Canopy

Last Saturday we went on a Canopy tour! Canopy is more commonly known as "zip-lining" and at this particular place we did 8 runs.

Our guide Arturo spoke flawless English, except he had a slight New York/Spanish accent which was an interesting combo. He explained to us that our tour was in a cloud forest. What makes a cloud forest different from a rainforest is that cloud forests hold in the rainwater and feed it into the aquifers deep in the mountain. Rain forests grow such that the water drains through it quickly to coastal bodies of water or rivers/lakes. One percent of all forests in the world are cloud forests. Canopy tours started in the 80s and was developed by scientists who used it as a means to travel between different trees in the pursuit of researching the local flora. 

Yup, there I am! The first 3 or 4 lines were really slow and short but were a good warmup for the later ones.

Here I am on the last line. It was about 250 meters long and just about as high over the ground. The way they stopped us was with a big wooden block on the line that made a huge knocking sound when we hit it and brought us to a nice grinding halt.