December 30,
2015
This morning
my Dad and I planned separate activities.
He went on a guided hike in a nearby reserve, and the highlight was that
there are hanging bridges that connect the paths. I went on a bungee jump, marketed as the
highest bungee in Central America at 143 meters, or about 440 feet. I had only done previous bungee jumps at 43m
and 47m so I was really excited to do a much higher one.
The day
started with a lot of wind with gusts up to 45mph, which is typical for the
region this time of year, and some light rain.
A bus came to pick me up after breakfast and we drove about 30 minutes
North of town. We arrived at “Extremo
Park” which is the base for a company that does several adventure activities
such as a canyon swing and zip lining, and they have a relatively new twist to
it where you zip down on your belly like Superman, but today it’s just bungee
for me. I got in a line behind about 50
people to check in and I was thinking it was going to take forever for me to
jump after these people. Then I get to
the front, I tell her I’m there for bungee and she literally asks “oh are you a
little bit crazy?” Turns out only about
7 of the 50 were there to do the bungee and the rest were zip lining. So maybe I am a bit crazy to do this…
So we walk
down a path from the office about 2 minutes and we arrive at a sort of cable
car hanging out over the canyon. Two
guides come over to us and suit us up with gear and give us a rundown of the
plan to not die. They explain that you
have to jump between two cables holding the lift. So they only really let you do it one way
which is a delayed swan dive where you put your arms out after you pass the
cables. Then you are supposed to bounce
a few times and before they lower a rope with a cable for you to attach to your
waist, which is how they reel you back up to the cable car. I politely ask the guides if the light rain
or gusts of wind will affect the jump and they said “probably not”.
Of our
group, I happily volunteer to be the first to go. I waddle up to the edge of the platform and
look down and the trees below seem really far away, so I take a deep
breath. I jump without needing a push
and do the delayed swan as instructed, bounce a few times. After several seconds of hanging upside down,
I look all around for the cable about 50 feet away from me—great.
The bungee
cord and me are hanging directly below the lift, but the wind has blown the
other cable far away from me. So the
guys at the top try to move it around to me, retracting and letting it down
again. In the meantime, I am just
hanging there, so I bend upwards from the waist a few times to prevent all of
my blood going to my head. As I am doing
this and I notice a beautiful rainbow which has formed about 500m away—and I
have a great view.
I was
slightly disappointed that I wasn’t even close to the ground. I was hanging about halfway between the cable
lift and the highest tree, which means the actual jumping distance is about
60m; not 143m. After about two minutes,
I finally am able to grab the rope, and they start reeling me up as I admire
the lovely rainbow near me. I waited on
the cable car for the others to go.
I went back
to the office and purchased a first person GoPro video of my jump. A fellow jumper, Robinson, then offered me a
ride back into town since he rented his own car. He was living in Paris and traveling through
Central America with friends. He worked
in the oil and gas industry in France and did some research on Costa Rica
before traveling here. He said that the
country started a government-directed program with a goal to have 100%
renewable energy about 15 years ago and today they sit at 98.3% renewable
energy – pretty amazing. They get energy
through many different methods – hydroelectric, wind, solar and geothermal.
We ate lunch
in Santa Elena town center, at a rather bizarre restaurant that was built
around a really old and large tree. The
winding staircase circled the thick trunk and at the top are tables which
alternate places based on the where the branches reach out over the street
below. I got a sampler meal with a bunch
of local goodies such as cheese balls and sugar coated plantains.
While we
were resting in our room, we got a call from the front desk that our driver was
here to pick us up for a tour. We had actually
booked this for the next day and our voucher said so, but we preferred to do it
today so we could watch the OU football game tomorrow and pack without stress. So we quickly got our stuff together and
rushed out the door to seize the opportunity.
We were
placed in a group with 6 other people, and there were about 8 other groups of
similar size going out at the same time.
Our guide’s name was Jorge and his English was excellent, so everyone asked
many questions. This is the first tour
we did where there were people from all over the world: Canada, France,
Germany, Chile and USA.
As we would
pass other groups, the guides would share info on what they had found so that
the other group could see the same thing.
We didn’t really expect to find much, but we actually saw several
animals: a 3ft boa constrictor high up in a tree, which migrated from the
rainforest area; bright green pit viper (deadly poisonous); spider the size of
a tennis ball which was carrying a sack of eggs; unassuming bee’s nest right
near the office; about 10 of the same brown birds who were sleeping in
different trees; a leaf cutter ant colony that was about the same size as my 4Runner;
a gecko; a fairy sort of creature in the forest, an Olingo, which is like a
monkey; and some tree frogs. It is unfortunately difficult to take pictures of anything because it is so dark.
The guide
stopped at a large tree toward the end to explain that there is no way to
accurately determine the age of any of the trees in the forest here because
they do not have rings. Trees normally
develop dark rings when they pause from growing in the winter season; however,
most of Costa Rica only has dry season and wet season, where the trees continuously
grow.
Lastly, we ate
dinner again in the commercial center, this time at Sabor Tico which costs
about half as much as other restaurants, but we found out why due to the poor
service and quality of food. An
unfortunate end to a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment