I had a bucket list of things to do while in Costa Rica, and they included zip lining, holding a sloth, hiking the hanging bridges through the rainforest, wearing my cute swimsuit at the pool, just being in the rainforest, going down the scary water slide through the jungle, drinking guaro and eating gallo pinto at the restaurant with a tree in the middle of it. And to read as much as possible.
By day 4, all I had done is read a lot and wear my cute swimsuit. Sorry no picture of that. It's strange to bring a huge camera down to the pool just for one picture.
We signed up for the Mega Combo, which left at 7:40am, leaving plenty of time for a good breakfast including a little donut and watermelon juice. We had to ride in the bus for about an hour. It's so awkward in the beginning because you don't know anyone and so you just don't talk very much.
Everyone in the group was from the work trip, and we sat behind a couple who was very tan (clearly spent plenty of time at the pool) and from California. She was kissing his shoulder a lot and he had a sleeveless shirt that made it easier for her.
Our first stop was zip lining, which I was excited about after we did it on our sweetiemoon. This was different. We had to wear gloves with extra leather on them and we were in control of stopping ourselves and controlling the speed. I definitely used it too much in the beginning! We spent $30 and got a ton of pictures of this day.
Bean was very serious about this.
So handsome.
I was clearly nervous, and they took some funny ones where they stopped me really hard and I jerked up!
This, my friends, is why you always wear mascara. You never know when there's someone taking a picture that you'll want to keep!
By the end of it, I was really into it, and I stopped getting so shaky each time.
This one is just funny. He's looking right at you!
For the very last one, they let us go upside down if we wanted. I was so freaked out, and Bean had to remind me of my own preaching 'you only live once!', and assured me that I could do it. I did. But I couldn't let go, I had to be holding on.
He clearly knows how to enjoy life!
Part 2 of the day was the water slide through the jungle. The anticipation of this scared me so bad. I was looking forward to this part the least. We had to walk past the whole thing, and it's very long, to get up to where we zip lined. The slide is really narrow and controlled by a system where a guy raises a bar on a dam and it lets out as much water as he wants to push you down the slide.
The pictures don't do it justice- it was the most fun thing we did all day! I wished we could have gone down it as many times as we wanted. He took the picture in the most intense part of it- the slide dips down and swerves and the water splashed me and I thought my contact was going to fall out. The best part is all of the girls had to wear a leather diaper so we didn't get all scraped up. I really wish I had a picture of that!
After all that fun, we went and had a delicious buffet lunch and chatted with the others on the tour. By this point, we have had some small conversations about things that were fun, or our lives, or different things, so it was really fun. We ended up talking with a couple from Houston quite a bit because the wife was in band. It struck me how something that we were involved in so long ago can still be an icebreaker and a source of camaraderie, even now.
First thing after lunch was a 30-minute horseback ride down to a spa area, which was the last stop of the day. I really don't enjoy horses. I would have skipped this part, but I decided to try it again and try to enjoy it, to be one with the horse, and trust him to get me there safely.
Here I am, studiously leaning back because they told us that would help the horse going downhill. I also studiously leaned forward going uphill, while my horse thought it would be fun to gallop! Yikes!
Bean looks very at ease, which made me think he really enjoyed riding horses. We really bonded later on when we ranked our favorite and least favorite parts of the day and agreed that we really could have done without this part.
Here's one I managed to take while riding the horse. Beautiful scenery. And now I'll share my embarrassing injury. A little background: my tailbone is kind of pronounced, so much that I had a masseuse once comment on it and say that if I were a cat, my tail would always stick up in the air. Gross, right? (The comment, not having a pronounced tailbone.)
As I said earlier, I was studiously leaning forward and back and dealing with the rocky terrain and my fears, and all was fine. So we get to the hot springs and we have a bit of time to relax before heading back to the resort. We went into the outdoor rock sauna that didn't feel that hot at first, and made the air feel really chilly when we walked out!
Next step was to put this volcanic hot mud all over and let it dry. I fought for these pictures! I had to wash my hands, find a random towel to dry them off, get into the locker, into our bag, and get the camera out, then come back down and ask someone not covered in mud to take the picture, all while I was covered in it myself!
So we let it all dry and went to rinse off in the cold shower. There was a guy who worked there helping out by spraying you from the side. I was just about done, when it felt like a wasp or something got into my suit bottom and stung me right at the top of my butt. I literally screamed out, "ouch! There's something in there!" and the people waiting and watching laughed. Bean and I couldn't see anything- I made him look down the back of my bottoms- and just went and got into the hot springs instead.
We relaxed for probably an hour between two different hot springs, the last one was really like a hot tub. Very nice! My injury was still bothering me on and off but I just figured something bit me.
Here's a beautiful view from the area.
Dinner that night was at the Steakhouse on the property. I liked that they had appetizers and sangria in the waiting area, but they rushed us to our table so fast we didn't get to try any. I had salmon, and Bean had lobster. He liked it, I was indifferent. The appetizers were some kind of raw seafood which I loved. I liked how we were able to sit and eat but I felt like we were cattle being rushed through the program- which we were. But that's ok.
We walked back to see what the show was that night and ended up watching the whole thing- it was a mash-up of different pop culture and was so terrible I couldn't turn away! Mainly guys in drag, which is always funny. We were so tired after such a long day, and really looking forward to branching out on our own for a little bit.
1 comments:
Sounds like an exciting day! Except for the injury!
Post a Comment