How much fun can you have in just one morning. At the Hacienda Gauchipelin they really understand what laid back and 'fun' look like in one package. It started with zip lining through the canopy and inside a canyon. Throw in abseiling, a climb out of the canyon and several zip wires of 300m or so in length and actually it was good fun.
The zip wires go for a kilometre or two through a narrow canyon and involve everything from abseiling to jumping off slides and Tarzan swings
Good instructors, good equipment and three other families from San Francisco, Denver and somewhere in Idaho. Our new family word is 'hinky'.....when something goes wrong or not according to plan. We like 'hinky'!
There is a 'knack' to keeping yourself heading straight
Don't let the large handholds fool you. It has been 30 years since I used to climb in the Alps and this was the first climb in 30 years..........I made it though!
Here is a painful lesson to note........when using the GoPro, don't just check the batteries. Check the memory card as well because 57 seconds into filming my descent - the memory card registered full, the GoPro switched off and I was none the wiser.......gutted is not a strong enough adjective!
When they said rapids and pools down a fast flowing river in a deep wooded gorge.......I'm not sure which bit of it I missed but I now know what a sock feels like on a wash and spin cycle.
The trip started with a bus ride on a genuine USA school bus......one of the long big yellow ones. We were so excited! They are iconic and to get to ride on one albeit in Costa Rica was kinda cool. This bus had clearly come from the department of Burlington .....written large down each side. It had clearly also done duty as a school bus in Costa Rica. You can see why, with big wheels and huge ground clearance, it was perfect for the rock tracks around the hacienda.
We LOVED these buses. You see them in so many films. They are so US iconic....so to go in one was fab. Sorry to all our US readers, I expect when you have been in one yellow bus, you've been in them all!
Whilst one yellow bus served as people transport, the other carried one hundred large 5' in diameter rubber tubing rings; all bus seats removed and rubber rings stood on their sides, you could fit about four across standing them on their sides. A bus full of rubber rings looked quite comical. Well I guess you had to be there.
After kitting us with crash lids, flotation jackets and warning us to keep our hands inside the tube at all times, we set off walking the 100m to the rivers edge. The instructors forgot to mention it was 100m down a single file track and a near vertical gorge face. How funny...trying to carry a rubber tube sideways, whose height almost matched your own. The few who decided to roll them? Well runaway tubes bounce down rock faces and try to bowl over as many people in front as possible. Funny does not do justice to the scenario!
One hour of laughing in exhilaration, fear, terror, confusion and much else followed. There were fifty of us but at no time did we feel crowded; we were well spaced in small groups. Occasionally some of us were becalmed in the deeper pools. This necessitated rolling, somewhat awkwardly, onto your stomach front whilst lying across the top of the tube and doggie paddling. A friendly person might bump into you by accident to help you over come inertia. These periods of restful calm were short. The rest of the time was shooting between narrow rocky channels; bouncing down 4' rapids and drops. On one I came my only cropper...dropping four feet down a rocky gully come sluice, I fell forward and too much weight on one front part of the tune and I was unceremoniously flipped out and the tube landed on me! Nothing hurt except pride! I bounced off rocks, trees, got grounded, went down several rapids backwards ( nerve wracking and I learned to develop owl like tendencies very quickly.....I.e. swivel the neck as quickly as possible). Quite simply, it's a blast. The best thing I have ever done and I have done some great things. This truly topped the lot. If you go to Costa Rica then visit the Hacienda Gauchipelin. See Juan and Felix and Mario. Go horse riding, zip lining, canyon tubing. Visit the hot springs, get a mud treatment. This is one laid back place and well worth the visit.
The Rincon de Vieja National Park is an awesome little park in the Guancaste region of Costa Rica. The road up to it is not for the faint hearted and four wheel drive is a necessity but it is good fun. You get a real friendly welcome from the rangers. Nice guys. Trails are well marked and easy to do...well the ones we did were.
We saw fumaroles, mud pots, solfataras, boiling springs and stunning scenery.
I was slightly bemused by this pool. It said 800 Celsius on the board and there was a strong smell of sulphur and some bubbles but not much else!
but these mudpools with their temp over 1000C were much more exciting and really smelly too!
There is plenty of wildlife to see as well not least of all several variety of lizards!
the paths were covered with green lizards sunbathing!
whilst their cousins much preferred the forest leaf litter floor
It was a cool two days at the Hacienda. Plenty to do and see.
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