Zipline!

Thursday was another fun-filled day of adventure in Costa Rica! Our morning excursion was ziplining! 

Thursday's morning routine was the same - our tour guide picked us up bright and early from the hotel, and we were transported with our group in a small van (about a 45 minute drive) to the outpost in the jungle that served as "base camp". This was a relatively fancy place, as we were served breakfast (eggs, toast, and delicious watermelon and pineapple, plus coffee!), and after the ziplining we got to tour the butterfly garden that was onsite. Below is a photo of all of the gear packed up and ready for us.

Our crazy family - ready with gear for a fun morning of zipping through the jungle!

The first part of our excursion was a hike (more like a gradual climb along a marked path) through the jungle. This made sense because we needed to gain elevation so that we could zip our way back down towards the base camp. Our guides stopped along the way to explain various plants and trees that we saw while walking.

Pineapple!

Bananas!

Just before we were hooked to the first significant zipline, our guides used large knives to cut sugar cane from the brush and then they shared this treat with us. This was the first time we had all eaten fresh-cut sugar cane. By chewing on the stem, the cane releases a sugary liquid into your gums. The kids loved the fresh sugar cane. It was a little too grainy and sweet for the morning for my taste, though it was certainly fun to try it.

Once we got up to the ziplines it was non-stop action all the way down. We paused sometimes on platforms to regroup and get in line for the next one and we also crossed a few suspension bridges along the way. We also got to repel down vertically at two different points, the last of which was a free fall (I didn't know this beforehand) that left me screaming for mercy!

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but needless to say we all had a great time with the ziplines!

In case you were wondering, many of the photos above were taken by the tour operators (and later sold to us). I used my camera some during the excursion, but it was really hard, and a little scary, to have it out at such heights over the treetops.

Once we were back to the outpost we had some free time to explore the screened in butterfly garden. The garden was beautiful - filled with hundreds of butterflies plus a dozen snakes and other animals located in cages. The flowers and plants inside were lovely too.

After such a fun morning and once the tour operators brought us back to town, it was almost 2:00 so we were very hungry for lunch. We walked along the main road about a half mile to a restaurant we had heard about before arriving in Costa Rica - El Avion! The word "avion" translates to plane in English, which is the structure that served as a base for the restaurant. This particular plane was the sister plane of the C-123 plane that was shot down over Nicaragua in 1986 during the Iran-Contra Affair. The plane was purchased by the CIA and later abandoned at the San Jose airport. The owners of the restaurant purchased the plane for $3,000 and had it disassembled (and later reassembled) to get it to its current location along the coast.

Not a bad view from our lunch table! I loved all the open-air dining we were able to enjoy while in Costa Rica! Honestly, we couldn't have asked for a better view.

John and I took a tour of the restaurant while we were waiting for our meal to arrive. I let John take most of these pictures. The restaurant was situated around the plane, but there was an extra bar area within the plane where you could climb up into the cockpit to see the old rusted pilot seats and control panels.

John inside the bar that is inside the body of the plane. I imagine this part of the restaurant was empty because it was early afternoon.

After our fun lunch inside the plane, we retreated back to our hotel and the rain set in. We all rested inside our room for about an hour, and once the rain let up we enjoyed some family time swimming in the smaller pool that was located near our room. After swimming, we regrouped and walked along the main road to a local restaurant for another delicious seafood meal.

All in all we enjoyed another glorious day in Costa Rica. So far all of our excursions had been easy and unique, enjoyed by the kids and also by Scott and me. By the end of Thursday we had only one more day left, so see the next post for the fun adventures we enjoyed on Friday!