From Mountains to Ocean

Ziplining was awesome! Shai didn't want to go because she had already done it in Mexico, but Monteverde apparently is where ziplining was born. So it was great. The group I was in included 'Team Kickass,' which comprised three awesome guys in Costa Rica for a wedding, and people studying abroad from a community college in Philly. The experience was surprisingly not that scary - even though a hook is the only thing connecting you to a wire 450 ft above the ground, you feel pretty secure. So we all zipped around primary canopy forest in Costa Rica. I really didn't see anything at all except the treetops, which was still gorgeous. At one point, I thought I heard howler monkeys but that easily could have been someone being a jerk and mimicking their sound.

The most awesome and terrifying part of this whole ziplining experience, though, was the tarzan swing. The guy at our hostel talked to me for like five minutes about the different tarzan swings available. I felt like I was buying life insurance or something, he told me so much information. I must have zoned out because I was thoroughly surprised when we got to this point of the ziplining experience. The guide asked for a volunteer to go first and I naturally made sure I didn't even breathe loudly so he wouldn't pick me out of our 12-person group. Some girl in front of me raised her hand but no, he went straight for me. He probably thought I would shriek really loudly on the swing.

I walked up this giant platform (about three stories tall?) and was hooked onto this giant rope. The guy then tried to convince me to use both hands to hold on. In order to do that, I had to lean forward, off the edge of the platform, which I was not keen on doing since that meant I would most likely fall off this platform rather than control my 'jump.' Regardless, I'm pretty sure the guide pushed me off once both my hands were touching that rope. I didn't even think about screaming once I fell; the wind got knocked out of me so it wasn't an option. Once I almost hit the ground and the rope kicked in to yank me back up, I realized I was actually notgoing to die. So the swing turned out to be really fun!

That night, Shai and I met up for dinner with 'Team Kickass' at the Treehouse Cafe, a touristy but neat restaurant in Monteverde. The guys were all really cool. After dinner, we went to a bar to hang out and ended up sitting around this really nice bonfire for the majority of the night, and later were joined by a lot of other tourists (and locals who followed them) who were attracted to fire.

Yesterday (I cannot believe this was just yesterday), Shai and I woke up at 5am to catch a bus to get to the beach. I'm going to end this story here because I am tired, but hopefully it will be continued.