This morning we went to the nature reserve for an awesome walking tour of the cloud forest that took about 3 hours. We had a excellent yet slightly bird crazy guide – he’d actually make bird calls to locate different spiciest – we managed to see the elusive quetzel. Insect wise, there were tarantulas and 10 inch walking sticks getting it on. They also had a section with sugar water feeders with a rainbow of humming birds zooming all around our heads. Cynthia really got into using the camera and took a number of excellent macro shots of the different exotic flowers I helped spot along the trail.

On the way back from the preserve, we stopped at the Quaker cheese factory for ice cream ( I had a strawberry shake), and then finished off lunch in town at the Taco Taco Taqueria (guess what we ate).

Our afternoon excursion was the EXTREME Canopy Tour. I’d been zip-lining before last year in the CR, but this version took things to an extreme level. There were 14 total zip lines – these I could handle, even when we repeatedly crossed a small valley. I puckered up a bit for a free fall rappel 100 feet off a tree to the ground . . . and flat out refused to do the tarzan swing, which you have to see Cynthia do to believe.

Here (Warning, movie is >8 MB)

As proof of the EXTREME-ness, They weren’t able to properly grab Lou from our group on his chance at the swing, and he lost his momentum and got stuck spinning at the apex for about 10 minutes as the guides climbed through the jungle to throw him a rope and pull him back to the platform. This traumatized his daughter Nicole.

All of the zip-lining was a blast, but on the last (EXTREME) line, we were allowed to couple up and do tandem . Cynthia took a video. By the way, at 750 meters (nearly half a mile!), this is the longest zip line in the world (about a minute). Doing some simple math here, that means we were going about 30 mph.

Here (Warning, also > 8 MB)

Dinner was at Johnny’s Italian, yet another Costa Rican restaurant that has pizza. I had baked penne to quench my pasta craving. We also shared a bottle of cheap but tasty Chilean Wine (Fortuna Cab Sav).

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