Wild Adventures...

Port of Hualtulco, Mexico in the city of Santa Cruz. I’ve been here before. It’s my third visit actually. The first time I did the tour, second I had IPM, and now today was a beach day all the way including the water sports. We got off the ship nice and early and it was HOT. Whoa. We found some beach chairs care of the local beach entrepreneurs and settled. A few of us got bored pretty quickly and decided to get a wave runner. I shared mine, as did our Cruise Director. It was awesome. We headed out of the bay and into the rough waters. It was pretty windy and choppy. We zipped through the water catching the waves and bouncing like mad. It was a half an hour of pure excitement and exhaustion. It was equivalent to riding a bucking horse at times along with the seawater splashing in our faces. I told my passenger that if I was ever taking it too rough to let me know. I had two handlebars to hold tight and he had just my life vest. He never said anything so I would take long strides gunning it at top speed and taking some good air. We rode out of the main harbor and into the open seas for a bit. It was so windy that the water would just blow right into our faces like I remember when we went tubing in Aruba. We sped around in the water doing figure eights and donuts as we tried to splash each other’s wave runner with the wake of the water. A wild ride all the way. I rode on a wave runner before when we were in Grand Cayman some time back. We split the half hour slot between 4 people so it was 15 minutes out and switching drivers. My passenger didn’t care to drive so I did for the full half hour this time. It was tiring battling those waves. Wow. I remember a time too when I was in high school when my brother and I rented little speed boats at the Disney World Resort by the Grand Floridian. That was awesome as well just driving on the water and catching all the waves and splashing each other. This felt equally exciting. I love the water toys.

Today brought new meaning to the question: if someone asked you to jump off a building, would you? We headed out in Acapulco early this morning for a resort called Paradise right in the midst of the city. Once we arrived at the resort we discovered that the bungee place didn’t open until noon, but they were delighted to situate us on the beach and start serving us cocktails. Some of our party did just that and the rest of us decided to investigate the local retail shops along the main strip. A half an hour later we found ourselves at the bottom of a 165 ft. tower signing release forms and logging our weight for the jump to come. As I was paying my fee and signing my forms I couldn’t believe what I was actually doing. The insanity of it. I couldn’t believe how many of us were partaking. Just a year ago I couldn’t fathom just jumping off anything attached to a chord. I’m now even wondering what skydiving would be like. My brother’s been trying to get me in the air for a while now. So I was all set and ready to go. Signed and paid I was riding up in an open elevator reminiscent of the free fall rides you go on at the amusement parks (only there were no harnesses). My knees began to get weak as we climbed the heights in the narrow lift. We reached the top and suddenly 165 ft. seemed a lot higher than normal. I’ve dropped on 300 ft and 400 ft coasters and my heart was racing more anticipating the jump than it was waiting in line for those thrill rides. I saw 2 people jump before me; one as we were climbing in the lift and the other at the top when I was waiting to get fitted. The one I saw at the top was in a flash of the eye. One minute I was looking at him and the next moment I looked and he was gone. I put my harness on and entered the staging area. My friend Nicole whom I rode in the elevator with was all set to go. Bound at the ankles. As I was getting my ankles bound she hopped over to the platform where she got hooked up to her bungee. She waved at the camera and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and she was off. Suddenly my heart was beating rapidly. I was next. As she finished and they reeled her in at the bottom, they started attaching the bungee to my ankles and harness. After her chord had finished rewinding itself back up to the platform I found myself hopping out on the plank. My hands were sweating profusely and every bone in my body was acting against this task. I waved at the camera and the countdown commenced. There was a gentle push from behind and I found myself free falling over the edge in a swan dive toward the pool below. I cannot even describe the butterflies that buzzed around in my stomach as I careened toward the ground below. It was smooth all the way down and then came the elastic point where I was drawn back up to fall all over again. All the blood was in my head now and all I could concentrate on was not to pass out. I was spinning because I instinctively pulled my hands in on my jump, which sent some momentum going and the ground was circling below me. I knew I had to extend my arms to stop the spinning and I did, but the secure part of me just wanted to keep my arms as close to me as possible. I grabbed hold of the bar that would reel me in and I was on my back safe on the ground getting my harness removed in no time. I had a surge of adrenaline and was pumped up for the rest of the day. Whoa. I never had such a rush. Most of us managed to go. Even a girl who was afraid of heights!! We settled for some cocktails and a good lunch at the restaurant at the bungee’s base. I had lobster, shrimp, and steak for less than $30 and with the perfect open-air beach view!!! That was awesome. Something like that would cost a minimum of $70 in the U.S. We were all so hyped and now full of margaritas, we just stayed at the restaurant for a while. Upon leaving I went and visited some of the parrots and toucans that were perched as you come down in the restaurant. Some were very friendly and others were mean. One of our guys got pecked and learned that some were not happy with humans being around them. The one that was friendly was REALLY friendly with me. I let him perch on my arm and I soon found out he wanted to make residence there for a while. More than I cared to have him perching on me for. Different people tried to get him to perch on their arms and he just snapped at them. He made his way to my back and perched right on my shoulder. We tried to get him back on his perch without touching him so I bent over and was wondering if he’d just walk back on to his perch. Nope. He was happy with my back and was determined to stay there. Great. Finally one of the waiters came out with an extended perch and got him off my back. I’m glad he found me friendly enough for a perch, but was more than happy to let him get back to his own. Our day ended at the Lido pool with more cocktails and some wonderful music by our party band on board. I have to chalk this day up as one of the most exhilarating days of my life and I can finally check another thing off the list of things I’ve done in my youth.

