Our last day in Monteverde started off with coffee on the front porch and the incredible view with our dog friend from last night..apparently the empanadas digested well and she came back to thank us 🙂
Last night we booked an 11 AM reservation at the Monteverde Extremo Park so planing our day out, we check out of the Airbnb; grab a quick but delicious breakfast at Jimenez cafe (I had this sweet red fruit in my yogurt and I wish I would have asked what it was because it looked like tomatoes, texture like tomatoes but was sweet and delicious); and then inevitably run a half an hour back to our Airbnb to drop off the key that I forgot I still had in my purse…. ugh!
We head out to the park and its treacherous pot holed dirt and rock driving surfaces the whole way! I am worried we will be late because it says to arrive 10 minutes early and we are going to make it at 11. Turns out that this place is not so coordinated on times, we could have been a half an hour late for how long it took them to get it together. I picked the Extremo park after watching many videos of people doing it online and enjoying it.. I regretted picking it after I read the Trip Advisor reviews- safety, customer service, rip offs were all mentioned so I was not sure what we were in for.
The end result was worth the try! You get geared up (basically shackled with this harness, helmet, and gloves) and go over to the staging area for them to tell you about what to do and not to do. A very limited English speaking guy comes over and says “If you see hand up, that means brake, if you see a gesture to come forward that means don’t break- got it?”… there was. much confusion from the crowd but we figured we would wing it, how bad can it be? We make a friend with a guy who sits next to us, Steve, and go figure he is from Ohio… us mid-westerners stick together huh?
The journey we are on takes us from 11 AM to 2 PM… during which we have to climb SOO Many stairs, traverse and hike up SOO Many hills (this is not for the faint of heart people)… I pause and feel like I am dying of dehydration at one point (reminder: no bathrooms and no water). Once you get the hang of it after the first line you feel kind of like a pro. Its simple, you just sit down, tuck your legs. up, your dominant hand goes on the cable behind you and your other hand grabs the rope in front of you… you move your head to the side as much as you can because the cable is LOUD! When you get to the end you brake if they tell you to which means pulling down on the cable. with your dominant hand. Then you take a deep breath and hike to the next one. After two or three you get to go tandem which was Ponkey strapped to my back with his legs around my waist- fun but there’s no way you can talk over how loud the cables are.
Once you get through about 5-6 you get to the Tarzan swing… I have to tell you I was SUPER hesitant about this as they strap you to the beam, you hang, they move the platform out from under you and then drop you a good 150 feet to the ground. At which time (if your eyes are still open and you haven’t used every ounce of your voice yelling) you can enjoy the nice swinging back and forth. Ponkey went first and made it look so much fun that I had to do it and pushed Steve to do it too- We both were very glad we did and would happily do it again.
Next you get to a staging area where they re-hook your harness in a different way because you are going to strap your legs behind you and fly like superman. As much fun as that might sound, its actually kind of terrifying and the harness really pushes on your ribs in an uncomfortable manner. Ponkey says it also pushes on your junk in an uncomfortable manner but I didn’t have the same sensation 😉 But it was uncomfortable all around and even though the scenery over the jungle was insane, I didn’t feel it was worth it for the sudden stop that jerks the breath out of you at the end.
The last one is the same kind of flying situation but they send you through a pitch black tunnel…. at which point I kept chanting “no bats, no bats, no bats, no bats”- and then you are done and its over and they are trying to sell you the pictures at the gift store.. .. so to sum up, would we do it again? Yeah probably, but most likely at another site because that one was long and mostly uncomfortable. Was it worth it? Oh for sure! The adrenaline rush was incredible and the jungle was intense.
After we were out, we headed to the next destination which I will post about that journey separately. Friends, if you have the chance to adventure on vacation- do it!
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