Meanwhile, in this part of the world the McClung family and we enjoyed breakfast on the veranda of the B&B: pancakes, cereals, or the Pinto Gallo (leftover rice and black beans) with scrambled eggs and either bacon or sausage.
We were picked up for the zip line adventure by the Original van. I wore my long thin pants and a bum bag with small camera & binoculars, tissues, etc., but probably shouldnt have taken anything but the small camera, as there was never time for any looking around. David reluctantly left his big camera home – and that was absolutely the right thing.
First we had to hike up, and up, and up, and it was quite a challenge at this altitude (4800?) for me. We had a young couple from Dallas TX with us.
TEN – did you see that? TEN different ziplines. Never having done this before, it was daunting for me, especially the first one. We had to learn how to trail our dominant hand on the wire behind us shaping an O with our
thumb and pointer, and to apply the brakes when directed – by pressing down with the gloves. The lines grew longer and longer until one was ½ mile long! Fortunately we could just hang on with both hands on that one – they would do the braking. For $40 we got all the photos professionally taken for all of us, and that was well worth it.
After one of the zips we were WAY high in the trees and the rappelling experience was offered. The Dallas couple went (they had done all sorts of things like this before). The McClungs deferred. I definitely said no because to get back up you had to climb up rope steps set into a hollow tree, perhaps 25. It was dark and damp. Then you continued up the hanging ladder with wooden slats. At the very top, to get onto the platform, you just held on to a helpers hand. Those who did it agreed that it was a wise decision for me not to go. David was very brave – and thought he might have been the senior participant ever, until the helpers said theyd had an 83 year old!
Towards the end there was another opportunity – the Tarzan Swing. They pushed you off – and some people actually hit the trees on the far side. Recalling how I hate the pirate ship rides when in the back, I deferred on that too, but everyone else did it. Soy un pollo.
The final zip was a lovely long one with great views, but I applied too much braking at the end and got stuck about 15 from the platform. We knew what to do – drag yourself hand over hand. I found it very hard going and really thought the guide would have get me. He kept urging me to keep working it though, and jumping a bit helped. David also stopped short, but had more upper arm strength.
After a short break and snack bars and oranges, we hailed a taxi and headed for the butterfly and bug garden. The guide was excellent, an intern from Colorado, and we saw lots of beetles and tarantulas before seeing the 2 buildings with butterflies. Very small but interesting. They only have local items, not like the butterfly exhibit in
It was pouring by then so we had the taxi drop us off at TacoTaco, which is just a block or two from this B&B. We enjoyed bowls and chips and all the usual – including a Mexican hot chocolate. By the time we finished (it was quite slow) we all agreed we were exhausted. Yours truly took a lovely nap.
And here we are trying to record the highlights of the day before resting up some more for another full day tomorrow when we have a guided rainforest hike for birding and animals. But even just wandering around in the town today or seated on the veranda, we picked up TWO new life birds: the pigeon and the elaenia.
