Safety
equipment for "zip lines"
Suspension
bridges through the trees
Scott's
tour guide Leonid & SelvaTura crew
Ayeeeeeeeeeeee!
We
were last in Costa Rica about 10 years ago (circa 1993). We had had little
experience in developing countries, yet alone driving in
developing countries. We loved Costa Rica; the people, food, jungle.
Since then we've been "around the block" a few times —
so it was interesting to see how our own perspectives
had changed over the years and miles. For example, after touring in Thailand,
our concept of what constitutes a "bad road" has changed quite
a bit.
The country hasn't changed that much since then, which is a great thing. We arrived at Punta Arenas, on the west side of the isthmus. Kathy and I had different tours arranged through Port Compass. Scott's tour was in the distant Monteverde cloud forest (at 1800m / 5900ft elevation) with wonderful weather (around 18c/ 68f and sunshine). Kathy's tour was closer to the port (so she got to do more) but was "hot as hell and twice as humid".
Kathy's tour included a biological reserve tour where she encountered (among other things) anteaters, she's still talking about it so must have been pretty cool. But as it turned out, both of us ended up doing "canopy tours". This is a total "Tarzan" kind of thing; you climb up steel platforms up to near the tree tops, then "zip" between sites along cables ("zip lines"). It's all very safe and extremely stimulating. Doing something like this is fairly out of character for both of us, and we both thought it was fabulous. Kathy's photos are on film (remember film?) so there're just a couple of digital photos from Scott, here.
*Pura Vida is Costa Rica's national "tagline". It means "pure
life" and refers to a concern for the quality of their existence,
relationships, ecology — all aspects that contribute
to "the good life". Americans could learn a thing or two here...
Safety
equipment for "zip lines"
Suspension
bridges through the trees
Scott's
tour guide Leonid & SelvaTura crew
Ayeeeeeeeeeeee!