FINAL DAY OF FUN
Graduate students go on zip-line adventure, view Arenal Volcano
Can you believe today is our last day of fun in Costa Rica?
We began our morning with a delicious breakfast buffet at Hotel Los Lagos in La Fortuna. We had a variety of multicultural food choices, such as pancakes, waffles, pepperoni rolls, toast, rice and beans (of course!), heart of palm, chorizo, salad, tropical fruits and so much more. After breakfast, we headed to the canopy office to gear up for our zip-lining adventure.
The students gear up for a zip-lining adventure. (Contributed photos)
Prior to gearing up, we signed our lives away (the waiver) to go on our zip-lining trip. We suited up with our harness, zip-line glove and helmet, and we headed up the mountain in a bus with our Pirates crew and a few others to depart on our zip-line adventure.
We went through a brief training about how to hold onto the carbon fiber zip-line cable that was about to hold us from 20 to 60 meters (70 to 190 feet) above the ground (sounds terrifying, we know!).
Before we knew it, our training was over and we were ready to grab hold of the zip-line cable and head off down the mountain. There were many screams, laughs and probably a few minor panic attacks (ahem, Mary Rose Yoo after getting stuck halfway through a cable and needing assistance) during our descent down the mountain.
We had 13 cables to zip through, which covered about 3 kilometers of distance. Some varied between 50 to 500 meters in length. We must admit, the longer the cable, the scarier it was! Throughout our journey down the mountain, we saw an adorable group of howler monkeys with their two babies, many different species of birds, various plants and trees in the canopy, and the amazing view of Arenal.
Posing for a photo during the zip-lining adventure
After zip-lining, we went back to our rooms, packed up our items and headed back up the mountain the view the Arenal Volcano.
We made a quick pit stop before our hike to quench our thirst with some ice cold Coca-Cola. Boy, we didn’t realize how bad we needed that little caffeine push!
Little did we know, we would be walking up very steep roads. We wondered if we should continue our trek, but we pushed through and made it. We took the typical tourist “jumping” photos, amazing group pictures and selfies, of course. This was a sight that we will never forget. In the long run, it was totally worth it.
After our hike back down, we did some souvenir shopping, ate more delicious lunch, saw some amazing iguanas then headed back to the hot springs to rest and relax.
Before we knew it, it was time to jump back on the bus for a bumpy ride back to Hotel 1915 in Alajuela. Toward the last 30 minutes of our ride, we felt a little restless and turned on the tunes. We listened to all of our favorite old school songs, which made the last part of the drive go by quicker.
When we arrived back in Alajuela, we ended up ate our last dinner in Costa Rica at Jalapeños. We can’t believe how quickly this trip has flown by, and the memories are ones that will last forever.
-by Kayla Sager, fourth-grade teacher at Angier Elementary in Harnett County
Mary Rose Yoo, physics, earth/environmental and physical science teacher at Princeton High School
Kayla Baker, seventh-grade science teacher at North Johnston Middle School in Micro
June 22, 2018