Horses, Boats and Ziplines are us!

Here I am in sunny, hot Quepos - located in the south west side of the country. My last entry was from La Fortuna, we left there a few days ago (sorry, don't even know what day it is now). Our van drove us to a boat, where we travelled around the bottom of the volcano, and then met our next "vehicle" - horses! We rode for 2.5 hours in the rain forest on the most beautiful creatures. Well most of them. Martin's horse (our French Canadian) kept biting all of our horses, but it was quite comical and fortunately he was able to contain the rascal. It was raining, so we were all in ponchos and helmeted and looking like we were ready for action, but really raining in the rain forest is quite acceptable! After riding, we were all complaining of horse butt (as compared to squash butt!- nonsquashers: that is when your butt kills after not having played squash for a few days).
We arrived in Mondeverde, a small town in the cloud forest - and they are not kidding. The ride up the mountain was about 1 hour of driving at 20 - 30 km per hour. This was a dirt road with many, many potholes. So one gravol later and we are off the races. When we arrived, whew, we all were commenting that this was a trip being "jiggled about" (a Louise expression pronunced with the best Leeds accent). We were in an area of 100% humidity, and when we were there, although not typical, very strong winds. We took a tour in the cloud forest, looking at adaptation of plants and some animals. The difference between a cloud and a rain forest is that the cloud forest has a great altitude and therefore what would be rain, is now clouds, the rain falls on the surrounding lower areas.
The next day, some of us decided to walk on the canopy bridges, giving us a different perspective of the forest, but really the same species were seen. The real excitement, and I mean real excitement came when we went ziplining.
I have never had such adreline highs. Imagine that you are harnassed in, attached to a line that is 100 m above the forest floor, and runs for 400 m. Oh, I forgot to mention, that before you take off for the trip, the guide is yelling something at you in spanish (probably, "alright you crazy gringo, you asked for it, here you go, hang on!") and then he sends you away. The view is positively nothing that I have seen, and the high from being so free up the sky is incredible. You are whisked from line to line, like clothes out to dry on the clothesline. Zipping across the cloud forest like you are an eagle. Wonderful.
At one platform, I was too light and the guide was yelling at me for breaking, but I hadn't. Really! Well, then he whisked me around and says turn around. I do (not wanting to get in trouble). That is when I swore! And most of you know that I don't really do that. Oh my god, I dropped down a 15ft rapelle. Like a free fall, but not knowing that that was what you were going to do. (I would like to report that I was not the only one who swore). My heart was pounding out of my chest and across the forest. Ten minutes of recovery and we were off again. That was the biggest rush of my life!
We then left Mondeverde, which incidently is a coffee growing region of Costa Rica. Some of us, all the Canadians, left early in the morning and headed for the beach. I have spent the last two days like a two toed sloth - hanging out on the beach with little movement. Decided not to sign up for a single activity but to enjoy the sounds of the palms rustling in the breeze, and the waves crushing on the shore. This is my down town after a fab trip.
Tomorrow I am heading for Manual Antonio National Park for a day of hiking - pleasure hiking (i.e. no hills) and taking photos of the abundance of monkeys. The rest of the day I will spend snorkelling and slothing. We are having our last night dinner together on the beach- a local is cooking us a barbeque right on the beach.
But now, it is hot and I am off to the pool. We (the Canadians) just came from dinner and we are about to have a late night swim before retiring for the day. Most days we are in bed by 10 p.m. It is exhausting having so much fun you know!
This is probably my last entry before I head back to San Jose where I will be for one night and then off to the big land of snow. This continues to be a wonderful trip- can't wait to share it in person with all of you!

Brenda