Videos from Costa Rica

Now that I'm home I'm able to post the videos.

Here are the leaf-cutter ants:

Here's Joyce taking off on a zip line:

Here's Joyce landing on a zip line:

And here's Josh landing on a zip line:

Thursday, January 2

On our last day we began by driving to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens and Wildlife Refuge.  This is an enormous privately owned park, and the “Wildlife Refuge” is a zoo with local animals very well displayed, but a zoo nonetheless.  It is well embedded into the hills of the area and allowed us to see some wildlife of Costa Rica which is otherwise very hard to get to view as a tourist.  There is a giant bird area enclosed with netting, but so giant that you think you’re in an open valley.  One of the toucans there is very tame:

The butterfly garden is wonderful and allowed us to get up close to the very special Blue Morpho which we had seen in the wild but had trouble getting close to:

Mammals in cages are the worst part of a zoo, and despite the fact that the animals looked well cared for and had lots of room, it’s still troublesome to me.  Here’s a baby ocelot:

I have lots more mammal photos, but I see no need to send them. There's an oxcart painted as the locals do, with a brace of oxen:

Part of the attraction here is a series of waterfalls with extremely well-done very long paths and stairs to them:

After lunch at La Paz, we drove to a coffee plantation and had a walking tour of the farm and the processing plant; more than Josh really wanted to know about coffee, but we found it interesting.  Here’s how the coffee cherries are picked by hand, a tedious job done mostly by Nicaraguan immigrants, as the Costa Ricans don’t want to do such terrible farm work for very low wages.  Sound familiar?

Josh very much enjoyed a delicious mocha:

Well, that’s it.  We arrived late afternoon at the San Jose Marriott, and we are scheduled to fly home tomorrow.  We’ll see how that goes, as there’s a big cold storm in the northeast!  Thanks for reading our adventure with Josh.

Wednesday, January 1

Well, as anticipated, this was a remarkable day.  We drove about 45 minutes up and up and up to the base of a gondola lift on the side of the Arenal Volcano.  From there we took a gondola up much further to the first platform which led to a series of eight cables for zip-lining ranging in length from 200 to 750 meters (600+ feet to 2250+ feet or over ½ mile).  This is one of the longest zip lines in the world!  Many of the lines bridged deep ravines of 600 feet or more, so we were really flying!  Speed on the lines is 50 mph at maximum.  Here’s a map of the lines:

The weather is amazing—from fully sunny to torrential downpours in a flash and back again.  Josh had declined to bring his rain jacket (it was sunny when we left) but when we experienced the first completely torrential downpour which occurred as we arrived at the zip line, we bought him a poncho at the gift shop.  After signing our lives away on a disclaimer that says if anyone dies it’s not their fault, we were fitted for our harnesses and helmets:

The first two lines are very short as practice, and also there’s an escape after the second line for those who choose to take the gondola back down after trying the two short lines.  No one in our small group backed out, but we were told that in most groups someone does.  The take-off is done semi-reclining with the harness holding you by your low back and thighs, arms are straight up to the handles on the line.  Legs are in front of you with knees bent and ankles crossed.  As you approach the end and the platform is in view, you are supposed to wiggle the handle back and forth laterally (NOT up and down) which brakes you, then spread your legs as you get close.  There is a big rope which catches you and creates an abrupt deceleration, and a very large vertical rubber mattress in case you don’t stop properly.  Here’s Josh taking off:

Here’s Joyce ready to go and taking off:

 Here’s the view from the first platform:

 Here’s Josh coming in:

Here’s Joyce coming in:

Now I’ll try to embed a couple of videos, but I’m not optimistic.  I may have to send them from home when we get back.

Wouldn't upload.

In any case, we all found it exhilarating, beyond our expectations.  Josh was very proud of his grandma for doing this!  He’d been waiting months to see it happen, and she was wonderful. 

The outfit we were with is here:

http://www.skyadventures.travel/Arenal_En/Sky_Trek.html

Tomorrow we drive back to San Jose, stopping for hikes on the way.  We’ll overnight in San Jose and come home on Friday.