Zip Lining Adventures

I went zip lining twice in Puerto Vallarta--once through Los Veranos Canopy tours and once in my outdoor adventure through Vallarta Adventures. Both times were surprisingly completely different (even though they were in the same area) and a lot of fun. Our Los Veranos tour was a Christmas present from my boyfriend's (I'll call him Henry) parents, who were kind enough to open their time share to us. The outdoor adventure was my choice after looking at the Vallarta Adventures website, which I finally talked Henry into at the last minute.

If you've never been zip lining, it's a little scary and a lot exhilerating. You strap yourself in to a fancy harness and helmet that makes everyone look ridiculous, clip yourself onto a big steel cable between a couple of platforms and trees, and jump. Then you zip from platform to platform like that, going as fast as you can depending on the rope they use, the angle and how you are sitting.

Saturday's outdoor adventure started out the zip lining tours, and the course was a lot faster and more adventurous than the last zip lining course I did. It was also through a real jungle, which made it a lot more interesting! We sped pretty quickly from through the first few lines, and then made it a little more interesting using the same gear to rappel down the 30 meter high waterfall. I have to admit that I didn't see most of the view, because every time I looked down I found out that I had tightened up my hand so far that I wasn't moving any more. From looking sideways, though, it was beautiful! We landed about knee deep in a cold mountain pool, and from there jumped on the next zip line to land neck deep in a VERY cold mountain pool. A few more lines further, we clipped ourselves onto a line going straight down and fell straight down, until at the last minute we were caught by the guides belaying us.

At Los Veranos, most of the courses were higher up but slower. The braking mechanism was a little fancier (rather than just pushing down using a glove to slow us down, we had a bar to brake). This let us look around a little more, which was fun. Most fun about this course, though, was that at the end of each line, the guides would take a person across riding tandem to get to the next platform. If you were riding with a guide and didn't need to worry about braking, you got to ride backwards, spinning around and upside down! I was lucky enough to get to do this twice since I was at the end of the line. And to finish off both tours, we had a homerun stretch where we raced. I can't say I'm the best at going fast and racing, but it was still fun!

I would highly recommend both tours to anyone in the area!

Banderas Bay in a Rubber Raft

So, it was a big rubber raft, and with a motor on the boat that was really just a big speedboat. But when we were 75 feet away from a whale surfacing, I was still very aware that I was sitting in a big rubber boat.

Apparently the laws governing whaling force larger boats to remain a good distance away from the whale (100 meters or so) while smaller boats can get within 100 feet. So the "good" whale watching and photo safari tours keep you in a big rubber raft to get closer to an animal around 3 times as long as the boat you're riding in. It's also hard to ignore when you're speeding through the waves--I'm not a little girl, but there were a few times when I flew through the air as we went over a few of the bigger waves.

We saw a pretty decent amount of whales--apparently it's both mating season and birthing season for humpback whales down here, which translates into a lot of time on the surface. I couldn't help but feel bad for the whales, who towards the end of our trip were being chased by 9-12 boats every time they surfaced to try to find a girlfriend. In a four hour trip, I'd say we saw around 20 whales, which is certainly nothing to complain about. None of them compared to our boat ride home from the outdoor adventure tour, though, where a whale jumped completely out of the water. From what we've heard, this is unusual but not unheard of--older and very strong males will leap out instead of smacking their tails to prove how impressive they are to the girls. Worked on me!

This was our last tour for the week--we spent Thursday exploring the boardwalk and old downtown of Puerta Vallarta proper and enjoying the last few moments of sunshine by the pool.

Tomorrow, home to the snow.

Firsts in Puerto Vallarta

3 days in and I've already done a lot of things for the first time!

• See a whale leap completely out of the water
• Rappelling
• Free fall down a rope
• Crossing a rope bridge
• Drink at a swim-up bar
• Taste a pina colada
• Eat at a real Mexican restaurant in Mexico (delicious!)

Off to zip lining again today!

Puerto Vallarta Outdoor Adventure

We have one day of Internet paid for, so an update on the adventures so far...

It's hot. And wonderful! And it makes it even sweeter to check the weather back home and realize that it was about 80 degrees warmer here today. The resort we're staying in is green, lush and beautiful, albeit filled with a lot of very rich, drunk older women who will hit on anyone male within 30 feet. I have a lot of sympathy for the guys working any tour, who have to spend a significant amount of time dancing with and flirting with women three times their age.

We have a final itinerary:

• Friday: Check in and enjoy the pool
• Saturday: Outdoor adventure!!
• Sunday (today): Snorkeling, whale watching and very long boat ride
• Monday: Zip lining
• Tuesday: Dolphin park, botanical gardens or relaxing by the pool
• Wednesday: Whale watching
• Thursday: Botanical gardens or relaxing by the pool
• Friday: Relaxing until our plane leaves

The highlight of this trip so far: the outdoor adventure, hands down. We started out with a boat ride across the bay, switched into a unimog (big open air jeep) to ride halfway up the mountain, and then switched to ride mules. I love riding in both speedboats and open air jeeps; the wind on my face, the views and the rhythm of movement relax me.

