The zipsters do it again!

Saturday, January 9:

Today we are in Puerto Limon (PL), Costa Rica. We had visited PL about three years ago on our South America trip and we had then tried zip-lining. What a hoot it was then. When we discovered that we could go back and do it again, we signed right up!

Just to orient you, here is a map of Costa Rica with PL circled. Brisas de la Jungla (Jungle Breezes) Zip line Center and Nature Reserve was inland about a 30-minute drive from the pier. In most other places, it would have been about 10 minutes, but this is Costa Rica. They have great schools and hospitals, but really terrible roads.



They have eleven zips ranging from about 350’ long to over 1500’ long and from treetop height to several hundred feet above the treetops. Exhilarating and just a teeny bit scary.



As we were being fitted for the harnesses that coupled us to the zip lines, Bonnie said” Do you think this makes be look like I have a big rear end?” Naturally, I answered”………..”

The harness attaches to two places on the zip pulley apparatus and there are double lines for safety redundancy – small comfort if you are hanging  by a buckle several hundred feet above terra firma.

After we were all harnessed up and before we went to the first zip, we had a safety briefing. Guess who was the lucky one chosen to be demonstrated upon:



The whole set of zips was just as much a thrill as the first time we did it three years ago.

Our local guide was a young man named Jonathan who was a typical lively “Tico” or native Costa Rican.



After a fun-filled (and slightly exhausting) morning, we headed back to the ship. We were docked beside the Holland America ms Amsterdam. The Amsterdam is also on a world cruise and we will be shadowing each other for a few weeks until our respective paths take us to different places in the world. She is a much larger ship (about 1200 passengers) and cannot get into some of the ports that we can.



Once we were back aboard the Silver Whisper we immediately went for lunch and a rejuvenating nap.

Tomorrow we transit the Panama Canal.

Stay tuned...