Tarzan calling in Monteverde - Day 565

We don't usually go in for the adrenaline activities. As our website says it is "...not really aimed at the adventurous adrenaline junkies who like to abseil down deep caverns, climb steep mountains or sail across rough seas – yet who knows what happens when you get the travelling bug!". Yes, I am a genteel traveller, well, and budget-conscious: these adrenaline activities can be pricey.

But today we booked in for the canopy tour with https://selvatura.com.This consisted of 13 zip lines and a Tarzan Swing (more of that later) all built entirely inside the cloud forest.

We were strapped into our harnesses and given a very fetching hard hat to wear and taken to our first zip wire. The leading guide, Fransisco, gave us safety instructions and off we went. Oh, what fun.

We whizzed over, and sometimes through, the cloud forest canopy, often 180m high. It was exhilarating.

There were 12 in our group and with our four guides, the process of going through the zip-lines was very efficient. We were, by far, the oldest, and Fransisco did fondly call us Mama and Papa. Mmm...I was not sure about that!

On the 6th zip line, we zoomed down in pairs due to the long length of the wire. It needed more weight to get to the other end. Tim was behind with his legs wrapped around me. Francisco called this "Romantica"; Tim commented that this was an all too familiar position - cheeky!

We reached the Tarzan Swing. The first young lady took ages to get enough courage to jump off the platform, before which she said every swear word in the dictionary. I felt for her being the first one. Eventually, it was my turn, number 10 in the queue. I was so intent on producing a glorious Tarzan call (strangely no-one else thought to do this) that I had no thoughts of being nervous. The gate opened, I jumped down and yelled that distinctive, ululating Tarzan call, causing much hilarity with the rest of the group.

Tim reckons that the original call was created by recording the sound of a lion's roar backwards. I hope mine did justice to what Edgar Rice Burroughs described in his books as "the victory cry of the bull ape."

The last cable, number 13, was 1km long. There was an option to go across this in a Superman pose, but at an extra US$10 each, we declined and went across into our Romantic position instead. Crikey, it was windy. I thought my hat was going to blow off. It was such a fabulous sensation flying high over the trees, whizzing through the air, with the love of my life wrapped around me.