19 January 2007 63 views One Comment Print This Post

We survived the “raging” fires last night. Today my head is pounding and I can see fires burning on the hills across the Papagayo Gulf. Seriously, it’s like every day there is a fire here and it’s no big deal. This is like how they maintain the land. It’s so common the staff act like it’s no big deal.

My wife decided to go on the Congo Trail Canopy Tour with the rest of the group. She isn’t very happy about it. She was pretty quiet and introspective at breakfast. Doing the SCUBA in the pool was a big achievement for here because she doesn’t like stuff on her face and gags when she puts a snorkel in her mouth. Some snorkels make me gag, too. But, for my wife, it was a big deal to put on goggles, use a regulator and actually swim around underwater. So, today she is going to face her fear of heights.

Thankfully, the bus ride is only a half-hour. (Note to Self: next vacation, stay near all the attractions.)

The guides, Roberto and Jose, are pretty quiet and serious, at first. They drone on repetitively about the safety rules and how we need to listen to them. Once we actually start going the canopy tour, it turns out these guys have a great sense of humor and are very friendly.

My wife was a little panicked after the first zip line and was shaking uncontrollably. She balked at doing it herself, and came across last with Roberto. Everything is fine, of course, it’s just that she has such a strong fear of heights.
Another woman, Judy, was very scared and nervous about it and insisted on going first before seeing anyone else. But, she braked too much and got stuck. She was too scared to do the hand over hand to get the platform and needed to be “rescued”. One of the instructors came back down the zipline to get her and take her to the platform. I figure that, given how nervous she was, getting stuck was probably the worst thing that could happen to her. I don’t know exactly, but the feeling of just hanging there was probably overwhelming if you are afraid of heights. She did great, though and did the next one by herself.

She was refusing to open her eyes for most of the lines, but recovered her sense of humor and was a lot of fun. The guides were having a lot of fun about her fear and were playing around to get a rise out of everyone.

We ended up doing 11 zip lines, two after a short hike up a hill, and had a great time.

Tomorrow, we get up bright and early and head off to the airport to fly home. It has been an action-packed vacation. Costa Rica is a friendly place that I would like to come back to.

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