One week in Costa Rica and the story of my second weekend here in Monteverde, the rainy outskirts of the cloud forest.

The Trip to Town

The Black Keys played loudly in my earbuds as the bus bumpily arrived into St. Elena for our weekly excursion. I put my phone away and threw my purse over my shoulder as the bus quickly halted, throwing us a bit into the seat in front of us.

“Cafe?” I asked, and Paul, Joshua, and Jake responded by walking in the direction of our equivalent to “Central Perk” in comical show Friends. We took our usual spot in the sun as Jose greeted us with a familiar smile and a handful of menus.

“Hola, ¿como estas?”

“!Bien! ¿Y tu?”

“Pura Vida.” We then ordered a variety of coffee drinks and sipped them slowly as the town continued to wake up around us, forgetting about the homework and the other miscellaneous troubles of IB. Yet an hour later we said, “Hasta luego” to Jose and ventured into the small town for rain boots and snacks of raisons and Haribo gummy bears…

Becoming Tarzan

The drop from the small platform had triggered the loudest scream I have yet to exert. It was called the Tarzan Swing, but the initial drop was absolutely terrifying – I learned to trust the harness with my life. At the bottom of the seemingly enormous drop were my friends who had just jumped (or rather fell) from the designated area themselves, some impatiently waiting to continue the zip-line journey and some recovering from the sudden rush of adrenaline.

Over the course of the morning we became comfortable with the ropes, lines, and the kind men who quickly described our next task – a great immersion into speaking spanish when being told when to sit and where to put your hands in the matter of 10 seconds before flying over the jungle.

We started on the small distances; sliding between trees and over minuscule bushes as we learned how to pull ourselves up to break and how to hold our feet in a criss-cross position for safety measures. Then the lines became more intense and we threw out what we had learned upon going into the “superman” pose.

With two harnesses holding me, I laid above the world and watched the jungle disappear before me as I traveled a whole mile from one mountain to another with my arms spread as though they were my wings. Incredible. An automatic break halted my flight as I neared the end, but I guess I can say I have had my go at flying.