Mud squishing and waterfall rappelling…now that’s a vacation!
Just don't look back, you may not see the bottom… and that sucks when your bladder's about to explode.
Eat a hearty breakfast, they said. There's a bathroom there, they said. Apparently I need one every two steps but once I got strapped into that harness there was no turning back.
Still, our hilariously animated guides (Anwel, Andre, Jorge) made this #1 Ecoquest adventure the cherry on top of my Puerto Rican flan…..or something. They kept us safe, laughing, and soaked. Some sage advice from Andre: be nice! haha apparently they have mean people on the tours sometimes. Mean people should stay home!!
We hiked up a sharp incline past guava and banana trees. Then we splashed through the river to trek deeper into a rainforest laced with vines, each branch speckled with bromides. I really liked one tree Andre pointed out–it twined its branches in and out of the other tree trunks/branches in a wooden knot.
The water was much warmer than I expected considering the prep sheet suggested we bring jackets and three changes of clothing. Exertion helps ;) By the time we reached a pool of water I sank right in. There was a waterfall on the opposite side and Andre kept telling us it was only two feet deep there–yeah right!
From there, we climbed up a rope and I imagined a similar gentle slope for our rappelling later on.
An uphill slog (I love me a muddy slog!) took us to a green platform made of huge bamboo shoots. We peered over the edge but couldn't see past the waterfall's main drop point.
If I had seen this:
…I swear I still would have rappelled.
Um.
Maybe.
(The picture is from another member of our group. I went down second and third was my mom who had the camera. But I can proudly say, I was *there*!) They need to hire a photographer/videographer to be the paparazzi for this trip and charge exorbitant amounts of money for the evidence like they did on the excursions in Mexico. I'd pay it!
I've rock climbed at the gym a few times and free-rappelled into that cenote in Mexico. That didn't quite prepare me for sliding backwards down a 90 ft vertical waterfall. It didn't dawn on me how slippery the rocks would be until I was on my way down. My experience did help though, my muscles remembered that I don't *need* footholds, that I can trust the rope. So instead of freaking out when I lost my footing, I just re-oriented myself.
I looked over my shoulder once. I COULDN'T SEE THE BOTTOM! I didn't dare check again so I was still in horizontal position and would have walked my back into the pool of water at the bottom had Jorge not let me know I was done. He offered us some of the best mango I have ever tasted, melt in your mouth ambrosia.
After that I was hoping for a lunch break but instead we flew through the canopy on some awesomely long ziplines. Not as fast as the ones we did in Mexico, but I liked the smoother landing compared to that jerk/recoil.
We trudged through some more mud and crawled down the river to reach BLESSED FOOD! Anwel's grandmother made us chicken, rice, beans, and a plate of delicious things I can't name…I think fried corn, mashed plantains, empenadas with sweet stuff inside. Everything was amazing and we ended the meal with flan that was like cheesecake, mmm. One of our group members said the food was better than at some of the restaurants!
With full bellys we rode off into the sunset….well, it was only 3pm so I hit the hot tub (: Cave rafting convinced me that excursions should end in jacuzzis.
When I grew up, I outgrew playgrounds only insofar as I needed to find a one big enough for me and my 5'10.
Tags: climbing rivers, puerto rican food, rapelling, ziplines
Puerto Rico, Travel, Watersports | zellie | 
January 27, 2010 11:29 pm
3 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By Sheila Muirenn, January 31, 2010 @ 6:39 pm
Wow Zellie Fab! I love rapelling, but that meal sounds Devine!
Surprised you came back.
By Ashley, March 7, 2010 @ 4:27 am
I loved reading about this. How fun! Do you mind me asking where you were? My husband and I are going to be celebrating our 10 year reunion this summer and this is right up our ally. I’d love to know any trip details, numbers to call, etc… If you don’t mind helping us out.
Thank you: )
By zellie, March 7, 2010 @ 3:15 pm
Glad you enjoyed! It was in the San Salvador area of Puerto Rico, we booked it from this website: http://www.ecoquestpr.com/ecoa.html
If you go to PR, make sure to do the overnight biolumescint bay trip where they let you swim with the glowy creatures. I don’t have their contact, I did the other trip, but I kept hearing about the overnighter and how awesome it was! There’s also one where they have glass bottom boats.