Outdoor Adventure

We rode in these Mercedes Benz jeeps up to base camp.

OMG! Hang on!

Rapelling down the waterfall was one of the scariest parts for me

P.S. I won this race!

Monday, we began our excursions.  I had booked three excursions with a company called Vallarta Adventures and they were all so much fun! After cabbing it to the marina, we hopped on a speedboat and sped across the bay to a little island you can only get to by boat (I can't remember the name of it). There was a town on this island of about 570 people. Seeing how these people lived was really eye-opening. Old buildings, dirt roads, poverty, minimal "essential" comforts. I could not live like this!

We then got into a Mercedes-Benz jeep and bumped and rattled our way up the moutain. (Peurto Vallarta is located between the Sierra Madre moutains and the ocean so everywhere we went were views of these gorgeous mountains!) These jeeps sat 15 people on rows of seats in the back. It felt kind of like a cattle truck. There were grab bars that hung from the ceiling in the back and you seriously needed them! We drove along roads so narrow you had to pull off to the side when another vehicle was coming down the moutain because both vehicles wouldn't fit on the road! After about a 30-40 minute jeep ride, we made it to base camp.

After gearing up with our harnesses, ropes, pulleys, gloves and helmets, we rode on horses (mules? mule horses? I don't know exactly what these things were) on a dirt path further up the mountain to our first zip line. Riding the horses was one of the scarier parts of the trip for me. First of all, I don't really know how to control a horse. We rode in a group of about 15 and we would go up and down steep hills. My horse decided to stop halfway up this really steep hill and I had a hard time getting it going again. Then, going down the hill, all the horses would decide to start running and I couldn't get mine to stop. I was afraid I was going to lauch the guy next to me off the mountain! It was dusty and dirty and I was glad it was only about a 20 minute ride.

Then, we reached our first zip line and found out what all the harnesses and pulleys were for. We had a short, "test" zip line we were all supposed to try first. Our guides gave us a brief tutorial.

Okay, lean back, legs out, use your weak hand to grab the ropes in front of you and your dominant hand to grab the zip line above your head. Don't grab the top zip line, only the bottom zip line. Make sure your dominant hand is on the zip line as far behind your head as you can or you will start spinning and won't stay straight. Your hand should be in contact with the zip line, but not holding the zip line too hard or you will slow down and get stuck. We charge an extra $50 if we need to come out on the line and rescue you! When we signal you to slow down, that's when you should start gripping the zip line to slow yourself down.

Okay! Got it! No problem! Panic attack! Is my heart supposed to beat this fast? Serious, I think I might pass out! What did I sign us up for? There is no other way down! We have to do this! EEK! It didn't help matters when the first woman to go on the "test" zip line gripped the line too tightly and, indeed, got stuck before she reached the other landing area. But, after the first zip line, it felt amazing and I felt confident on how to hold myself.

We proceeded to go on a very strenuous course of zip lines and rappels all the way back to base camp. We had long and short zip lines. One zip line was so steep, our guides had to slow us down at the bottom and you literally felt like you were falling. We rappelled down a 300-400 foot waterfall. Scary! You basically backed off the landing and tried to keep your feet along the rocks while you (theoretically) slowly lowered yourself down to the base of the waterfall. The rocks were slippery and I had to work hard not to slip all the way down. We did a free rapel where you simply lowered yourself on a rope several hundred feet. At the end of one of the zip lines, we got dunked in an extremely cold mountain stream (all part of the plan) and had to climb out of this moutain pool. We walked across streams on rope bridges and hiked up and down steep steps. Towards the end of the course, I did feel much better about the zip lining part of it and found myself looking around and really enjoying myself. It was such a rush!! Unlike anything I have every done before! Absolutely amazing although words cannot really describe what it was like.

When we reached base camp, we had a snack and got a chance to look at all the pictures they had taken of us while on our trip. Some people's scared faces while on the zip line were truly priceless. Then another harrowing trip down the mountain in the jeep and we hopped on the speed boat to speed across the bay and back to the marina! Wow! We made it out alive!