Ready for Zip Lines

This photo shows my wife ready for a zip lining outing.  Zip lining has been popular in Costa Rica for years.  I have recently been noticing more zip lining places in other locations, including the USA.  I assume that the presence of zip lines in he USA reflects that the safety of zip lining has reached a point that insurance companies are now comfortable writing insurance policies for zip line operations.

This week we are showing some more photos from Julie's recent trip to Guatemala, featuring the market town of ChiChi and Guatemala City on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  

Safe arrival on the platform

I would not want to leave anyone hanging after yesterday's photo of a young woman repelling down to the river.  She landed safely on the platform, as did my two sons and I a few moments later.

This week we have photos of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Repelling down to the river

This photo shows the process of repelling down the cable from the upper platform to the platform jsut above the river, which I showed yesterday.

This activity was fun on a variety of levels.  It was unusual, beautiful scenery.  It as a day outdoors in nature.  And it expanded one's experiences by doing something new.  Young people love it.  And even folks like me (I am over 60) can do it.

This week we have photos of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.

Repelling down the canyon to the river

I took this photo from a platform over the river, looking down onto a platform that straddles a narrow canyon.  You see a cable on the right.   That cable is the method of getting from the platform where I am to the platform where you see people below.

This is part of the zip lining course at the adventure tour of Hacienda Guachipelin, about 90 minutes northeast of Tamarindo.  At this point in the course, you repel down towards the river.  The next step is to do a Tarzan swing across the river.

Today is Sunday, so we have new photos posted on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.  This week we are showing photos of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, a very picturesque spot.

Zip lining upside down

Zip lining is plenty thrilling enough for me.  I have no need or desire to add even more thrill by zip lining upside down.  Others, such as this young woman, are more adventurous.

We are showing photos of the main temple complex of Bangkok, Thailand on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Look, Ma, No Hands

This zip liner demonstrated that she was flying through the trees with no hands.  Maintaining some contact with the cable with the thick leather gloves that they give you while zip lining is advisable because the gloves are also the method of slowing down as you approach the landing platform.

If you apply friction to the cable with the gloves too soon or too firmly, however, you will stop before reaching the other platform and will have to pull yourself along the cable.  That does not happen often, nor for very far, as most people would rather come in a little fast and let the attendant catch you than pull yourself along the line.

We are showing photos of the main temple complex of Bangkok, Thailand on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site this week.

Zip lining crew

This photo memorializes that my two sons and I safely and happily completed the zip line phase of our Hacienda Guachipelin Adventure Tour, with the four attendants who assisted us and the three young women in our group.  

With the photos I have shown during the past week or so of our zip lining, rappelling, Tarzan swinging, rock climbing, being perched on the side of the slot canyon cliff, more zip lining, and upside down zip lining, it is perhaps easy to overlook that we arrived at Hacienda Guachipelin at 10:00 a.m. and everything I have shown you thus far occurred before lunch.  

Sharon of Phoenix Daily Photo left a comment a few days ago that she surmised that we would be tired after all this activity, but there is much more to come. 

Zip lining, upside down

As promised yesterday, here are two photos of people going down the zip lines upside down.  Like most of the other lengths of zip lines at hacienda Guachipelin, this final length of the zip lines crosses the slot canyon yet again.  

The second photo shows that it is not possible to control the direction of your body as you are hanging upside down on the zip lines.  She had the added thrill of traveling through the air, fast, upside down, and backwards, while looking down at the rushing river in the bottom of the slot canyon.  

You can see three of the attendants and the woman's two friends on the destination platform on the other end of the zip line.  

 

As I mentioned yesterday, my younger son, Stuart, did this zip line upside down, but I did not.  Was it foremost on my mind wondering what I would do with my camera that was dangling around my neck if my nearly 60 year old bones were hanging upside down?  Sure, that was it.

Zip lines upside down

I previously showed the young women who were in our zip lining group going down the zip lines with no hands, one of them rappelled down the canyon upside down, and I described how my wife went down the zip lines in a horizontal "Super-Chica" position.  For the last zip line in our Adventure Tour at Hacienda Guachipelin, the guide asked is if we wanted to zip line upside down.  The three women who were in our group eagerly accepted the challenge, as did my younger son, Stuart, but not I.

Here is a photo of the guide positioning one of the women upside down.  I am sure that your attention was drawn first to the pulley mechanism that is shown in this photo.  You will note that there are riders are attached to the zip lines in two ways.  In addition to the hook hanging from the pulley, there is a safety hook attached around the cable behind the pulley at all times.   The attendants were very careful to make sure that the safety cable was attached whenever we were hooked or unhooked to the pulley.

The three women from New York who were in the same group with us said it would be OK for me to take their photos and post them on this website, but I used my discretion to post a photo that was made somewhat more modest due to the location of the guide's elbow and forearm.

