July 18th - LaFortuna Zip-lining

What an amazing day! First of all - I woke up and wasn't stiff and sore given our hike to the waterfall yesterday. However, it was raining and the clouds were covering the volcano so we decided to delay our plans to go zip-lining this morning. So we had breakfast and lazed around the apartment for awhile. When it quit raining we figured we should go for a walk as it looked like this was a temporary reprieve. When we saw a wee bit of blue in the sky, we walked to our hosts office and rescheduled for the 10:30 zip-lining. It is at Las Lagos resort only about 5 minutes out of town.

The volcano is nearly covered in clouds 

We were joined by others - 13 tourists and 4 guides. Our equipment was strapped on us and we took a bus nearly to the top of the volcano. Val, myself and one other lady are 35+; the rest of the group were not over 30 and a few are in their teens.

We have 13 cables to ride. It has been raining and that makes it slippery. The guides explain, if your braking gloves starts to slip - put your other hand on it and pull down hard!

We had a great time zipping back and forth down  a gully on the mountain side - arriving back at the resort. No injuries occured and those who wished were able to fly superman style for one cable, attached to a guide. I finally rode superman style on the last cable 😆

A bonus with the ziplining tour,  we were given a day pass to the resort. After lunch we returned an enjoyed the hot pools and the wonderful gardens. Los Lagos also had small enclosures of butterflies, frogs, leaf cutter ants, caymans and turtles. We saw several hummingbirds among the flowers.

This is Costa Rica's blue butterfly

Bluejean Poison Date Frogs

While enjoying the hot pools we noticed the clouds lifting from the volcano. For a brief time not only could we see the volcano top but we could see smoke rising from two separate points.

The grounds of the Los Lagos resort were amazing. They had numerous hot pools of varying sizes. Many of the little pools were ideal for 4 to 6 people. Some had areas that were like an underwater lounge chair with jets to provide an aqua massage. Some areas had little caves to sit in. At least three larger pools had water slides. Most pools had shaded areas. One pool had its own volcano.

By the end of the day some stiffness was setting in. Overall an amazing day. Temperature was 27°. Although this is the rainy season, the rain appeared to be very considerate of our schedule. When we needed to be outside it didn't rain. When we could be indoors it rained.