I am not fond of mules. Really, I'm not fond of riding anything with four legs, and they aren't enamored of me, either. My mule had two speeds: gallop and stop. If I managed to make him walk at a reasonable speed, he spent most of the time trying to scrape me off against a tree. If he was galloping, I just held on for dear life and tried not to look into the gullys below. I didn't fall off, but I was definitely proud to make it up unscathed!

After the mule ride, the more adventurous part began. We did some ziplining to start down the mountain, which was a lot of fun. We saw some beautiful views of the trees and waterfall. We then progressed to the new experiences for me...rappelling down the waterfall (scary), free falling down a rope into a pool of water, going over the "commando bride" and a steel cable bridge and zip lining directly into pools. I got very wet, and spent a lot of time in the air swinging from cables. This part of the day was probably the biggest "adventure" for me--I don't suppose you can really call anything an adventure unless you're a little bit scared. And hanging from that waterfall (30 meters up on a slippery rock slope) I was definitely scared! I had to be told several times to loosen my grip on the rope if I ever expected to get the bottom. It was very beautiful and definitely exhilarating (especially the plunge into the cold mountain pool at the bottom ) but also absolutely terrifying. Immediately following the rappelling, we switched back to ziplining and landed neck-deep in the same icy water in the next basin of the waterfall. From then onward, I wasn't dry until we made it home--we waded and landed in and jumped into a whole lot of creeks and pools. The bridges ranged from a log suspended with ropes to a single rope under your feet and another one above your head to hold on to, and the guides thoroughly encouraged bouncing on each and every bridge. At the end of the tour, we rode the unimog and the speedboat back to the tour company's office, with a quick break in the middle of the boat ride to watch a whale leap completely out of the water about 30 feet from our rubber raft.

It was a good day.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take cameras with us and I wasn't ready to pay the very large fee they wanted for a few blurry pictures, so I am mostly picture-less from that expedition. The pictures I did manage to sneak, along with the rest of them from this trip, will hopefully be posted soon.

Buenos noches!

Next adventure: Puerto Vallarta

Early Friday morning (very, very early), I'll be leaving for a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! A short respite from the below-zero temperatures here will be lovely, and we already have plans for a few adventures in between days hiding from the sun in the tiki huts on the beach. I sunburn ridiculously easily (through a window in Ireland in early March--after an hour) and while I am well stocked up on my SPF 100, I'm already planning on needing to hide from the sun for a few days to recover.

On the itinerary:

• Snorkeling in the Marieta Islands
• Zip lining through the jungle
• Visiting the local botanical gardens
• Eating far too much Mexican food and enjoying every bite
• Taking a lot of photos
• Catching up on my reading while hiding from the sun in the aforementioned tiki huts
• Possibly whale watching, hiking to a waterfall, swimming with sea lions or walking the boardwalk

I tried to talk everyone into joining me for the "adventure tour" but for some reason no one else seemed quite as interested as I was in a mule ride through the jungle and rappelling down a cold waterfall. Next time...

So I'll be gone for the next week, but hopefully bringing plenty of stories and pictures back with me!

Book Recommendation: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

I'm not much for history books. I think history is interesting to a point and I like to hear about it, especially when it affects things that are more interesting to me--literature, movies, religions. But I generally have a hard time sticking with books that are strictly historical.

When I bought Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford at Half Price Books, I had a feeling that I was wasting my money on another history book that I would never finish.

On the contrary, I found myself more sucked into the book than I have been to any nonfiction, let alone history, book in quite awhile. The storytelling is compelling, the author relates the history well to modern perspectives and familiar happenings, and the writing is extremely easy and pleasant to read. It begins with the author's own journeys in Mongolia to discover Genghis Khan and covers the known history from Genghis Khan's parents to the time when his empire finally fell apart. It was an interesting perspective that I haven't often heard before, and opened my eyes to the possibility that much of our modern culture and knowledge (and that of the Renaissance period) began with the Mongol conquest and their thirst for knowledge and openness. My only issue with the book is that I feel like the author may have given more importance to the Mongol conquest and its effects on culture than it may deserve, out of his respect for the Mongols. I unfortunately don't know enough about history to make a firm declaration, but it's something I feel might upset some of the more historically-minded people out there.

This book has some valuable knowledge for anyone with any interest in Genghis Khan, the Mongol history or the influence of the East on the development of Western medieval or Renaissance culture of knowledge, and (unlike too many history books) presents it in a fun and interesting way for readers.

New Year's Plans

I hate New Year's resolutions. To me, they seem like plans that you make knowing that you will not follow through after the first month. (Unfortunately in Lakeville, people seem to hold on for three or four months...making January through April at the gym unbearably busy!) So, as a rule, I don't make New Year's resolutions that will not be finished by the end of January.

But, every January, I still make "plans." Somehow, not calling them resolutions makes them a little more palatable to me, and makes me feel more like I will follow through. This year, I should have the opportunity to cross a few things off my bucket list. I'm also hoping at this early stage to have the follow-through (for a change) to finish a few projects.

1. Take a gondola in Venice
2. Plant a garden
3. Learn to make malva pudding
4. See the Sistine Chapel
5. Visit Versailles
6. Really learn programming, enough to be able to create something myself
7. Complete the website for my hometown church and my family's business