Sky Trek Zip Line Adventure - Costa Rica

I've always had a bit of the daredevil or adventurer in me. When I was younger I often thought it would be fun to try sky diving but now I don't think that would happen unless I were to jump with a trained professional. I've often thought that going for a hot air balloon ride would be fun too. One thing I never thought I would do was go on zip lines hundreds of metres off the ground above the rainforest tree tops. Yet that is exactly what I, Steve and our friends Kathryn and Dave did last week in Costa Rica. The picture to the left shows the layout of the 2.5 km of zip lines strung above and through the Costa Rican rainforest near Arenal Volcano.

To start they oufit you in a harness, give you a hard hat(like the hard hat would help if you fell, LOL!) and send you up the mountainside in the tram. There are great views of the rainforest from the Tram. Then you do two 20 metre lines to learn how to hold yourself on the zip line, how to slow down and then stop when you reach the platform. Then you're on your way through 6 remaining lines ranging in length from 425 metres to 750 metres, all strung high above the rainforest. I did ask if anyone ever got stuck in the middle of the line and the response was, "not so far but you could be the first", very supportive were these Costa Rican young men! We then asked what if you stop short of the platform and they expained how you turn yourself and then pull yourself in backwards on the cable. I thought there was no way I'd be able to do that and was determined that if I felt myself slowing down or if the wind seemed to catch me,as they advised, I'd lean back and pull my legs further up to maintain my speed. And that's eaxctly what I did and didn't fall short of the platform once. Although a man who came behind us fell short of the platform a couple of times. You can reach speeds of 60km/hour on the zip lines and I can say that it is a very exhilerating. Once you complete the first one and realize how quickly you reach the other side and that you survived, you actually enjoy the remaining lines and the unique views of the rainforest. I'd definitely go on zip lines again and as I told Kathryn, we're ready for the Amazing Race now!