My younger son, Stuart, also did the last zip line upside down.  I think he figured that it would be too much of an insult to his manhood if the women were the only ones to do the trip upside down.  I decided that I am too old for such thrill-seeking, and the regular zip lining position is plenty adventurous for me.  (And of course I had my camera to think about and protect.)

What does it look like to zip across the canyon while suspended upside down?  By now in this series of photos you have probably anticipated my teaser:  the answer will be shown tomorrow.

Zip-lining down the canyon

This is my older son as he set off on the zip lines heading to the second to the last platform.  You can see the platform in the distance.  It has been built into the canyon wall, just below the top of the cliff.  

This photo also shows a perspective of the distance and elevation drop from one platform to the next.  Visible in the bottom of the photo is the Rio Blanco river that carved the slot canyon through which we were zip-lining, rappelling, Tarzan-swinging, and rock climbing, 

 

In this photo you can see my son's right arm positioned on the cable, ready to pull down if he needs to brake.  The friction of the leather glove pulling down on the cable provides the braking.   

You may recall that near the beginning of this photo tour I showed a picture of one of the women who took the tour with us traveling down the zip lines with no hands.  Tomorrow and the following day I will show you something even more extreme.  Fasten your seat belts.

Perched on the edge of a cliff

The next stop on the zip line tour found us walking along the edge of the cliff of the canyon.  Here you see my younger son, Stuart, with one of the guides, on a narrow ledge, with the river down below.  Don't worry, there is still a safety cable that would hold him if he fell.

From this perch on the side of the cliff, each of us swung across the canyon to reach the other side using another Tarzan swing.

Tomorrow I will show you what happened next.

Zip line platform suspended over canyon

This is a photo of the platform at the end of the zip line shown in yesterday's photo.  What is remarkable about it is that the platform on which to land is suspended in mid air over the canyon, attached only by cables to the two canyon walls.  

If you are worried what might happen if a rider approaches this platform at too high a speed, there is no need to worry.  When riding the zip lines, it is possible to slow down by applying the brakes.  The brakes consist of thick leather gloves on which you can pull down on the cable from which your pulley and cable are hanging.  It is critical, of course, to keep your hand behind the pulley so your pulley does not run over  your hand.

At the Hacienda Guachipelin zip line tour, the platforms have blocks on the wires that catch the incoming riders so it is possible to approach the platforms at a higher speed without braking, and the blocks will stop you automatically.

The automatic brakes are a benefit because it is a mistake on the zip lines to brake to the extent that you stop before reaching the platform.  If you stop too soon, you will have to spin around and reach up to the cable with each and and pull yourself along the wire to the platform.

This photo shows one of my sons as he is about to leave the platform suspended over the canyon and head to the next stop, which I will show tomorrow. 

Rock climbing and zip lines

The top photo shows me climbing out of the canyon on the rock climbing wall, while my two sons waited below for their turn.  My prior experience with rock climbing was limited to a couple of trips to an indoor rock climbing wall with my sons about 15 years ago.  This canyon is obviously much taller than an indoor rock climbing wall.   

The top of the rock climb out of the canyon is not the end of the zip line adventure.  We were only about half done.  There were more zip lines to come, criss-crossing  and traversing the canyon.  

The second photo shows my older son taking a zip line from the top of the rock climb towards the next platform, while my younger son is climbing out of the canyon in the background.

Tomorrow I will show you the destination of the zip line shown in this photo.  It is unique.  

Rock climbing

While it was fast and effortless to rappel down into the canyon, we climbed out.  

There were foothold and handholds bolted into the cliff to make it possible to climb out.  We wore our harnesses, and we were attached to cables.  The guides could catch us if we fell, and they could also give a little assist on the climb by use of the cables and pulleys.  

Once we reached the top, do you think that we were done?   Think again.  Then check the photos tomorrow and the days that follow.

News Item:  Costa Rica recently won the World Tourism Organization's 2009 Ulysses Award at the "Innovation in Tourism Education" conference in Madrid, Spain.  Several schools near Tamarindo have implemented the "School Tourism Culture Awareness: Costa Rica Adventure" program developed by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.  The program teaches elementary school children the importance of sustainable tourism through fun interactive exercises and games.

For a small country like Costa Rica, where tourism is the number one industry, teaching children at a young age the benefits of eco-tourism is important both for future economic development.  Developing special programs for elementary school children has the added benefit of educating their parents when they ask their children "What did you learn in school today?"  

Tarzan swing

We have already seen how to cross the canyon the top on zip lines, and we have seen how to go from the top of the canyon by rappelling down.

Now, we face the challenge of how to get from one side of the canyon to the other from deep inside the canyon.

The answer: swinging across like Tarzan.

The top photo is my older son swinging across, with my younger son filming him. The bottom photo shows one of the young women who took the trip with us swinging across. I apologize for the lack of focus, but it was a low light situation deep in the canyon, and of course she was moving fast.

The next question we face is how to get from the bottom of the canyon to the top. I will show you tomorrow.

Rappelling upside down

I said yesterday that I would show you another way to rappel down to the bottom of the canyon. Here it is: upside down!!

