CR 2: Flying

the group before the 'fun'

After our farm visit, we moved on to another part of the country. Kyle was all about adventure this trip, so zip lining near the Arenal Volcano was next on our itinerary. This area of the country is gorgeous, in part due to the volcano and a man made lake through which hydroelectric power provides electricity for most of the country.

Disclaimer:
This was easily one of the scariest days of my life, right up there with experiencing an earthquake. Please keep that in mind as you read through this -
Kyle had a very different experience.

The course we used was this one, which advertises itself as having the highest and fastest zip lines in the country. After the two training runs, there is the highest run (656 feet IN THE AIR - easily over a 40 story building), and later on the fastest run (about 50 miles per hour) and then the longest for this course (2440 feet - almost half a mile). After a fairly beautiful ride on a gondola up the mountain (I wasn't really looking - nerves were already starting to get to me), you are greeted with a delicious fresh fruit drink and get to enjoy the views of the lake far below.

Kyle and I before the 'fun'

After that, there are two quick, short, not-very-high-up runs to practice zip lining. No problem. Then you come to the third run, which is the highest off of the ground. You can barely see the platform on the other side. It's windy. And it is really far down to the ground (if you could see it, which you can't, because there are 30ft tall+ trees that you see the tops of instead). Everyone went before I did, and I told the guide that I wasn't going to continue. This is the last point to 'chicken out,' and I was clucking. This was not for me. The guide said he would tandem ride with me the whole way, but I still was saying 'No way.' He somehow convinced me to hook up my pulley on to the cable. At this point I was shaking my head and nearly crying, ready to jump right off but I didn't know how to disengage my pulley.

Instead, he just pushed us off.
No warning - just

whoosh

I was so frightened that I could not scream. I don't have a problem screaming. It can be fun - lets off a lot of steam. An excuse to be loud. But I couldn't. And I had my eyes closed nearly the entire time. By the time we landed at the platform, I was shaking head to toe, probably in shock.

And now there was no turning back.

The rest of our group enjoyed themselves quite a bit. Here's a short video of Christian at the end of a line.

You may ask why he said "I made it all the way." Well, that would be because on the previous line he didn't make it using just the pulley. Yes, that's right, he came up short. Too much wind had hit him, turning him sideways and reducing his forward momentum. When he stopped he had to turn himself around in mid-air and pull himself to the platform with his hands on the cable. The guides had warned us this was a possibility. Do you really wonder why I didn't want to do this?

And so now, for my embarrassment and your enjoyment, is a video of me during the second to last run - the longest. I had been riding tandem the whole way, eventually getting to the point where I could look at stuff in the distance (not down). Definitely screaming the whole way. When we got to this one the guide all of a sudden announced that we couldn't do tandem. It was too long to do tandem. And there are trees in the way. You go through a tunnel of trees that are so close to the line that if there are two people riding too close to each other they will be hit by trees. Yippee. You can imagine my excitement. Consider this as you see my expression compared to Christian's in the video above.

Yup. That's me having fun. Can't you tell?

Needless to say, I was relieved when the last run came and I could get my feet on the ground. You better believe I won't be doing that again.