Day 5
Door: Elke
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Elke
30 Oktober 2015 | Costa Rica, Fortuna
I decided to wear a bright pink T-shirt this day, because – as I explained to Tonnie – that way they could find me more easily in case I fell down into the jungle during our activity. I mentioned that the khaki colors she was wearing would make it harder to find her. It was all good and fun, until she came to me for reassurance that it was all a joke :s. Turned out that she woke up being a bit less excited and a bit more nervous than the previous day.
After we geared up, we walked up into the jungle on the grounds of the hotel, amongst a great abundance of mosquitos and along a 450 meter long water slide (I did not get to go down the slide, but how awesome would that have been!). When we reached our starting point, there was a zip line going across the ravine a bunch of meters over the tree tops. All our focus on Tonnie had made me forget what I was about to do and it suddenly became very real. Tonnie was the first to go with her ‘taxi’ (i.e. a guy that was hooked up to her, to do the breaking and landing). Then it was my turn. Whatever apprehension I had, disappeared the second I jumped op to get hooked up to the zip line. It was just amazing to zip across that line over the treetops and with an amazing view. I was glad we got to do it 6 more times over different lines.
The extreme tour also included what was called ‘The Tarzan’. They needed a volunteer and one of our group members that also joined, decided to be it. He basically had to stand on a ledge, with a 10 meter drop. While standing there, he was hooked up to a line that they then had to tighten. This big guy was held back by one of the guides that was about 50 kg lighter, while being pulled at from the front by the other guy who tightened the line. He was clearly not very comfortable following the order of standing up straight and keeping his hands on his head. I therefore decided to help hold him back, but while doing so I also looked down the ledge and realized that I was pretty close and not hooked up to anything. So I quickly listened when I was told to step back. Eventually, our volunteer was told to fall over that ledge and swing. First thing that came to my mind when I saw it was ‘HELL NO!!!’. Being cool is one thing, but I decided then and there, that it is even cooler to stay true to yourself. I am a scientist (read: nerd), I like control, and people that like control don’t jump into a 10 meter gap. I was expecting a similar reaction from Tonnie, but I could not stop laughing when I saw that her face was all lit up and she said firmly: ‘Dat wil ik ook’. I told her, she was a gek mens, she told me to take pictures, jumped, and enjoyed it. After that a third member of our group was persuaded by her husband – who had gone first – to do it as well. However the sheer terror on her face after she had jumped, made it clear to me that I had made the right decision. I don’t pay money for mortal fear.
As our whole adventure had (again) been very warm, I took a dive into the swimming pool, which was filled with water from the springs in the mountain and was actually quite refreshing for a change. When the heavy rains started again I went back to my cottage and read a book in the hammock under the overhanging roof. After it had cooled down a bit, I took quite a long walk across hanging bridges that had been put up for the ‘normal’ canopy tour. Like the word suggest, these bridges span amongst the tree tops. Contrary to the extreme tour, the zip lines were much shorter and also going through the canopy instead of over it, so even without The Tarzan, the extreme tour had been the best choice, even since the walking part of the normal one was accessible to everyone.
At 4 pm we were taken to the open-air spa in the surrounding mountains by a tractor. The idea was to go into the sauna first (as if it had not been warm and humid enough already), then cover yourself with warm volcanic mud, that would then be hosed off with cold water after which we could go to various warm-water baths from the mountain springs. Sitting in those baths amongst the trees with the jungle sounds in the background while night was falling, was just spectacular. We finished the whole thing with a BBQ.
After we geared up, we walked up into the jungle on the grounds of the hotel, amongst a great abundance of mosquitos and along a 450 meter long water slide (I did not get to go down the slide, but how awesome would that have been!). When we reached our starting point, there was a zip line going across the ravine a bunch of meters over the tree tops. All our focus on Tonnie had made me forget what I was about to do and it suddenly became very real. Tonnie was the first to go with her ‘taxi’ (i.e. a guy that was hooked up to her, to do the breaking and landing). Then it was my turn. Whatever apprehension I had, disappeared the second I jumped op to get hooked up to the zip line. It was just amazing to zip across that line over the treetops and with an amazing view. I was glad we got to do it 6 more times over different lines.
The extreme tour also included what was called ‘The Tarzan’. They needed a volunteer and one of our group members that also joined, decided to be it. He basically had to stand on a ledge, with a 10 meter drop. While standing there, he was hooked up to a line that they then had to tighten. This big guy was held back by one of the guides that was about 50 kg lighter, while being pulled at from the front by the other guy who tightened the line. He was clearly not very comfortable following the order of standing up straight and keeping his hands on his head. I therefore decided to help hold him back, but while doing so I also looked down the ledge and realized that I was pretty close and not hooked up to anything. So I quickly listened when I was told to step back. Eventually, our volunteer was told to fall over that ledge and swing. First thing that came to my mind when I saw it was ‘HELL NO!!!’. Being cool is one thing, but I decided then and there, that it is even cooler to stay true to yourself. I am a scientist (read: nerd), I like control, and people that like control don’t jump into a 10 meter gap. I was expecting a similar reaction from Tonnie, but I could not stop laughing when I saw that her face was all lit up and she said firmly: ‘Dat wil ik ook’. I told her, she was a gek mens, she told me to take pictures, jumped, and enjoyed it. After that a third member of our group was persuaded by her husband – who had gone first – to do it as well. However the sheer terror on her face after she had jumped, made it clear to me that I had made the right decision. I don’t pay money for mortal fear.
As our whole adventure had (again) been very warm, I took a dive into the swimming pool, which was filled with water from the springs in the mountain and was actually quite refreshing for a change. When the heavy rains started again I went back to my cottage and read a book in the hammock under the overhanging roof. After it had cooled down a bit, I took quite a long walk across hanging bridges that had been put up for the ‘normal’ canopy tour. Like the word suggest, these bridges span amongst the tree tops. Contrary to the extreme tour, the zip lines were much shorter and also going through the canopy instead of over it, so even without The Tarzan, the extreme tour had been the best choice, even since the walking part of the normal one was accessible to everyone.
At 4 pm we were taken to the open-air spa in the surrounding mountains by a tractor. The idea was to go into the sauna first (as if it had not been warm and humid enough already), then cover yourself with warm volcanic mud, that would then be hosed off with cold water after which we could go to various warm-water baths from the mountain springs. Sitting in those baths amongst the trees with the jungle sounds in the background while night was falling, was just spectacular. We finished the whole thing with a BBQ.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
