Adventures with Julia

March 5, 2017

We awoke to a beautiful sun shinny day.  The forest looked glorious from our bed.  Coffee arrived at 7am and we luxuriated in the leisurely beginning to what promised to be an exciting day.  We hiked down hill to breakfast and ate on the deck overlooking the river.  Such pleasure.

At 10;45 we met our zip line guides, Giovani and Jose.  Once they learned we had never been zip lining before, they were very careful to explain all the details to us, got us hooked up to our gear and lead the way up a very steep hill well passed the level of our cottage.  On and on we went until we were near the top of the mountain.  

Once there, they remind us there would be 11 lines to zip, with the longest one being over 700 feet.  we were both a little nervous, but we practiced on a stationery line and watched Jose go ahead on the first leg.  Then Giovani hooked me up, reminded me not to grab the wire tightly, but to let my left hand slide along the top of the wire, while my right clutched the safety lines.  

A quick prayer and off I went.  I shouted only once and made it to the next platform thoroughly exhilarated.   Shortly, Mark arrived and then Giovani.  The next leg, I went too fast and grabbed the line to slow down.  Bad idea.  Yanked my shoulder.  Mark started spinning and had to learn what to do to keep going straight.  I had to learn that too.  Each leg was a new lesson, but gradually we both got the hang of it.  By the 7th and longest line we were feeling pretty confident.  I had thought we would see animals and birds in the tree canopy, but we were traveling too fast and focused for that.

Lunch in The Nest

All too soon we were at the 11th platform, also know as “The Nest”.  It was in a large tree next to the restaurant and the location of our prearranged lunch, which was lined up to us in The Nest.

Giovani serving lunch the arrived by basket.

We enjoyed cold cucumber soup, chicken salad and cervesa, while watching the other guests eating on the deck.  Finally, we repelled down 80 plus feet to the ground.   It was a super feeling to know I had conquered one more fear of heights…..and had fun doing it.

We had one more adventure planned for the day and asked Giovani to be our guide.  So, after repelling does the tree, we went directly to our cottage to change clothes.   Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the hike to our cottage, an activity that happened several times each day, rain or shine.

The bottom part of the path to our cottage

The upper part of the path to our cottage

Giovani met us at our cottage and off we went further up hill.  The hike was described as a 1.5 hour loop trail to a typical home built by the local Cabecar Tribe and an onward hike to a nice waterfall.   We arrived at the tribal house rather quickly and spent a few minutes checking it out.  It reminded me of many other such primitive, round, grass, mud and palm houses we have seen in other parts of the world.  No matter how separated cultures are in time, space and climate, they seem to go about problem solving in similar ways.  From the tribal house, we hiked quickly up and down the hilly trail.

Hiking to the waterfall

We knew there was a large group making the hike behind us and we wanted to have time alone at the waterfall.   We were so quick that we had plenty of time.

The pretty waterfall, who’s name we never learned.

Although the sky had gone gray and was looking ominous, we were warm enough from the hike to strip down to our bathing suits and gingerly climb into the basin of the pretty waterfall.   The water was cool, but not cold and we had fun playing in it.  Just as we were getting out, rain began to fall, so we stayed in our suits and scampered down hill back to the lodge and back up hill to our cottage.  Happily, we beat the crowd and completed the loop in less than the expected time.  We stepped into our plunge pool, but realized it was colder than the waterfall, so settled for hot showers instead.

At dinnertime, we dressed warmly and umbrella’d ourselves down hill in the rain.  We each had a mojito while watching the rain pound on the uncovered deck.  Dinner was a fish and risotto combination that was too heavy and rich for us.  Neither of us finished our meal.  We were much happier to climb back uphill, brush our teeth and crawl into bed.  I loved listening to the rain falling on the corrugated metal roof, the swelling river rushing headlong over boulders and the nightbirds singing in the forest surrounding us.