Day 5 Zip Lines and Mentos Bombs

I suppose I will begin this entry with the disclaimer I should have written in my first entry. Namely, that my entries will not read very clearly, and are more a jumble of random thoughts that I have had throughout the day and later came to me as I write these. Sorry about the disarray, if I had more time up here, I would edit my blog a little better.

So, once again, I am outside my room on my patio that overlooks the small town of Monteverde. Tonight, I have an incredible view of the thunderstorm going on over the pacific (about 20 miles away). The distant sky is constantly being lighten up by flashes of lightning, but overhead it is completely clear and I once again have an awesome view of the Milky Way galaxy. If you are like most Americans and have never had a chance to see the Milky Way, I recommend finding some dark sky and checking it out. It is absolutely amazing. It is even more amazing, when you have some binoculars and can see a million more stars to boot. Enough on how incredible my view is right now.

Today was quite adventuresome. We spent the afternoon swinging on zip lines between the mountains here in Monteverde. Imagine giant cables one kilometer long and over three hundred meters in the air. Next imagine a little belt on your waist connecting you to that cable. Next imagine having a Costa Rican who barely speaks any English, pushing you off your platform. You are traveling down the line at 40 kilometers/hour, praying to the powers that be that your rope holds, watching the jungle canopy that is a quarter of a mile below you, and then realizing that the other end is closing in on you pretty fast and you need to try to slow down before you crash into the guide at the other end.

Yeah, the zip lines were a trip! We got to do eleven zip lines in all, dodging death for nearly two hours. While it was a huge rush (I think I am quickly becoming an adrenaline junkie), nothing was as scary as when we climbed the platform to reach the line that goes over the continental divide. We (10 on the tour plus 2 guides) climbed this spiral staircase that led us to this tower about 100 feet in the air. As we climbed, the wind only blew stronger and stronger, and the only thing you could do was pray that you weren't blown off the little rinky-dink railing that supported you. As we got near the top, the gusts were quite unbelievable as we hung on for dear life. Then when we got to the top, we quickly learned to stay away from the open side of the platform, where you take off from. The small railing on three sides seemed wholly inadequate to support the 12 people we ended up having up there. Once we got strapped to the lines and left on our way, it was much better. This one was actually the longest, highest, and fastest of them all, and we had some good wind blowing in our direction to heighten the rush. It was amazing! I can't imagine anything like that would every fly in the US because of safety issues, and then if you could, it would be nowhere near the $35US we each paid.

Now for the mentos bomb. If you ever read my blog, you will remember that a couple days ago, we were rained in at La Fortuna, stuck in a bar for about six hours. Well, during that time, we learned a lot out about each other, both to stay away from religion and politics, and of a common love for things that explode. So, naturally, I mention this thing I had heard about mixing diet coke with mentos, which is supposed to make an incredible reaction where the coke spews out the top of the bottle to reach a heights up to 20 feet. Only a few in the group had heard of this and non had ever tried it. So we resolved to give it a go sometime. That very same night, we went home and turned on the TV, only to see Dave Letterman doing the exact thing we were talking about. Haley and I saw his technique and told the group about it the next day. Our resolve was further cemented.

Today, we finally were able to find some Mentos (we looked ALL over La Fortuna, with no luck whatsoever). So after dinner, we headed back to our hotel with Diet Coke and Mentos, mixed the two, and watched an incredible eruption of volcanic proportions. It was kind of nice, as we all had a good laugh about that being the only volcano we would see down here (the trek we are on is actually called the "Volcano Trail," but due to clouds and rain we still haven't seen a single one). We will be sure to repeat the volcano once we are able to resupply in Granada.

Speaking of Granada, tomorrow we are off for our first border crossing, which happens to be into Nicaragua. This ought to be interesting as I have both read and heard of how Nicaragua is very much off the beaten path. We have to plan very carefully how to both have enough food and money to last us a couple days until we reach Granada, and how to properly bribe the border guards to let us through smoothly (apparently there is a one dollar surcharge that the men at the gate collect. Though this charge is "optional," you are not able to pass through without paying). We have been properly instructed in the fine art of border crossing. Namely, that we do NOT have a guide, we do not speak any Spanish, and we are NOT to take any pictures. I guess it usually goes though quite smoothly, but sometimes the border guards are cranky and you can run into problems. We'll see how it goes.

Well, I reckon that is enough for tonight. My computer battery is beeping and I need to go to bed before we catch our 6:30am bus.