Costa Rica Re-Cap #3: Ziplining, Waterfall, Volcano Hike

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

Fair warning, this is a long one.....I promise I tried to condense it down!  If you missed Day 1 or Day two, click here!  (And I'm linking up with What I'm Loving Wednesday!)  Remember, you can click on the photos to make them bigger!

Well after my near death experience the day before, I was excited to cross two items off my bucket list on Day #3:  ziplining through a jungle and seeing a waterfall!  Not only did I get my two checkmarks, I also got to Tarzan swing, swim under said waterfall, and met two new friends, who we'll call The Ohios!

I'm Loving....Ziplining

This was the #1 activity that we all wanted to do in Costa Rica.  I was pretty darn jazzed up about it....right up until we climbed up the big ol' ladder and it came time to step off that platform.  At that point, I was way less sure!  I had to have quite the conversation with my little friend the guide to ensure that I was, in fact, clipped in twice and that I would not die during this little adventure. 

Not going to lie, the first pass....not fun.  Not fun at all.  But after that was over, it was absolutely amazing!  We had wonderful views of the rainforest, the volcano, horses grazing below....I mean it was really incredible.  Here are a few shots from the adventure (including crazy Cousin Swiss Mister going upside freaking down!!)

So...turns out, I was not so good with the brakes.  I swear I was doing what they told me, but I could not stop myself, which was pretty stressful when you think you're about to slam into a tree!  Here's Cousin Swiss Mister signaling me to slow it down.  You can see from my face that didn't work out so well.  Luckily Gustavo there had my back.

Stop!!

The craziest part of ziplining was the Tarzan swing.  We are such failures that we didn't get any pictures....but we do have it on video!  I promise to include this in the video montage that we are making.  But picture it, you walk up to this clearing.  There is a wooden platform and above it is a trapeeze looking thing hung on a tree.  You look out and there are trees everywhere, and you look down into the clearing and just see the tops of more trees.  In other words, you're freaking high up.  Anyway, they strap you onto the cable hanging from the trapeeze thing and push you off out into the jungle where you swing like Tarzan.  I kept saying, "Guys, I don't think I can do this."  To which everyone reminded of me of my "Go Big or Go Home" statement the day before.  Me and my big fat mouth!  BOKG was not sure either...she got up for her turn and looked at the guide before he strapped her in and said, "Let's have a conversation about this."  He ignored her, shoved her off, and away she went.  It was incredible!  Bucket List Ziplining:  Check!

I'm Loving....The La Fortuna Waterfall

So because I'm not a very good relaxer, I insisted that we jam as much into our last day at La Fortuna as humanly possible.  This included the La Fortuna Waterfall that I had heard great things about.  Having not seen a waterfall before and having that on my bucket list, I knew we had to go.  So we get to the waterfall park and it's starting to look a little like rain.  We hiked down the 480 steps to the waterfall and enjoyed the views!

 When we got to the waterfall, the water was freezing and it started to sprinkle.  A couple was there and they said they really wanted to get in, but it was just too cold.  Ha....Go Big or Go Home, we told them, and us girls stripped down to our swim suits and swam (froze our butts off!) in that waterfall! 

After adjusting ourselves (see below) we took some photos.

Ahem...getting ready for the photo shoot.

And after a couple of pictures, it started to rain.  By rain, I mean POUR.  Cousin Swiss Mister took off running for the covered bridge, leaving us girls to fend for ourselves.  Chivalry is dead, apparently.  Freezing cold water, soaking wet clothes, and a hike back up the 480 stairs was a small price to pay to get another checkmark that day!

I'm Loving....A Volcano Tour

If there was one part of the trip I could have skipped, this was it.  However....had we not gone, we would not have met The Ohios, our new trip BFFs, so I'm super glad we did.  Long story short, our group and The Ohios were the first people on the bus.  They ask where we are from and we each tell them the state we live in--all 4 different.  They ask how we know each other and we explain the complicated story.  Then we decide that to simplify, we should all say that we are from Ohio.  And we made up a story about how one of The Ohios was my ex and we broke up because of the Blonde Oklahoma Girl and that the other Ohio used to date The Bride.  You know, just to jazz things up a bit.  So for the rest of the hike, we were all from Ohio.  And we decided any guys crazy enough to go along with our hairbrained scheme had to be our new friends.....so we hung out with The Ohios for the rest of the week! 

On the hike, we learned about the volcano and hiked through the rainforest, but saw no monkeys or any other cool animals.  The funniest part was watching Cousin Swiss Mister freak out anytime something moved thinking it was a snake.  He's still got PTSD from his experience at the ranch 20 years ago.

I'm Loving....A Pool Party

You'd think after all that craziness in one day, we'd have been too tired for anything else.  Instead, we ended up at the swim up bar for pretty much the whole night.  We were totally the fun group and we ended up with a whole circle of friends (anyone who came into the pool got sucked into our party) and had THE best time.  After they kicked us out of the pool (literally BOKG, The Bride and our new friends stayed in the hot springs even after they trained the water), we all headed over to the lawn where BOKG and I totally got bucked off of a hammock and everyone just laid around on the grass and in the hammocks and had a fine time.  One of my favorite parts about traveling is the chance to meet other people from totally different backgrounds and all just have a great time!

Stay tuned tomorrow to hear about our adventures at the beach in Manuel Antonio!

Day 3 Summary

List of Activities:  Ziplining; Waterfall Swimming; Volcano Tour; Pool Party.

Quote of the Day:  "How do you like knowing that your life is in the hands of the lowest bidding welder in Costa Rica?"  ~Cousin Swiss Mister to me while on a ziplining platform

Lessons Learned:  (1) Even when you're scared, sometimes you just have to jump!  (2) Lots of times the unplanned events are the best ones.  (3)  You  never know where you'll find new friends...a bus, a swim up bar, or a hammock!