We had been to Costa Rica one other time years before (albeit on the other side, in Limon) and enjoyed a privately arranged excursion to do some zip-lining. When the opportunity came up to join a group this time, we signed up. The organizer ended up having to bow out of the cruise, so we took over organizing it. There were about 20 people signed up for the "25 ziplines over 11 waterfalls including lunch and transportation at the Adventure Park of the Hotel Vista Golfo". This was more than double the number of lines we had done before. It was about an hour's drive from the cruise port into the mountains and then another rough ride in a large ATV to the top of the zip-line trail. I left the camera at the base camp (didn't want to drop it into one of the waterfalls), so there aren't a lot of pictures of this excursion. But the fun of zip-lining is the zipping through the air over the tree-tops and waterfalls. It's not as much to fun watch other people doing it, and still pictures can't really do it justice anyway.
On the drive up to the base station. Our cruise ship is way off in the distance, docked in the bay.
We were lucky to have good weather for this excursion.
As we got our gear setup, one of the guides grabbed a snake as it "invaded" our encampment. Didn't get much of a reaction though - I think we were all more nervous about what was to come.
One of the several waterfalls that we "zipped" over.
One of the longer lines through the trees.
There were a couple of the locations that were very steep, so we had to rappel down the line - going backward, feeding the line through. This proved to be more difficult than a regular zipline. The guides made it all look so easy, but when some us more "mature" domestic types launched off, it was a lot less elegant.
We also had a long, swinging, rope bridge to cross (safely harnessed in).
The view from the hotel where we had lunch after the ziplining.
The pool at the hotel. Maybe that would have been a better idea. There were a few people that did not go ziplining, instead hanging out at the hotel waiting for the rest of us.
This big fellow greeted us as we made our way along the pier to the cruise ship. He just wouldn't turn around for a decent shot though. Maybe if we had some fish to offer?
Our ship, the Norwegian Star awaited us. Along with a refreshing shower, a refreshing beer, and a well-deserved (air-conditioned) dinner!