Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Costa Rica was on Friday, but the internet has been toooooo slow to even check email let alone post and most often no connection at all.

To Spanish explorers, the rumors of gold and vast riches could only mean that this section of Central America was the costa rica - the "Rich Coast."

Hailed as the Switzerland of the Americas, Costa Rica occupies a unique position, lying between two oceans and two continents. On both coasts, tropical rainforests rise to the mountains of the interior, many of which soar over 13,000 feet above sea level. In the west, a seemingly endless succession of brown-sand beaches forms the nation's Pacific coast.

Our scheduled activity for Costa Rica is to have fun on a zipline.  We have been to this port before and felt we covered the highlights pretty well so several months ago while researching things to do, I came across this particular zipline company that sounded really good….25 ziplines over 11 waterfalls, including 2 rappelings over waterfalls, and a walk across a suspended bridge.  From participating in the ship’s Cruise Critic rollcall, I knew there was another couple interested in doing ziplines.  So I emailed them with the information and they were interested and before too long we were a group of 4 couples making reservations for today.

The group of 8 of us had dinner together twice before reaching Costa Rica, and occasionally were on the same tours in other ports so we knew each other pretty well and were really looking forward to having fun on the ziplines.

Unfortunately, today was Terry’s turn to second guess whether he should participate as he was coming down with a cold and knew how my cold progressed .  At the last minute he decided it would be best for him to stay on the ship so I headed down to meet the group by myself. 

We met the guide at the end of the pier and along with 4 others from the ship that we didn’t know, we headed up the mountain to zipline reception area.  After getting fitted with a harness, we climbed into a special off-road truck and headed up the mountain on a rocky, very narrow road.  The views were spectacular.

We stopped at about the 3,000 foot elevation to start the ziplines.  With a little instruction, and a gentle push, each one of us zipped away.

By the time we had done 8 ziplines we were feeling pretty confident and then we came to the first rappel.  The guides were terrific (and very patient) as we all inched our way down over a  cliff and waterfall in a pretty steep rappel.

It took about 4 hours to do the 25 ziplines and 2 rappels.  We dropped in elevation about 1,500 feet over the course.  We were rewarded with a Costa Rican lunch afterwards before heading back down the mountain to the port. 

Port at end of pier

Sandcastings on pier beach

I expected to find Terry in a fetal position covered in blankets when I returned to the cabin, but he was upstairs on the deck enjoying reading a book.  I tried to tell him it was an awful day and he didn’t miss anything, but, I can’t lie and he saw right through it.  One of our zipline couples said this was the BEST zipline they have ever done (and they do them all over the world on their travels.)  It was great.  We had only ziplined once before (in Maui) and that was really pretty lame.  I was glad that everyone liked the choice of zipline companies as I was the one who had found it on the internet…..and you never know…even with reviews…what something is really like.

Anyway, Terry hasn’t gotten as sick with the cold as I did and had he come along on this adventure, he wouldn’t have been the only one on the bus coughing and potentially sharing the virus.  But we feel it’s best to stay away from close encounters with others when sick.  If only others would do the same, eh?

Terry felt well enough to enjoy the beautiful sunset on deck as we sailed away from Costa Rica and up the coast of Central America.