A quote I came across today that struck me as a good motto for life: “20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do than by the things you did. So through off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain. I feel this is perfect for the life I’ve been leading over the past 3 years.

Me Tarzan, You Jane....

Ahh Costa Rica part deux. This was my second visit to Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The first time we went we did the short zip line tour, which included 11 cable lines and one long 750-meter line. The newest line they built was the 1050-meter line. We didn’t get to do that line this time since we took the long tour where you take horses to the starting point and take 25 cables down through the canopies of the rainforest and over streaming waterfalls. We headed out bright and early since we had to be back on board at 4:30pm and we had about 25 or so people in our group (20 of which were doing the horseback riding). I saw familiar faces from the last time I did the tour as we trekked through the wilderness and hairpin turns along the mountainside. We arrived at Vista Golfo where we geared up, sprayed up for bugs, and saddled up. I named my horse babe and she knew before I did what was up and where to go. Before the gate was even open exiting the ranch, she was on her way over because the lead horse was headed that way. We got out onto the trail and I remembered the last time I was on a horse way back in my youth on a trip to Cincinnati and Kings Island. That was about 20 years ago and I remember being very sore the next day. This is what I was looking forward to. She trotted to catch up and I felt the hardness of the saddle and the difficulty in trying to keep myself on. I have a whole lot of respect for those cowboys traveling miles across the plains in the 1800s.I appreciate technology allowing me to have a comfy reclining chair as I make those trips now. We had some gorgeous views as we rode o the starting point and it was fun seeing how the horses reacted to each other. My horse and another horse one of the girls was riding on were in competition with each other. Every time my horse wanted to pass her horse, her horse wouldn’t allow it. He kept cutting us off. We arrived at our starting point and geared up into our harnesses. The course would take us through 23 zip line cables and 2 repelling cables. We followed this stream of water that trailed downward into waterfalls. It was absolutely breathtaking. I loved the speed and the sense of flight as I transversed the path. The repels were a little scary since we had to go into it backward and the incline on the cable was steep. The knot they used to secure us however made us go real slow so it was still fun and you could take it all in since we were repelling over a big waterfall. A couple points on the trip you could dip your feet in the water just before it went over the cliff as you were careening past. It was fabulous. Our longest cable was about 512 meters. That was really liberating to be traveling through the air and the trees for a longer time. I still wish we could have done the longest cable. 25 Cables later we were exhausted and hungry. We were using muscles I forgot you had to use like the braking hand and your abs to pull yourself up to the next platform. All the platforms were in little tree houses. It was like Tarzan in the jungle. We arrived at the tree lodge hungry and a good lunch was coming. Also included was a meal of Costa Rican influence. Mmmm delicious!!! I wrapped it up with a nice tequila sunrise and some ice cream. Because of the amount of time we had I didn’t get to swim in the mountain water in the pool out back like we did last time. It was pretty much eat and run. We had to get back to the ship. I did spend some time on the trampoline though. I always love bouncing on the trampoline. It’s so therapeutic. On the ride home I was out. Of course. Just exhausted. It was a relaxing evening afterward and I slept real sound that night. The next adventure coming up is Acapulco. I have a plan for something daring. I just don’t know at this juncture if I’ll follow through. Eeek!! I’ll see.