What did I just do?

With the help of the public bus and a completely illegitimate "taxi", Mary and I arrived at La Fortuna last night after two hours of travel last night. The transportation is only supposed to take one hour but Mary and I are both new at this whole traveling in a developing country thing so two hours is actually really good for us. (Last weekend, "only a two hour trip!” took us six...we are improving). If you know me well, you will know that I HATE getting lost. I consider myself a laid back person but the minute I realize I’m lost, my stress level accelerates from 0 to 60 in one minute. (My brother can definitely attest to this! lol I thank navigators for improving my relationships with loved ones) Anyway, Mary was a good sport about it and just watched like an innocent bystander while I freaked out and then, like Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde, became as smiley as a nun once we finally reached La Fortuna. Now that we are here' The feel of La Fortuna is vastly different from the town I live in. Hearing English and seeing gringos with their huge backpacks is a common theme here. I’m currently in an "internet cafe" which is really two computers in someone’s living room...and the family is watching tv right now.. kind of awkward. There are also a few other tourists waiting to use the comp so Ill keep it simple. (ha)

Mary and I went rappelling today in the rainforest. We repelled down a 200 FOOT waterfall. I never in my life thought I would or could do this...it was frightening but amazing at the same time. Our tour guides were hilarious. At one point, we had to repel down a waterfall then jump into this huge scary pool in a cave type area. Mary was nervous and our guide "Marvin" offered some words of wisdom "If you feel too scared to jump, then............JUST JUMP" and then he proceeded to laugh his head off. Disclaimer: People really like weed in La Fortuna and I’m pretty sure our tour guides picked us up and one of them, named Marvin, was definitely high. He kept calling Mary -- Mary Jane. He later put these huge leaves in his hair, clay on his face and kept saying "HOW" like a Native American. There was also a photographer named "Danny Boy" who took pictures of us during the trek. If we ever began slipping or missed a step and got an inch closer to death, they would jus say "We got proof! We got proof!" Proof of what? Me about to die? then they’d just laugh some more. It was oddly comforting. I kind of felt like I was in college again- where you feel invincible and you always think, no matter what ridiculous circumstance that you are in, that everything is going to be just fine.

I wish I remembered more stories but I bought the CD filled with our pictures so hopefully that will help me remember more stuff. I know some of you SR ladies have taken up the sport of rock-climbing, I am so down to do that with you guys!

Having conquered repelling, Mary and I were on a high. Another popular activity? Bungee Jumping. We went to go check out the bungee jump place. After watching one guy do the bungee and negotiating a price, I agreed to do it. After all, the guy who was telling me about it looked like a sweet man who couldn’t hurt a fly. I felt comfortable and trusted him. Sure sweet-faced man, I’ll do as you say. Another one of the workers looked like a Yahoo! employee I worked with (who in turn reminded me of Kian) so I instantly felt comfortable. I tend to see extremely strange resemblances and it definitely deceived me in this case. Side note: I’m pretty sure he was high too because he was just smiling and laughing at nothing even though we were about 200 feet in the air. I cant lie that at that point I also figured- Hey, I did repelling, I can totally handle another extreme thrill activity.

Oh god, I was so wrong. HOLY HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never been so scared in MY ENTIRE LIFE. I was totally fine on the way up. Even as they were getting the gear on me, I completely cleared my mind and didn’t allow myself to think negative thoughts. Volcano Arenal was right in front of me and I focused on its beauty. Thats it. I’m fine. I tried to block out the cars that pulled over to watch me jump. Families with their kids. Oh god, how am I going to die in front of these kids? Then, they warned me that I need to jump when they are counting down. If I dont do it then, Ill never do it. Still fine. Ok, then I realize that this is nothing like repelling and I literally feel like I am jumping without any safety gear. I cannot tell you how FRIGHTENED I was when they were counting down. All of a sudden, all the fear that I withheld moments before was now hitting me. I DID NOT WANT TO JUMP But at that moment I knew they were right, if I didn’t do it then, then it would be soooooooooo much worse. So I finally jumped and oh my god I’m pretty sure my stomach came out of my mouth. Luckily it didn’t but I have never felt like that in my life. AAAAAAAAAHHHHH I get freaked out just thinking of it.

The funny thing is that the guy who did this right before me was throwing a thumbs up, smiling, posing for pictures. Uh, Mary showed me the film of me jumping and I looked like a dead corpse.

I’m definitely glad I did it and I definitely hugged all the employees once I reached the bottom. They probably thought I was crazy. Actually they kept asking us if we wanted to go dancing. Buddy, I just survived a bungee fall I cant think of anything else right now.