2-17-20 - Canyoning & ATVing

Today is extremo adventure day!  Kyle, Justin and Corey are doing the “Canyoning in the Lost Canyon” tour with the tagline that reads Go Big! Go Canyoning with Desafio!  The description reveals that we will rappel down 200 feet high waterfalls, jump into pools, zip down guided rappels and downclimb the canyon walls and river boulders. 

Leanne has only begrudgingly approved this one.  “You won’t let us bungee jump from the canopy ceiling, you have to let us do this,” Kyle begs her.  “Do you have a death wish?” Kyle thinks it’s a rhetorical question that requires no answers but says anyway, “no but I have a fun wish!” Shaking her head, he says, “I’m going to be so pissed at you if you end up dead on a canyon floor.” “Understood, I can’t see how that would put a damper on the rest of the trip.”

So the 3 three boys get picked up and are off. The Lost Canyon is buried deep in the rainforest so it takes quite a bit to get there, big bus to small bus to 4x4 to the base.  We get fitted in our safety gear and go to the safety demo station.  Kyle’s hoping this guy won’t be as dramatic as the ziplining guy who scared Ashley half to death.  As the demo is nearing the end, Kyle asks yet another question.  “You ask a lot of question,” the safety guide remarks. “I can’t help it, my wife said she be pissed-off at me if I die doing this.”  This response elicits a chuckle from the rest of the group.

We start off on a smaller waterfall of about 40 feet.  All three of us rock climbed in Thailand so the concept is the same as coming down after rock climbing up except we are way higher and coming down in a waterfall.  This is a new one for all of us so there is maybe a little bit of anxiety that didn’t exist on the ziplines which we had done before. 

No matter, we tackle the first one and it goes relatively smoothly with only a couple bumps and bangs against the rocks.  Once you are down, you have to hike the river to the next waterfall which was no easy task. The rocks were slippery and the river flowing and bottom uneven levels of varying depths. The next one is about 200 feet tall.  It is designed so that the person rappels about halfway down and then pushes off and let’s go and it converts into a backwards zipline down the rest of the way.  

We spend the next two hours climbing, rappelling, zipping, jumping into river pools and trying not to slip on the rocks and bust our head open.  By the extension principle, Kyle can easily infer that she will also be pissed-off at him if Corey or Justin don’t return in one piece. 

Back at the resort, Leanne is relieved when we safely return.  In reality, trying to hike the slippery rocks and river was scarier than the rappelling part.  We head to the pool to rest up before our afternoon adventure ATVing which everyone will do.

At the ATV place, Leanne is eyeing the giant 4x4 motor carts suspiciously. “Looks like someone could easily get hurt on one of those,” she says to the guide.  “Just be safe and follow my instructions,” he responds. “See, see,” Leanne turns and says to the rest of us, “BE SAFE!  I will give $40 to the driver who is the safest,” she says. Justin looks at Kyle pleadingly and Kyle pipes up, “um, I’ll give $50 to the driver who goes the fastest.” You know when someone gives you that death stare where they’re shooting daggers from their eyes.  Yeah, that’s kind of the look Kyle got from Leanne with that comment.

We take off for a few practice laps around their track.  After two laps, there are 6 ATV’s lined up behind Leanne who is putting along at a few kilometers an hour. The guide intervenes and gently encourages Leanne to go a little faster.  It’s a set out and back course that is designed to take 2 hours at normal speeds but the guide is already doing the mental math that at Leanne’s speed, they might not get back until two in the morning.

Eventually a degree of comfort settles in and Leanne is able to ramp it up as we head off the trail.  Good times as the ATV’s bounce and jump through mud and rivers and threaten to turn over around the sharp turns. It turns out that Leanne passes the “bottleneck” baton to Ashlynn who has now become the bottleneck.  

Kyle is convinced that Ashlynn is only going this slow in a blatant attempt to win the $40 safest driver award.  “Come on, you can go faster honey,” Kyle is piping up from behind her. Leanne retorts with, “when she has her license and is a teenager driver behind the wheel of a real car, are you really going to be yelling at her to floor it?” Hmmm. Kyle concedes her point and promises not to encourage anymore reckless teen driving.

Back at the hotel, Leanne, Kyle and Justin head off to the hot springs happy hour aka the social jacuzzi party.  A similar scene plays out.  Swimming in the hot spring pool, couple drinks, head to the jacuzzi.  There are some of the same people as last night and some new ones.  We meet so many people in a quick, casual way, it’s hard to keep track of them all, but most people we’ve met have been very supportive of the trip.