August 21, 2005- Abseiling down Tropical Waterfalls

This morning, we went canyoning with Pure Trek canyoning. This was adjacent to the town of La Fortuna. They took us on the back of a pick up truck on dirt roads to the top of the canyon in the rainforest. Accompanying us was a family with 2 boys. The abseiling was similar to what we did in Wanaka, with the exception that the guides did the hook ups in to the figure 8 ring for us. And there were 2 guides, one holding the safety rope from above, and another holding on to the end of your rope from below. Unlike the one in Wanaka, the first rappel did not involve standing on a bar. We just went off a platform built at the edge of the cliff. The first rappel was a dry wall that seemed to last forever. I was having trouble feeding the rope into the 8-ring and it took me forever to get down. I though it was never going end. And I wasn’t even scared. I guess I’m used to it by now. The next few rappels were in or along side a waterfall. The canyon walls were not as smooth as the one in Wanaka, and the waterways were not as sculpted. This was good because it was less slippery but bad because we couldn’t do any waterslides. There were no deep pools at the end of the waterfalls and you ended up landing on your feet rather that swimming against currents to get out from under the falls. Overall, I’d say that it was a fun adventure, but the one in Wanaka was better. After the last rappel, we had to walk out of the canyon through the rainforest. Back at the Pure Trek headquarters, they fed us lunch that they purchased from a local soda. We had tamarind juice, a cabbage slaw, and some rice mixed with tuna fish, peas and other seasoning. Also a side of beans that was quite yummy but made me quite ill in the belly that afternoon.

After we checked out of the Lost Iguana that afternoon, we went to the Arenal Hanging Bridges. This as a series of suspension bridges in the rainforest that put us at the level of the canopy. I guess it is supposed to help us see the wildlife. But on our own with our untrained eyes, the only thing we found was a parade of leaf cutter ants- which was certainly interesting in its own right. I had only seen them in documentaries prior to this. During our 1.5 hour hike in the rainforest here, the clouds cleared, and we got to see the peak of Arenal for the first time from up in the suspension bridges. The clearing lasted for about 30minutes, after which the clouds loomed in again. We were fortunate to catch that moment.

After that, we had a long drive back to San Jose via San Ramon. We wanted to stop at the CocoLoco Art store on the way but it was closed, ( Sunday) much to Mike’s disappointment. We had dinner at Manolo’s restaurant in the city of San Jose. The papaya milk drink was yummy- they make just like the way the make it in Singapore. And the churros were filled with a custardy brown center- I’m still craving it now. For our mains, we had grilled corvina and smoked pork chops (which was essentially bone-in ham cutlets). Mike also had wine and beer and the entire meal was for less than $20.