Day 8 was another early start. We assembed in a lounge until our group was cleared to leave. The destination was the Crazy Monkey Canopy Tour. I’m not sure how Anne convinced me to sign up for this weeks ago, but it sounded fun at the time. Since then I just felt nervous about the zip line and the 1.5 hour drive through Costa Rica to the tour.

My family decided they weren’t that adventurous and did a tram tour somewhere else. We boarded a bus and a tour driver told us about Costa Rica while we drove down the coast from Puerto Limon. The road itself was “interesting”. Much of it was dirt, with a LOT of potholes. Apparently this is typical of Costa Rica, especially on the less populated Eastern side.

The tour guide proudly told us about how Costa Rica was the world’s largest pineapple exporter. That was pretty funny since the tour guide from Panama told us yesterday that Panama was the world’s largest pineapple exporter and not to believe the Costa Ricans if they say otherwise!

We arrived at the Almonds and Corals resort after almost a 2 hour drive and quickly got ready. They fit us with climbing harnesses and marched us up to the tour start. The whole thing turned out to be very tame and not scary at all. You were always secured with a few lines, even walking up stairs to the various platforms. It was surprising how loud the lines were.

Zipping along was not very fast, and felt very secure. It was a cool experience though and something that I may never have the chance to do again. The end of the 12 platforms put us at a beautiful beach.

Anne had a few opportunities to bust out her Spanish with the tour driver and the guys manning the zip lines. It’s still amazing to hear her switch it on. She must find it annoying everytime I ask her “what did they say?”

They said we might see monkeys and sloths. We saw a few sloths hanging out in the trees. They weren’t that exciting. It wasn’t until the bus ride back that we saw some monkeys. The tour guide had finally shut up and someone in the back of the bus screamed “monkeys!”. The bus stopped and we saw a few howelers just hanging out in the trees next to the road.

Soon after the potholes rocked me to sleep and I was out for most of the rest of the ride. We had really hoped to take a second tour to the Tortuguero Canals, but we got back to the port 15 minutes too late. Anne was bummed, but it gave us a chance to relax and walk around Puerto Limon for a bit. At least we got our money back for the tour we bought.