The first big adventure was at Costa Rica. We had Oscar take us to "Jungle Breezes," which is a place in the rainforest where some smart guy came up with a great idea to make money. After you fork over a wad, you sign lots of waivers saying you really, really won't sue them if you die, and then you don your safety equipment.
(I never could get my helmet to sit straight.) So then you climb up to a platform in the treetop, get hooked up, and go flying:
As you can see, the jungle is amazing. The scenery is fantastic, too: we could see across the city, way down to the beach from some of the platforms. We were truly right in the middle of the jungle. Look closely and you can see who else was enjoying the treetops:
We went on twelve ziplines, some very long but none very fast. They were too fast, though, for one lady in our group, who had to climb down after the fourth zip. (She would have climbed down after the first, but there is no way to the ground from the second, third and fourth platforms.) We felt sorry for her, but we had a blast.
Our next big adventure was going through the Panama Canal, but that one's going to get its own post, so stay tuned.
In Grand Cayman, we decided to splurge a little and do something I've wanted to
do ever since our honeymoon cruise: parasailing. Rog wasn't as interested as I was, but he was willing.
First we took a little motorboat ride out into the harbor:
The water was so blue and we could see flying fish all around us. Then we got strapped into the harness:
And then we had liftoff:
The wind from the speed of the boat just lifted us right off the boat. It felt very gentle, as if we were bobbing along in a balloon. Then, as the boat kept driving, we just drifted up.
Going, going . . .
Gone!
It was so quiet and pleasant up there. I was doing backbends to look at the sky, then swinging down to look at the sea. I had a blast!
It's tradition, apparently, for the guy working the winch to tug it in just enough, at the end of the ride, to dip your feet into the water. We watched him do it to the people who flew before us, so we didn't panic when he brought us close to the water:
Only he miscalculated a little and ended up giving me a lapful of water! As he was reeling me in, he called up to me, "Sorry!" I replied, "Well, it's your tip!" He answered, "You're still out there and I've got the rope. You wanna rethink that?" When I got back into the boat with my pants soaking, I joked that I had just gotten a little too excited up there.
Coming in:
You can tell I didn't have fun at all. Roger said, "Let's do it again!"
5 comments:
OK - I'm doing that on my next cruise.
I have sure enjoyed reading about your adventures -- I just haven't commented yet because first I needed to work through my ENVY. (I think I am okay now. But I need to get Dean to take me away somewhere after he gets back from his two upcoming work trips.)
So glad you had such a great time! Thanks for sharing all the pictures and descriptions.
OH -- and I'm going to have to show my Mom the picture of the sloth. She is nearly phobic about sloths -- she despises them; they make her skin crawl -- and so we, her kind children, send her all the links we can find to pictures or YouTube videos of sloths. My sister even bought my Mom a plush sloth -- it is in the closet in my Mom's study (because she won't get rid of something her kids got her, even if she loathes it,) and it really is kind of creepy when you forget it's there and then suddenly see it staring out at you.
You are so brave. I have an intense and irrational fear of heights that I think would preclude any parasailing in my future. I could probably do the zipline . . . maybe.
You look like you had the time of your life, though. Woo hoo!
I'm also GREEN with envy. I'm dying for a getaway. I love reading about your adventures. You look so happy and relaxed. Jealous, jealous, jealous!
Beautiful! We are going to Russia this summer, but I'm thinking for our next vacation we need to go tropical! Forget educational. It's overrated, right?
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