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Day 11
The early morning sunshine, howler monkeys or loud bird cries woke us again early, well before 6. We killed 2 hours before breakfast watching toucans from our balcony (no, it's true, not the opening line from some romantic fiction novel).
Breakfast hugs greeted us from Elisabeth and her Mexican friends, and a colourful breakfast with a huge spread of fruit, cheese, bread, granola, eggs, ham, cucumber, jams, cake, pancakes. Fantastic, outside in the garden in the warm morning air. We learnt a little of Elisabeth's history and how she came here, and developed this haven. Heart warming stuff (though we're not sufficiently romantic enough to imagine we could do it) and clearly a place driven by a need for inner harmony and relaxation.
So Xavier's arrival (elisabeth's son) brought a rapid change when he asked us which high adrenaline trip we wanted to do straight away!!! we elected for the hanging bridges and canopy zip line combo (don't look Val, it's very high up, and your daughter did the lot!)
We had to move straight away to get the 11.00 tour, and we were soon whisked away up the hillside (can't call them mountains here after being in the Andes!) where the tour began. After a small panic about lunch and where we'd get it, resolved with a packed sandwich, we went up and fairly immediately onto the series of 7 long suspension bridges through and over the canopy, where you get a different view of the wildlife, both flora and fauna. This was perhaps the most disappointing trip we've had of all - OK, we've done a fair bit of trekking through the cloud forest, so many of the experiences weren't new, but the bridges didn't add anything except wobbly views and camera shake, and the guide was brusque and functional, rather than enthusiastic. We were on a schedule not a journey. Still, we saw a jungle crab and tarantula, 2 toed sloth and white nosed coati, plus we learnt a little about a few plants, so it wasn't a disaster. The bridges were robust, but because of their span they moved, particularly when a random 7 year old - let's call her Derry for the sake of argument - jumps up and down and makes them swing for her vertigo-suffering mum!
We also climbed up the inside of a strangler fig tree to get to one of the bridges, which was a bit of a larf.
We returned to the office up in the Adventure tours area and were immediately swept into the zip line component of the tour. We had a few moments of indecision (Derry decided she didn't want to do it, Suzanne was wavering but resolute that she could, and Siena moved from 'I'm scared and I don't know' to 'yep, I'm gonna do it') but in the end we all went for it. And we're glad we did, because we had the most fantastic time - the pictures should tell most of the story, but we smiled from the very first right through to the end. We did 12 zips, starting gently then moving through to a huge one 400m long right over the canopy. Derry got a taxi ride for them all, as she didn't have enough weight to carry her along the whole wire, but everyone else had a blast. They aren't at all scary (well, they might be but I didn't let Suzanne write this one!) as you aren't particularly high up when you leave, you feel very secure in the harness and the zip itself is very controllable. The worst thing - according to Suzanne - is the climbing onto the platforms ready for departure and the tree platforms between zips, especially when you aren't clipped to a safety line.
In the middle of them all we did a rappel, quite unlike the waterfall rappels - this one had us sitting in the harness and being dropped using the rather impressive force of gravity. Only 10 meters but it was scary for us all. Way faster than diving form a diving board, but we all got through it fine (some happier than others!)
The final thing we did after all the zips was a tarzan swing. Sounds harmless enough but it involved leaping off a platform holding onto ropes, falling several metres then swinging on the long rope into the jungle for a few goes before being stopped by a couple of tyres held by the instructors! Of course we were still in our harnesses. Finn was first (when wasn't he?!) totally gung ho, followed by Derry then dad. Siena at first decided to, then decided not to, then finally decided to go for it, which made us very proud and showed her inner determination. Very internal locus of control! It was a blast, after the first second of blind panic, it became whoop-worthy, and if the pictures had audio it would be screams followed by woo hoo's all around!
We all returned to the office totally high, happy and buzzed by it all. Looks like we're turning into adrenaline junkies!
After that, we decided to hang out in Santa Elena - getting a (rather excellent) coffee & cake from the tree house restaurant, then visiting the souvenir shop, book shop for used books, then the supermarket for snack provisions.
Since we didn't want to go back to El Sol (well it is 15 more minutes of dirt track and bumps) we went to the frog pond museum - Ranario, where we were escorted around by Nick (Molner) - a Canadian who was totally frog freaky - who was drawn to Costa Rica because of the frogs and has ambitions to publish a book about frogs and buy some land where he can establish a breeding/rescue centre for tropical frogs. Watch out for the book! He was a great guide, it was dark when we got there (intentionally!) and you have to go around with a flashlight. All the pictures I took are rubbish!
We grabbed a Pizza from johnnies pizzeria (very nice and great service) and got home late. Another great day, happy kids and happy parents. Newly formed adrenaline junkies! They couldn't decide which they wanted to do again if theywere given the choice - white water rafting, rapelling or zip wiring, it was a tough call. Derry was even heard to say she would rather do zip wiring than horse riding - quite a transformation - and totally unbelievable.
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