Zipping Through Costa Rica

Inspired by the monkeys (and the rest of our family who raved about it), we decided to head to the tree tops for some zip lining.

Exhilarating and fun.

And also a wonderful lesson in physics. In principle, you are supposed to be able to use one hand to control your descent and thus avoiding crashing into trees or dangling in the middle.

In practice, however, there seemed a consistent pattern.

On several runs, the light person (Esther) came up short of the landing area and had to be "saved" by a guide crawling out and helping her back. Meanwhile the heavy person (Donald) came in too fast on several runs, and had to be stopped by the guides. Meanwhile the middle person (Ken, aka Goldilocks) managed to touch down just right on each run.


By the way, the pictures don't really give you the full effect. Some of the runs were at least 200 yards, through the tree canopy, and 70 feet or more in the air.