Aerial Tram, Zip-Lining and the most animals ever! : April 29, 2007

Today we woke up around 7ish. We all met at breakfast and shyly told our professor about our outing the night before. Lets just say she wasn't too happy. At all. In fact she yelled at our new friend for taking us out and that he should have known better. This was the beginning of a beautiful love-hate relationship.

Anyways, after our driver showed up 30 minutes late (and let me tell you that is the best. I'm being totally serious. As Americans we take time too seriously. We don't relax and let things happen because we are always on a "schedule." We need to breathe more and enjoy life.) Moving on, we all pilled into our turismo van and traveled to the Rain Forest Aerial Tram. We arrived there after traveling through the mountains or hills of the rain forest (I'm not sure what you classify them as, they looked like mountains to me). It was absolutely gorgeous. When I was about 9 I went to Malaysia with my family, and this brought me back to that trip, but with crazier drivers. It was gorgeous... so green. I kept looking for birds, because I consider myself an intermediate birder. I can spot them like no other, it's the identifying that slows me down.

Here is where we went: www.rainforestrams.com

Our driver drops us off and we check in at the desk. We have to take another bus to the place where the tram is and then we go on a short hike. We saw the Blue Jean Poison Arrow Frog and some cool ants, I believe they were solitary ants. We met our guides and split into two groups. My group was the second ones on the tram and our guide knew a lot about birds, so I was really excited! We rode around and because of the timing and the fact that it didn't look like it was going to rain, he allowed our groups to get out at the midway point and take another hike. We walked around and he showed us all of the different structures of the plants. We saw some huge, we think they were bumble bees... they were the size of a half dollar. And they were loud too, we heard them before we saw them.
Then we went onto a platform that looked out off the side of the mountain. It was absolutely gorgeous. And then the coolest thing happened, we heard a bird. Our guide told us it was a trogon and we should look for it because it would be beautiful. So we went all through the trails looking towards the beautiful sound and we spotted it. It was high in the trees but we could see the red and green with the stripped tail. It was gorgeous, absolutely amazing. So after we stared at it for about 20 mins we walked back to the tram area. When we got there the other group was waiting for us. And while waiting we saw a hummingbird's nest! It was so tiny, I would have mistaken it for a leaf cluster.
So back on the tram and on a high. Everything was so new, and green, and lush, and tall, and absolutely gorgeous, I just can't describe it in words. The opening picture to this blog was taken on the tram.. just amazing. I learned so much on this trip about plants, it was so cool. While on the way back, our guide told us about the zip-lining that they offer. My professor didn't know they offered this but suggested that we check it out. It wasn't too expensive and it turned out there was a group opening so we all decided to do it.

Ate lunch, visited gift shop, put our packs in storage and went to learn how to zip-line. We had a mini-lesson and were suited up. We went on a trial run, which I was happy about because I am more of a kinesthetic learner (which means I learn by doing). We practiced twice, and the harness was a double line which meant we would be supported by two cables instead of one. So we hiked up the short trail to the first landing. It was our group of 7 and two other groups of 3 or 4. They went first and screamed the entire way across. The whole point of this zip-line is to be within nature and see all that the canopy has to offer. Screaming does not help see the animals. So our wonderful guide thought it would be best if our group went first and we were able to. (This is one of the reasons we had such a wonderful time.. because our group would go out, party, drink, tell raunchy jokes, laugh at stupid things but then be stealthly quiet and observant and want to learn everything there was to know while in the jungle. This mix of goofiness and desire to learn was absolutely perfect!)

On the next platform, our group went first. When we got to the next platform our guide saw something on the tree. It looked like grey or green lichen but it wasn't... it was a tiny, extremely poisonous snake. It was an eyelash viper! It was so small and just curled around the tree... if you were walking up, you might have just absentmindedly grab the tree to help you and bam, you would have bitten and had to be rushed to the hospital... very intimidating for such a small guy!
Moving on to the next platform. Riding on the zip-line is incredible. You are flying through the trees and over small streams, you can see everything! It is so exhilirating, if you ever have the chance, you MUST go! Don't hesitate!
The next platform was amazing. We get over there and it was like we just blinked and were suddenly surrounded by birds. We saw Montezuma's Oropendola and their gorgeous hanging nests. We saw Fiery-billed Aracari no further than maybe ten feet away. We stayed there for a while just looking out. This platform was on a tree in the middle of the stream... it was so open and high that we could see everywhere. Our guide told us that this was where he saw a tapir before, so of course we spent ten minutes trying to see one... we didn't though.
On to the next platforms. Our guide was so entertaining and would jump off the platforms doing backflips and the likes. A couple of other students did them off the platform too, although I don't think we were supposed to. A couple of times they let us ride backwards. They even let one of the students sit in the guides lap so that she could take video going across! They were such cool people!

After our amazing zip-line tour we had to say good-bye to our wonderful guides. We hugged and were on our way to the bus to take us to our van and the animals decided to come out and give a show!
As we were in the waiting area for the bus someone looks up and starts pointing at something way high in the tree. We all focus our binoculars and find a three-toed sloth just hanging out. Their faces are unbelievable and look so human-like. He (I try to only use gender focused words if I know for a fact what the gender was, otherwise I refer to it as they) was staring over his shoulder looking down at us. And then all of sudden we hear another gasp. We rush over to where the crowd is forming and see that a Northern Tamandua (anteater) walking around where the forest meets the path. It was amazing, he was just going about his business climbing trees and looking for food. He walked on the sidewalk a little bit looked at all of the paparazzi taking his picture, stood on his hind legs, turned and then walked into the forest and out of sight. It was like they trained the animals to do this... On the way back to the bus stop we heard more commotion and went over and saw a Bare-necked Umbrellabird! It was so black and beautiful! It was a female because it didn't have the red skin sac off of its throat.

This was just the first day and already we had seen what some people see on their entire trip! It was so amazing and we were on a high from the animals. We went back to the hotel and told our friend all about it. We all took showers and got dressed for another night out, dinner at Tres Fratelli (an Italian restaurant). This time it was dinner with our professor. It was so nice to reflect back on the day. That's one thing that happened on this trip is that so many amazing experiences were taking place that I almost missed some because I didn't have time to just breathe and think about where I was.