The third day of our trip was Bucket List day. We were going ziplining through a rainforest!
We walked through the brightly colored neighborhood for breakfast at Kasalta then checked out of our beautiful little boutique hotel and headed back up into the mountains. This time we were alone- transported in a black passenger van by a man who was clearly part of the ziplining operation. He briefed us on the way up about the proper way to zip down the runs without burning our hands or snapping our muscles, and I was grateful for everything he told us because once we got up there I realized that I was going to have a hard time understanding much of anything else. No one spoke English! Well, they did but not in the you're-clearly-a-tourist-so-I'm-going-to-cut-you-a-break-and-speak-your-language way that everyone else we had met on the entire island so far did. And I apparently crack jokes when I'm nervous- and I was getting nervous!- and instead of laughing politely the older employees just looked at Jason for a translation, which resulted in him having to explain that. no, I didn't really think we were going to go crashing down the mountain... ha, ha, ha... it was a little rough.
I did notice though, that the longer we were on the island the more comfortable I felt listening to people speak Spanish and even responding where I could. In America (at least where we live) there is very much an attitude of "this is my country, speak my language", but here, immersed in the beautiful Spanish culture and language, I wanted to hear it and understand it and be a part of it. That was something I've never experienced before, but I loved it. It helped me understand a bit more the great love that Jason developed for the people of Bolivia while he spent two years there serving them.
After they hooked us into our harnesses and gave us our second rundown on what to do and not do, we took a tram ride up the mountainside. It was a gorgeous view, and we had more chances to make slightly awkward small talk with other members of our group. This time all of the people with us were locals, so there was more Spanish speaking all around, and I finally got to the point where I just laughed when Jason laughed. Once we were all zipping down the mountain it was easy to understand that we were all saying and thinking the same thing- this is amazing fun! We stopped at an aviary and saw all of the beautiful birds that I was hoping we would have seen in El Yunque the day before.
We were able to get right up next to the birds, which freaked me out a little bit, but I couldn't resist taking pictures with all of them. I especially loved seeing them all paired up. The deep indigo ones at the bottom were my favorite. Jason had to drag me out of the aviary to catch up with the rest of our group.
After traversing through some dense greenery we found our way to the first run. The crew did everything for us- hooking us into the ziplines and unhooking us again on the other side of the run- our only job was to push off and keep ourselves facing straight ahead, controlling our speed as desired.
A good run included facing forward the whole way down, a beginner's run might include a bit of spinning around (you have to keep one hand securely grasping the harness while the other arm is stretched straight back on the line, making an "ok" sign to keep you from spinning around, and if you grasp that hand too tight you'll rip your arm right out of it's socket. I know, and it hurts!), and a fail of a run includes stopping before the end of the line and having to pull yourself hand-over-hand to the other platform. Thankfully that didn't happen to either of us.
Once the initial run was behind us, we were ready to conquer the mountain! Jason had no problem getting the right amount of speed and control on every run, and I did just about as good. It's really quite a simple activity, and once you get going there is barely enough time to register that you're flying over the rain forest! in Puerto Rico! in January! before you've made it to the other side and are unhooking and moving on to the next run.
It was awesome. We did 7 runs and a rapelling station, and by the end we were pros!
In the middle of it all it started raining.
And I mean
raining. They don't call it a rain forest for nothing.
And, like the kayaking storm from the night before, all we could do was stand there and laugh and enjoy it.
And so we kept ziplining down, only now we were
really in a rain forest. It was an awesome experience, one that made me really glad that I have a bucket list at all. It's always an amazing and surreal time when we can check something off the list!
Once we were back down the mountain we headed back into town. This time we were headed to La Concha, the hotel of choice for the second half of our trip. With spots to rest like this-
and restaurants like this-
we were really looking forward to the second half of our stay.
We were a bit shameless in telling our desk clerk that it was our 10-year anniversary, and with a few phone calls and smiles, she handed us the keys to our room, that had a view like this-
Oh, that blue water. The waves were super loud, and we had fun watching the surfers and body-boarders.
We were directly above La Pearla, the fancy shell-shaped restaurant that we promised the kids we would eat at.
But first we ordered room service and ate in our bed!
I can still taste that rice...
Our plan for the first half of our trip was to pack in all of our excursions, and the second half of the trip was meant to be all about relaxing. And it was perfect.
We swam in the infinity pools and lounged on the beach and played in the ocean and napped on one of these-
We got caught in the rain every day. I gave up on doing my hair, because it was always wet from the rain or wet from the pool or wet from the ocean. And it was great.
We got dressed up and ate in one of the fanciest restaurants I've ever been in. The seafood was fresh and the service was flawless and the views were amazing.
We ate a lot of good food.
We went to bed when we wanted and we woke up when we wanted. Sometimes we lounged around for hours, other times we stayed out late. We had nowhere to be and nothing that we had to do, and it was fantastic.
We wandered up and down the beach and across the bridges and over the huge pieces of driftwood and in and out of the waves as they crashed onto the shore. We wanted to go stand-up paddle boarding, but we didn't want to fight the huge waves and strong winds. So we watched other boarders struggle instead, and promised each other that we would do it back home (stand-up paddle boarding is one of the few Puerto Rican adventures we could actually recreate in Iowa).
We talked. And laughed. And talked and talked and talked some more. It was so nice to be able to really talk- to share complete sentences and whole ideas and thoughts and feelings and hopes and goals and concerns. We talked about how far we've come together, and how exciting the life that lies ahead will be. The entire trip felt like a honeymoon, only a thousand times more exciting and more deserved and a true break from real life (whereas a honeymoon is more the celebration of embarking on a new life together). This was a true, relaxing, wonderful break from reality. And it was glorious.
And then, just as I remember feeling at the end of our honeymoon, we decided that this was an amazing vacation, but that an even more wonderful reality was waiting for us back home. So we packed up and said good-bye (until next time!) to this wonderful island, and we headed back home.
It was the best way possible to celebrate our first ten (and a half!) years together.
