Cold Water Showers Are Still Cold in the Tropics
Day 3
I´m trying to figure out if today was more fun than yesterday. This morning Amy and I decided to go canyoning (a.ka. waterfall rapelling). This "adventure" tour was advertised as "5 Waterfalls. Just Do It!!" Sounded good to us. So again, we decided to go with Desafio to do the trip. There´s another company that does the same thing called Pure Trek Canyoning.
We drove out to the forest early this morning at 8AM. I was hoping to grab some bread for breakfast at the local bakery, but unfortunately it was closed for Christmas. On our bus was another couple from Colorado and a gal from Pasadena. We had to rush the trip because the couple needed to catch a flight to Manuel Antonio and the gal had booked a cave trip later that afternoon. This worked out well for us as it was a smaller group of just the five of us (there's a lot of waiting around with larger groups).
The owner of Desafio, an Indian dude from the States, happened to be the driver of our 4X4 out to the canyons. We drove through some farms and parked on the side of some random dirt rode. Safety first everyone. Serious fun second. Everyone got a harness and a helmet and here we go.
I´m sorry that we don´t have any pictures, but this was awesome. We were in the middle of the rainforest and we got both rain and forest. Our first rapel was pretty simple - 20 foot rock wall down. After a short hike along a canyon stream, we came to our first major rapel. They had constructed a platform on top of a waterfall approximatley 130 feet high. One at a time, we strapped in and off we went. Step by step, we climbed to the outside of the platform and down we went. That first step...Whoa! A rope, a harness, a figure 8 thing-a-ma-jig, and a carabiner was all that separated us from the bottom of the canyon. Pretty cool though.
We hiked along the canyon and followed the stream for another 30 minutes or so. We rappelled down some smaller waterfalls probably no more than 15 feet high. Then came the really big one. We were going to rappel down a 65 meter waterfall. Again, we got hooked in and off we went. Our guide swung everyone into the waterfall. That was pretty cool. By that time, we were all getting the hang of rappelling and were launching ourselves off the sides of the waterfall.
The morning ended after hiking a bit back up the canyon. Man, I´m so out of shape. We jumped into the truck bed of a Toyota 4X4 and headed off to lunch. Fun.
Got back to La Fortuna and took another cold shower. You would think that getting a cold shower in a humid tropical place would be a good thing. But a cold shower is still a cold shower. We got to tell the hotel manager that they need to work on that hot water.
I´m trying to figure out if today was more fun than yesterday. This morning Amy and I decided to go canyoning (a.ka. waterfall rapelling). This "adventure" tour was advertised as "5 Waterfalls. Just Do It!!" Sounded good to us. So again, we decided to go with Desafio to do the trip. There´s another company that does the same thing called Pure Trek Canyoning.
We drove out to the forest early this morning at 8AM. I was hoping to grab some bread for breakfast at the local bakery, but unfortunately it was closed for Christmas. On our bus was another couple from Colorado and a gal from Pasadena. We had to rush the trip because the couple needed to catch a flight to Manuel Antonio and the gal had booked a cave trip later that afternoon. This worked out well for us as it was a smaller group of just the five of us (there's a lot of waiting around with larger groups).
The owner of Desafio, an Indian dude from the States, happened to be the driver of our 4X4 out to the canyons. We drove through some farms and parked on the side of some random dirt rode. Safety first everyone. Serious fun second. Everyone got a harness and a helmet and here we go.
I´m sorry that we don´t have any pictures, but this was awesome. We were in the middle of the rainforest and we got both rain and forest. Our first rapel was pretty simple - 20 foot rock wall down. After a short hike along a canyon stream, we came to our first major rapel. They had constructed a platform on top of a waterfall approximatley 130 feet high. One at a time, we strapped in and off we went. Step by step, we climbed to the outside of the platform and down we went. That first step...Whoa! A rope, a harness, a figure 8 thing-a-ma-jig, and a carabiner was all that separated us from the bottom of the canyon. Pretty cool though.
We hiked along the canyon and followed the stream for another 30 minutes or so. We rappelled down some smaller waterfalls probably no more than 15 feet high. Then came the really big one. We were going to rappel down a 65 meter waterfall. Again, we got hooked in and off we went. Our guide swung everyone into the waterfall. That was pretty cool. By that time, we were all getting the hang of rappelling and were launching ourselves off the sides of the waterfall.
The morning ended after hiking a bit back up the canyon. Man, I´m so out of shape. We jumped into the truck bed of a Toyota 4X4 and headed off to lunch. Fun.
Got back to La Fortuna and took another cold shower. You would think that getting a cold shower in a humid tropical place would be a good thing. But a cold shower is still a cold shower. We got to tell the hotel manager that they need to work on that hot water.
posted by amy & albert at 6:25 PM
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