Costa Rica Day 4: All the cool people come here or perhaps a bit too much adrenaline.

Key: Zach = black
EJ = red

Hey gang hope all if going well stateside.  We had another action packed day yet again.  Got to sleep in a little bit today and was not up and showered until around 7:00ish.  We started the morning with a short hike down to the butterfly garden.  Elsa had been itching to see it since we arrived in a few days ago.  Overall, it was fun and there were lots of beautiful butterflies and other bugs to look at.  I think our guide was a newly, arrived intern from the US though so it was mainly a repetition of a lot of the other stuff were learned so far. We saw many Blue Morphos (huge beautiful butterflies that are iridescent blue on their backs and camoflaged brown spots on the underside).  Impossible to capture by still picture-- so be sure to watch our videos at home.  The ones we did get pictures of are actually toxic from the cyanide they consume in the plants--- those are the red/ yellow "Postman", the Orange Julien, and the Zebra.  One other kind, the Glass Butterfly, is nearly impossible to see since its wings are see-through.  That's a picture of one up close (up at the top).

After that, we hiked down to our favorite café, where we were able to relax, drink some coffee and buy some gifts.  The farmer who grew the beans for the coffee shop was there in person (Ken), and he roasted fresh coffee beans for us to bring home.  The picture of the coffee roaster are the actual beans we took with us!  At the café, we met two ladies from Massachusetts, one actually from Topsfield.  Turns out she was a camper at Cederdale a little while after I (Zach) was (day camp).  Small world huh?  We also saw our new vet friend from Minnesota (Noelani).  She stopped into the café with her mom before heading out to the beaches across the country.  We got to chat with her again, and she even gave us a lift up the mountain before she left (thank goodness). On our way back up to the hotel, we stopped at a shop (i.e. a room off the side of a dilapadated house...) where a woman was selling beautiful hand-made products from her family's farm in Equador (alpaca, llama, sheep farm). The rugs, tapestries, sweaters, and clothing were all hand-made and stunningly beautiful.  We purchased a huge duffel made of llama fur--- then promptly stuffed it with 30 bags of coffee :-)  

Don't worry folks some is coming back to you

Now that we had interacted with nature, collected some gifts, and were fully caffeinated we were ready for the adventure canopy tour… or so we thought….

Dave, Zach, Elsa, Colin

It all started off well enough.  We met two cool guys from Canada (Colin and Dave) and the four of us became quick friends.  Along with the rest of the crew, we got strapped in and started to slide from cable to cable.  I will admit that initially, I was a little nervous and I may have had to monkey climb along the second warm up line because I applied too much braking power too early.  Still, I quickly got a hang of it and flew quickly through the next four cables.  After these cables we rappelled down (actually I free fell while attached to cord once pushed off a platform).  I did this with grace and composure and absolutely did not swear on my way down.  At this point, I walked over to the Canadian duo to kibitz until the rest of the group caught up.  What happened next skyrocketed my adrenaline beyond belief. 

Some key facts to know:

1)   Elsa was the next person in line behind me and should have been coming any second. 

2)   A very loud, very long series of female screams started a few moments after I sat down (not just screams saying "I’m stuck on a line or having fun").

3)   Elsa wasn’t coming…

4)   The guides by us wouldn’t tell us anything or act concerned

5)   Elsa wasn’t coming….

6)   The walkie-talkie exploded with loud, frantic Spanish speaking men, which caused two of our guides to monkey, rappel very quickly to where we had come.

7)   Elsa wasn’t coming…

8)   My brain could only think to say ‘Mi esposa, mi esposa,’ which was ignored by the remaining guide.

9)   Elsa wasn’t coming…

10 Luckily the Canadian duo and a nice girl from Mexico were able to convince the guide to check on Elsa and I was assured she was ok… like I was going to trust these guys at this point.

11 Oh yeah and Elsa wasn’t coming …

At this point, EJ has asked to author a part of this entry so here we go:

All right – so in case Zach didn’t explain this, there’s supposed to be two guys in charge of any particular zip line.  One guy is in charge of releasing you, and another with receiving you.  The most important is the one receiving you because he tells you when to slow down, then he catches/stops you. WELL—after I reached the end of one particular cable, the receiver let me down and started to hook me up to the next cable.  While he was doing that, the next girl came flying down… and obviously he wasn’t able to direct her or catch her. (I blame this on the guy who carelessly released her without checking to see that the next guy was ready…) So she zipped down at full speed and smashed straight into the tree where the cable ended. She immediately started screaming and crying.  She was yelling “Mi Pierna, Mi pierna! Porque Dios Mio!” (“ My leg! My leg! Why God, WHY?!” ) The guide was like (in Spanish)—“ Just calm down, you’ll be fine, just a minute…” And she was like “ No!  I’m not fine!!!”  Meanwhile, through the screaming, I asked whether she thought she broke her leg. It looked like she could move her hip, femur, and knee ok… be she was still dangling by the cable.  Finally another guide zipped down, a third started to climb up the opposite cable, and her husband was brought over.  When they brought her down off the cable and they tried to make her bear weight, the screaming was terrible.  Then I saw it! Her knee moved, and her ankle was dangling. I was almost positive she had a complete distal tibial/ fibular fracture.  I kept trying to tell the guys that she broke her tibia… but I don’t think they wanted to listen to me (the little annoying American girl who was talking medical-speak).  The woman’s face got pale, and she was forced to lie down.   Finally, they got a splint and started to try to stabilize the leg.  She kept screaming that there was no way she was moving down from the platform (yeah… she was 50 feet in the air… and there was no helicopter coming to take her away…).  I finally was able to zip away and repel down, much to the relief of Zach.  I still have no idea how they got her down.

Ok its Zach again… crazy huh!  Needless, to say it was not Elsa screaming and she was ok (if a little traumatized).   The remainder of the tour group was standing halfway in this course clearly shaken.  The head guide tried to gloss over the event in order to make sure the rest of us continued the course (so we wouldn’t get refunds?  Perhaps).  While I was glad to have made it through the emotional ringer intact, my faith in this escapade was noticeably shaken.  Still, I soldiered on.   The sad/interesting thing is the rest of the course was really exciting and amazing.  I will try to attach some pictures and videos from this part (EJ inadvertently did videotape the above event, but I have decided that posting that would be disrespectful and in very poor taste).  We got to soar 100’s of feet above the canopy, fly like superman, and even do a Tarzan swing.  The adrenaline was sky high let me tell you.

The slow walk of dread to the Tarzan swing

So kind of a bummer, but certainly an experience to remember, next time maybe less cocky 20 yr olds and more bilingual careful guides. Apparently, the group in Arenal will be better prepared. 

Superman?  Supergirl!

Lest you think we ended the day on a bad note, we did not.  We had a delicious lunch/dinner at The Tree House with some traditional Costa Rican food..... and some very strong cocktails to help Elsa forget what it was like to watch a woman break her leg.  The restaurant was cool- it has a huge tree growing right through it and we sat at the balcony.  It felt like Swiss Family Robinson (again).  

Oye, I am physically and emotionally exhausted… look for tomorrow’s entry from Arenal!  Z and E

Reptile shot per request :)

Cool videos to follow, not uploading correctly and we gotta go have fun!