On a seemingly normal afternoon, nine of us ventured into the rainforest to go ziplining. The adventure began with a game of musical vehicles, as it took three different vehicles to reach the start of the ziplines. The third vehicle was a four-wheel drive truck that had a 4×5 foot flatbed with wooden slats for walls. All nine of us (Allyson, Mitch, Sydney, Melissa, Jeremy, Jason, Dr. Richards, Dr. Harris, and I) were expected to sit in this small space. We managed to fit somewhat comfortably until Melissa shrieked, “Not my bananas!” I am still not sure what part of Jeremy was squishing her bananas, but, needless to say, chaos ensued. Somewhat comfortabe turned into an uncomfortable, but hilarious, cuddle puddle for the remainder of the drive up the mountain.
After getting into our harnesses, and thereby becoming very familiar with our guides, we were ready to start swinging. The zipline course consisted of twenty-three lines and an optional Tarzan swing. Jeremy flashed his “Man Card” at the rest of us and went first. After the guide reminded him to cross his legs like a lady, he was zipping away to the other side of the valley. In between the first set of lines, there were uphill walks to get to the next platforms. Along the way, our guides pointed out some of the unique flora and fauna found in the Costa Rican rainforest. We saw trees with roots that constantly move the trees to follow the sun, medicinal plants, poisonous frogs, huge termite nests, and a friendly sloth.
The first set of lines were slower. As soon as we became familiar with flying more than a hundred feet above the rainforest floor and began to trust the incredibly comfortable harness, we started ziplining on the faster lines and the adrenaline returned in full force. The middle set of lines were all connected to one another, so we did not have to walk to reach the next line. After landing on a wooden platform that was ratcheted to a tall tree, the harness line was switched to the next zipline and it was time to take off again. Some of these lines were very fast and particularly exhilarating. The Tarzan swing was up next. Unsurprisingly, Melissa complemented her swing with a Tarzan yell.
The last line brought us back to where we started and our awesome guides had a watermelon waiting for us. The truck ride down the hill was slightly less eventful than the ride up, but we had to stay out of the spilled chainsaw oil that had appeared in the middle of the truck bed while we were ziplining.
-Katie