Today, Miranda and I went on a a canopy tour at Vida Silvestre Refugio. We were in a group of 20 people and quite a few of them were from the States. Once, we got our helmets, harnesses, and instructions, we boarded what I call a people mover (trailer) that was pulled by a tractor. It was a 20 minute dusty ride and then we hiked the rest of the way to the first zipline platform. Basically, you go flying through the air hooked up to a cable above the trees in the rainforest. One hand holds on the the harness and the other has a special glove and you keep it on the cable behind your head to use as a break. You don't want to let go as you'll go spinning around and then you have no way to slow down when you arrive at the platform. Luckily, that didn't happen to me but I did go flying into the first platform. They have a rope rigged up so you don't crash but it was quite a jerky landing. I didn't let that happen again. It's definitely a rush. There were 10 platforms, 3 too many in my opinion, and the longest one was over 1 km and took over a minute. That one was the scariest as you need to go fast enough to make it to the other side but you can get going to 40-50 km/hr. There was one line past a waterfall and that was really pretty. We took the tractor to a recreated Maleku tribe setting. They had three tribe members to share their culture and crafts. They greet each other by tapping each other's right shoulder twice and saying the words "capi, capi". We greeted each one and then listened to them to talk about their culture. They are located about 45 km from La Fortuna and are feeling very isolated because of their different dialect. Our guide was actually sent to La Fortuna to learn English to help his tribe. He did a remarkable job translating for us. The tour ended with a horse back ride back to the start.
After a quick lunch, Miranda was heading back to San Jose for her flight the next day and I had booked a hike to see the Volcan Arenal. We first went out to a look out point and learned the history of the Volcano. Volcan Arenal had been dormant for over 400 years and then it basically exploded in 1968. The flowing lava wiped out 3 villages and killed 80 people. Now, Arenal continues to produce streams of molten rock on almost a daily basis. Most days, the top of the volcano is covered but I did happen to get a good photo earlier today when I was horseback riding. After our educational session, we hiked for about an hour. The highlights were seeing a squirrel monkey, who put on quite a show for us, a toucan and other birds that I have no idea what they are called. Once it became dark we drove to another lookout point. The volcano was covered in clouds but we were lucky that we did get to see lava rocks rolling down the mountain. It was so far away that it looked like embers falling off a cigarette. We were leaving when we noticed that there were 4 streams of lava rocks falling at once. It was like watching the finale at a fireworks show. Very cool! The last stop of the tour were the Hot Springs! Graciously provided by the volcano. They have a very nice place called Tabacon Hot Springs and it was just amazing the various natural type pools they had to soak in. I even had to one to myself for awhile and then 10 people came and joined me. They were from California of all places. I got behind one of the waterfalls and just sat there. It was supposedly 40ºC. This was a perfect way to end two days of non-stop adventures and my muscles appreciated it! Girls, I recommend that the next Girls´ Spa Weekend trip takes place here!
