Zip, Zip, Hurrah!

Just because I haven't been quiiiiite relaxed enough during my time in Costa Rica, I decided that I just HAD to have a massage while here at Papagayo. I even got up early to get it (ironic that I get up earlier while on vacation than when at home). It was SO nice and felt SO good, it was all I could do to pry myself off the table when it was done. But somehow I fortified myself for the grueling walk from there back to the pool. I'm telling ya', vacation isn't as easy as it appears!

We spent the morning at the beach/pool, then had to check out by noon so we raced back up to the room around, oh, 11:45 or so to throw all of our things in our bags and make it out on time. And then the real fun began....

.... we went zip lining! In the course of my travels around Costa Rica, the one thing that almost everyone told me we just HAD to do was to go zip lining over the rainforest. They were right. I'm glad it worked out as happening on our last day as it was quite a way to go out! Should there be concern over an activity that requires you to sign a waiver agreeing to possible maiming and/or death? Possibly. But life is short so what's a little maiming here or there. It was SO worth it!

There were 6 of us in our group and, with the guide trying to explain the directions in broken English, we all just looked at each other and said "Huh? What are we supposed to do?". So the first person to go was really and truly a guinea pig... and it was Niki. She figured the directions weren't going to get any clearer, she wasn't going to understand any more so why the heck not. Go, Niki!

For a person afraid of heights, I was surprised at my own complete lack of nervousness as I got strapped up and basically shoved off of a platform to be suspended by a wire cable hundreds of feet in the air over the rain forest. What a view, floating over the trees and being able to look out and see the ocean right next to it. Too cool. I guess by the third line, they figured we were as good as professionals so had us go... upside down! There was a moment of hesitation on my part at the moment where I actually had to flip myself upside down but it was oddly freeing to be hanging that way, not holding on to anything, arms hanging free.
All was going well, having a great time in getting confident in my zipping abilities when they took us across a swinging bridge which ended in another platform... but this one didn't hold another zip line, rather a "monkey walk" where you basically had to WALK across a cable while holding on and balancing yourself with some ropes. I went last and, even after watching everyone else make it, when I went to step down onto the thin little cable, I almost couldn't do it. Just could not make my foot leave the safety of the platform to balance on a tiny little wire. Seriously. But I sucked it up and did it. And then, as if my fear of heights didn't make it scary enough, one of the guides, as well as my own COUSIN on the other end, started shaking the cable I was precariously balanced on. Or should I say my EX-cousin.

FYI, I'm pretty sure Niki is the only person in the history of the world to go zip lining in a cute little dress. Can you spell c-h-a-f-i-n-g?