Zipping Along!

Our afternoon was going to be spent flying through the sky!  Ziplining that is!  Sky Trek is the best known zip line in the area, and they also have the Sky Tram which I thought would be a nice way to ride up to the platforms! We all pile into the rental and head out on the bumpy road. The good thing is that Sky Trek is close to AOL. My mom is already talking about backing out. She's asking all kinds of questions about what it will be like. The kids and I zip lined on our last trip at Los Lagos and loved it! But it wasn’t at Sky Trek. So, even though we've done it before, we don't know exactly what this zip line will be like. We get there for our 2:00 scheduled zip and while we're filling out the paperwork, my mom and Keith are watching the video in the waiting area. That's it for my mom. There's no way she's doing it. Not a chance. My dad tries to convince her that once she tries it and does the first line she'll like it, but there's no way she'll even get the gear on. Keith says he could do some of them, but he sees that their longest line is nearly half a mile. He doesn't think he can do it, but he does gear up and agrees to take the tram up. My mom doesn't even hold the ticket. Alex is a bit annoyed when they tell him he'll have to go tandem with a guide. He'll be 11 years old in two weeks, he tells them. He went without a guide at the other place 2 years ago, what's up with this! I tell him to stop pouting and be thrilled he gets to go at all. Better to go with a guide then be stuck half way in the middle of a half mile zip line! Suck it up! The tween years, so much fun! Megan is thrilled to go with a guide - she wants no part of being alone out there! But she's looking forward to it!  We had beautiful views of Lake Arenal going up on the Tram and of the Volcano once we were up at the top, where the first zip line was!

The guides get us all set, safety seems to be a huge priority, our hooks and straps and gear are checked more than once. We go to the Sky Tram and they convince my mom to ride up, and then she can take the tram back down. She paid for it after all! We're met at the top with a refreshing glass of fruit juice. We're in a group of about 15 people, which is a bit large, but there are 4 or 5 guides. We get our instructions and it's nice that we don't have to use our hands to break at all. There are two "practice" lines, which are just really short and don't give you a feel for the actual height or speed, but more for how your body feels hanging there. One girl in our group decides this isn't for her at all. Keith doesn't even do the practice line. He sees the length of the first real line, which is the 3rd longest line. He immediately takes his gear right off. He says he's un pollo grande! No way! If that's not even the longest or the highest, he's not going!

My mom and Keith watched us take off on that first real line. Megan and the guide were the first to go. As I went all I could think about was how glad I was that Keith didn't do this. He would so NOT have liked it! But me, I thought it was great! The lines were very fast and long. Alex, he even did get to do a couple on his own afterall, which thrilled him. My dad had a blast as well. There were 8 zip lines in all I think and they were all very high up in the air and they were very fast. It was a really great afternoon! In retrospect, if Keith could have conquered that first one, maybe he would have enjoyed the rest, but I don't think he would have gotten past the first one! My mom, I don't think she would have liked it one bit. So good decision for her. As we got to the last platform, it started to rain. The last platform is short and you climb down a metal staircase a bit to get to it. There was a snake on the stairs, which everyone enjoyed checking out.