bed we were.