The guides attached the clip and the cable to her harness, and instead of having this young woman simply hold on to the cable in a sitting position while being dropped down the canyon, the guides, with her consent, grabbed her feet and wrapped her feet around the cable so that she would be upside down.

They then dropped her, head first, down towards the river at the bottom of the canyon. Talk about a thrill!

The second photo below shows that this young woman did arrive safely at the bottom.

How did I go down, you might wonder? Right side up. It is OK if you call me a sissy, but I will defend my manhood by declaring that I had an excuse, of course. I had my camera with me, and I would not want to risk damaging my camera, right? If I lost or damaged my camera, I would not have been able to take the photos of the next several activities that I will share with you in the days ahead.

Rappelling down the canyon

Yesterday, I showed the canyon traversed by the zip lines at Hacienda Guachipelin and posed the the question of how to get to the bottom of the canyon. Comments from readers guessed a Tarzan swing, or bungee jumping, and suggested that we were perhaps mentally ill. :-)

Here is the answer: rappelling! The guides who accompany guests on the trip unhooked the two cables, one at a time, from the zip lines to another cable mechanism that allowed them to drop us straight down to a platform over the river at the base of the canyon.

I should mention that the zip line adventure uses a double cable system so that visitors are attached to a cable at all times. When it is time to switch from one cable to another, the first cable is detached and then reattached before the second cable is detached and reattached. The straps, cables and hooks all appear to be in good condition. But it can still be scary.

A couple of days ago I showed you that there is more than one way to ride down the zip lines, including the regular way, or with no hands, or "super-chica" style. Guess what? There is more than one way to go down repelling. What is the other way? The answer will be shown in two photos tomorrow.

Canyon and river in zip line tour

OK. Here is a predicament for you. You have been zip lining through the forest and across a canyon as part of the Hacienda Guachipelin Adventure Tour. Now, the next part of the tour continues from the base of this canyon that you have been zip lining across.

Question: How do you get to the base of the canyon to continue with the next stages of the tour?

The answer will be shown tomorrow.

By the way, I should take this opportunity to extend congratulations to the Costa Rican World Cup Football (Soccer) Team. Last week Costa Rica beat the USA and Costa Rica now sits on top of its bracket in the World Cup qualifying tournament.

The games are being telecast on ESPN. Although I am an American, I found myself rooting for Costa Rica. Football/soccer and the World Cup is so much more important to Costa Rica and it is so small compared to the USA, with only 4 million people and an area the size of West Virginia. Ticos celebrate the achievements of their country and it would be a well deserved source of national pride for their team to compete in South Africa one year from now.

Zip lining with no hands

Yesterday I showed a photo of my son going down the zip lines while taking a video. Here is someone going down the zip lines with no hands!

This means that rather than hanging on the the cable that hangs from the zip lines, she is well balanced and hanging from the clip on the harness that is strapped around her waist, over her shoulders and around her legs.

My wife, Julie, left a comment to my photo yesterday mentioning that she rode down zip lines "Super-Chica" style. That means that she was lying down face first, with her arms and legs extending out, flying through the jungle like Superman. How did she remain in that position? She explained to me (as I was not with her on that trip), that the guide was very nice and allowed her to wrap her legs around him as he rode down behind her to keep her horizontal. My wife is a 6-foot tall blonde. I am sure it was a big sacrifice for the guide to escort her down the zip lines by allowing her to wrap her legs around him.

the above photo also shows the platform that is at the other end of this link in the zip lines. That is where she will land. This rider was one of three young women from New York (one of whom was British) who were vacationing in Costa Rica and who went down the zip lines with my two sons and me.

Zip lines

When people think of Costa Rican jungle adventures, they often think first of zip lines. Here are two views of zip lining. The top photo is my older son and the bottom photo is my younger son. (Naturally, I could not play favorites and show only one.)

Usually, zip lines stretch from platforms built high up in trees in the forest or jungle. The zip lines shown here are unusual, however, because they stretch over a slot canyon carved by a river that runs down the slopes of Rincon de la Vieja volcano.

These photos were taken as part of the activities in the adventure tour at Hacienda Guachipelin. It is a large cattle ranch that has facilities and activities for visitors, including these zip lines. I will refrain from telling you about the remainder of the activities at this time, as during the next week or so I will be showing more photos of some of the activities that my sons and I did during our one-day Adventure Tour visit. If you cannot wait to see more on this website, one day at a time, here is a link to its website. I will post the link to the website again at the end of this series, so you can wait until then before you explore the official website if you don't want to spoil the surprise of the upcoming activities.

There were about a dozen different zip lines in the Hacienda Guachipelin Adventure Tour. After a safety briefing, the first several links go through the forest to get people used to the zip line experience, then this canyon appears, with zip lines stretching across the canyon.

You will notice that in the second photo, my younger son is taking a video with his camera as he is going down the zip lines. Tomorrow, I will show a photo of another way to go down the zip lines.