Crossing My Legs, I Was Off.

Who invented zip lining?  Perhaps, there was a practical purpose?  It seems a tremendous amount of work for a momentary, jungle thrill.  But zip lining was part of our “package.”  The words “zip lining” had reached the ears of my little one.  She had done it before and now, was keen to do it again. This would be my first zip. 

So then; report at the dining hall at 2:30PM.  The gents, who would take us out, seemed capable.  Certainly this would be a zip lining sin qua non; before attaching one’s self to a cable and sliding over a chasm in the jungle the person harnessing you up had better seem competent.  I considered the work these guys do every day.  Are there off days?  Days when you’re hung over, bored, distracted?  Does the equipment have off days?  Our two guides seemed confident and alert as they fit us into our equipment, screwing and unscrewing things.  One of them was newly married.  I took this as a good sign; someone who took the future seriously. 

We arrived at the first wooden platform.  The veteran of our duet, my younger daughter, became a little scared.  Then she became very scared.  “I don’t want to go.”  “You want me to go first?”  “She can go with me.  We can go together.” One of the guides kindly suggested.  I, then, would do the first zip.  I donned my glove for steering, breaking, tested my weight on the line, and would upon instruction, let go and begin to slide.  Steering things was easy, as they suggested.  I simply held my right hand back as far as it would go and let the cable run through a ring I’d made with my fingers and crossing my legs, I was off. 

This was fun, I suppose.  And quick.  Now I was with the other guide on the far tree.  Shortly thereafter my daughter and the primary guide came humming along to join us.  My daughter agreed: “It was “fun” but more importantly “ it was scary.” She decided that zipping with the guide was the smart way to proceed.  We tried to pump her up for a solo slide each of the three times that followed, but it was not to be.  Near the end though, she had no choice but to rappel down the tree some fifty feet all by herself.  She was scared.  And she did it.  

Later that night, we went on a night walk in the rain forest.  This was much more to my liking.  Another guide led us down to a creek, where we saw a translucent frog, and a katydid with remarkable, foot long antenna.  We saw two different snakes and enormous toads.  He even spotted a tarantula in a tree, a crab in the ground and a spectacle owl, high up on a branch at the very end.  It almost seemed like my daughters endemic fear of all things creepy-crawly had been pierced.  This was, in my mind, what we came for.  But everyone needs their own adventure.  Who am I to say that sliding from tree to tree, is any less an epiphany than touching a snake someone has found by a creek in the night?