Make it count: Costa Rica

Costa Rica Trip

Day #5 - Monday, January 12th

Today was one of those days - a day that I will always remember. It’s 9:15pm - early shutdown to an amazing day in Costs Rica!

The day started with an early wake-up call followed by a great breakfast at our hotel. Next - we grabbed a shuttle van at 7:30am to the first of our 2 big adventures today - Hanging Bridges Tour in the Cloud Forest of Monteverde.

We went on a 2-1/2 hour hike through the Cloud Forest - crossing 7 hanging bridges along the way. On the final bridge - we climbed about 10 meters inside a tree to get to the platform. Some bridges were scarier than others - but all of them prepared me for what I’d be doing later in the day.

After our hanging bridge tour - Greg, Len, and myself got dropped off at the Monteverde Adventure Park - where we would zip-line, Tarzan swing, and rappel for the next 2-hours. I’ve done lots of adrenaline-seeking things in the past (skydiving, hang gliding, bungee jumping, shark diving) - but I’ve never done zip lining before. Today - I made it happen.

The course included 13 obstacles. 10 zip line sections, 1 plank walk, 1 repel, and 1 Tarzan swing. I always get so nervous leading into these adventures - but feel really good once the day ends. I probably should have done more research - as this course was not meant for an amateur. One zip-line section was 1,590 meters long - just a hair under 1 mile. 1 mile flying over a tropical jungle on a zip-line. Absolutely crazy!! Plus - on 1 of the 10 zip lines we went in the Superman position - stomach down, arms out - flying over the trees below. The day ended with this Tarzan swing - which is effectively a bungee jump - this was probably the scariest thing we did all day.

I’ll try to add some picks and videos which will hopefully illustrate the aggressive nature of this tour. But, trust me when I say, I was scared out of my mind for much of the day

After finishing up the zip-line course - we headed back to the hotel and met up with Pam and Mindy (in our tour group). We chilled a bit and had a drink/appetizer food.

3pm - we were picked up and grabbed an ice cream at the famous Cheese Factory in Monteverde, then toured a hummingbird sanctuary, went to a family-owned souvenir shop, and finished off the night in a restaurant run by our tour guides mother and sister.

Our dinner was amazing. They showed us how to make our own corn tortillas and then sat down to a very unique, Costa-Rican dinner. By this time of the trip - all 9 of us are really getting to know each other. It was a fun, family-style meal - where great stories were shared and great memories were made.

We night-capped the evening with a drink around the fire at our hotel. I could write for hours about this day alone - but we again have an early morning departure (7:15am) to our next adventure town - La Fortuna, Costa Rica.

Good night from Costa Rica!!