Yahoo! Another bus ride! This one's going to be about 2 hours, taking us the rest of the way to Monteverde (after a boat and horseback riding). The view is stunning, miles and miles of rolling green hills in every direction with dirt paths winding their way into the distance. Everyone is feeling pretty sore after yesterday's amazing madness, except Anna and Parveen who spent all afternoon in the hot springs...mmm!
Rappelling yesterday was one of those incredible life experiences that amaze you simply because of the fact that you got to do them. Greg describes it as "can't" which is definitely accurate, but I'll try anyway.
You're strapped into a leg harness (like for climbing, I'd imagine) and a rope is fed through a link. Then you turn yourself around with your back toward a drop of a couple hundred feet, lower yourself so that the only point of contact with the world is your feet on the edge of the platform, and then you launch yourself downward on the rope, using one hand as a brake behind you and the other hand as a guide in front. Then the Rappel Masters at the top and bottom start yanking the rope around getting you drenched in the waterfall. Definitely a nervewracking experience at the beginning especially since I was the first to rappel the first huge drop and the ground looked incredibly far away!
We know beforehand that there would be 5 rappels and 3 climbs, but what we didn't know was that we'd be going through forest so beautiful that it's indescribable. After we rappeled down the biggest waterfall and stared up into the green, just green everywhere, Greg voiced the exact phrase I was saying to myself: this is why we have to protect it. I like to keep things light while I'm away, but I really think that if we could all experience nature in its prime this way, we would all be much kinder towards it. Climbing, crouching, and flying with no fear, I felt maybe for the first time that i was truly part of the Earth instead of just walking on it.
Matt, Greg and I post rappel.
Matt, Greg, Laura and I were picked up afterwards and we went on to an afternoon of rafting. The rapids were Class II and III so they weren't too bad. The 4 of us were on the boat with an older lady, and our guide Juan kept having us high five our paddles, then slap them onto the water and shout what we later understood to be PURA VIDA which seems to be Costa Rica's official slogan. There will be rafting pictures eventually, but not right away, there was a photographer as part of the tour and he will send us a CD. Our guides at both places were great and they fed us a ton, including the most delicious pineapples ever!
The day ended in magic tricks and flaming cow for many of our group. In fact, there were many random cows that day, including one that waited until the raft was right on top of it to back out of the river. At dinner, there were also airplanes because that was the only way that Adam would eat his vegetables. As well, there there was a race to consume the aforementioned flaming cow, Greg bet on Tiffany and won, Ellis our tour leader bet on Adam and was highly disappointed when he came in last. Lee kicked ass before the race even started.
Even after the long day, there had to be some alcohol consumption. We all sat and chilled on the rocking chairs and drank beer until we remembered that we had an early morning. I love this group! Bring on another day!
(Sorry if this is all a little disjointed. I am just trying to get down everything we've been doing and I'm typing as fast as possible. Also, if the dates seem off, it´s because I´m trying to backdate when I actually wrote the entry, rather than when I posted it).
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