The biking accident-

      On September twenty fifth we were going on a so called “ Short, flat, thirty minute bike trip to a beautiful beach.” Sounds wonderful, right? Nope. Somehow, I found a way to mess it up. It started off great, renting the bikes smoothly, starting off with all of our beach items secure, but then I started getting pretty cramped. We biked for about fifteen minutes when I took one hand off the handles to massage the cramps. I ended up falling, slamming my entire body onto gravel. I had no helmet, but my bed was protected by my Shoulder. I massively bruised my upper thigh, right around the end of my shorts, and skinned and scraped my shoulder, knees, and even my hands and feet. To make matters worse, my bike chain fell off. None of us new how to fix a bike chain, so we were about to give up hope until…..

      A man biking by saw and heard us, so he pulled over and repaired my chain, and oiled it too! At that point, I was up on my feet, since we had wiped the blood of everywhere, and I was feeling less shaky. I have slight anxiety, and was super nervous. The man was talking about the rest of the trip, and how we have to bike up a hill. Suddenly  I got very dizzy, and felt like puking. I sat down for a little more, and the man set off. I decided to walk my bike a little, and then when I felt ready to get on, I started riding again. I biked for about ten minutes when I got very anxious and started hyperventilating. Mom told us I could go to the shade  and relax for a little. I could switch bikes with her, and it was nice, but I got freaked out because I couldn’t brake or stand up, so the bike was wobbly. I stopped again in the shad, and mom decided to call  the company and ask if they could pick up our bikes. They were super nice, picked us up and the bikes to. They took us to the beach, which was beautiful.

      The ocean was gentle, and I could finally BOB. It was so fun to bob. The waves in Costa Rica, are… welll rough. They are quite tall and powerful, and it was nice to just relax.  It was a white sand beach with gorgeous teal waves . Worth. It. 

   The bruise was the worst.

The Two Toed Sloth is cute.

Very cute.

We are hiking in Monteverde with our guide Denis (he is the best) when he spots a two toed sloth. Two toed sloths are a less common then the tree toed sloth because the are nocturnal. This sloth was a mama, and we could see her little baby’s head sticking out. Two toed sloth baby’s stay with their mother for about a year ( 6 to 9 months) after being born. They also sleep for 23 hours. Everyday. I wanted to be a sloth until I found out about that..

Have you seen the video about the Sloth swimming online? Sloths can actually swim very well, and hold their breath for about forty minutes. Another fact is that their back legs are almost completed limp, so when they go to the ground to do their business, they have to drag themselves with their front legs. Did you know that “Sloth” means lazy? It is quite hard to describe the two toed sloth. It has a piggish nose, which surprisingly cute. Their face is a cream color, while the rest of their body is chestnut. The two toed sloths front legs have two claws on them. Their back legs have three claw toes on them. For the three toed sloth, it’s the opposite. Their front legs have three claw toes on them, and their back legs have two toes on them.

We spent probably a half an hour looking at the sloth, when her baby crawled out from under his mama’s arms and started scratching himself. I decided that he was a boy and I named him Muffin. Xander named his mom Roberta. It was quite random. They were very sleepy throughout the entire viewing, as they kept yawning. It was so cute. Oh so cute.

Look up two toed sloth for all its majestic goodness. The sloth we saw where Hoffman’s sloth. There are two species of the two toed sloth, Hoffman’s sloth and Linnaeus sloth. They look very simaler, Linnaeus is just fluffy.

Waking up early again! I swear we wake up early almost every day. This time I’m quite excited about our activity- We are riding horses to a waterfall (Next to a volcano Anyways, a shuttle bus pickes Mom, Xander, Sal, and Me up at our hotel, and  drives us to a farm type. We check-in , then we go find our horses. We see our potential horses, and a our guide gives us helmets, and then gives me a big brown one. It’s the biggest one there, and I am doubtful. I find out that her name is “Meriposa” which means butterfly.

When we are all on our horses, we start off towards the waterfall. The ride is quite uneventful, but our horses very competitive so whenever another horse starts trotting, the rest trot to. Meriposa and I were in the lead most of the time, and Mom’s horse, Chowbella, was very aggressive. Chowbella  bit Sal’s horse, which made it rear up a bit. Also, whenever we go on a bridge they started running. It is very odd.

After about thirty minutes, we come across a small gated in area. We dismount, and our guide led our horses in the gated area. We then proceeded to walk down a hill and change into our bathing suits, after  enjoying a view of a far off waterfall. As we walked down another hill, it became much steeper, and there were stairs. After about a ten minute walk down steep steep stairs, we came across a river. We have to cross the river to see the other waterfall, so Xander and I started to wade across. It is  numbingly cold. It was so so freezing. But we have  to wade if we wanted to see the waterfall, so Xander and I hobbled across the river, then Mom, then Sal.

We walk up some stairs, then I see the waterfall. It is  a majestic mix of light blue, white foam, and teal. It is crashing down very hard, and looks very deadly. Xander, Mom, And I walk out on some rocks near the waterfall as Sal takes some pictures. I enjoyed it for a while, until I decide to go swim. Bad choice. I spend about a half an hour doing this; Trying to step on fish, Throwing rocks at Xander and fish, and not swimming. To cold. We then have to walk back up the steep stairs, and by the time I have gotten to the top, I am super tired. We then all changed back into our clothes, then got back on the horses.

The ride back is still pretty uneventful. It consists off trotting, and possibly even cantering. Overall, the entire horseback experience I love. I have ridden horses before, but I have always been scared of trotting. This helped me enjoy trotting more. At the end, I am sad to go, yet also glad, since I am so tired.

Mum woke Xander and I up at 6:15. We had breakfast, then walked up the long hill to get to a nearby hotel, because that’s were the van would pick us up. The van then got us, and took a few more stops until about an hour later he dropped us all off.  A man called out some words in Spanish, then some in English. We then spilt into groups. English speaking, and Spanish speaking. The English speaking man pointed to  reception. While mum signed in, Xander and I sat down. I looked over and saw a cute ginger cat sitting on a sofa in the reception area. Xander and I pet it, and then it went on Xander’s lap. Xander pet it for a little, then gave the cat to me. It started to climb up my back,  but then fell on my lap . I pet it some more, then we got to go put our gear on.

A man helped me gear up. I got gloves, a harness, a helmet, and a metel thing. We waited in line on some stairs. I thought it was going to lead to another check-in, but it led to our first zip line. I was nervous, because you had to break yourself. I didn’t break. I ended up slamming into the man, but he caught me. He then hooked me up to the next one, and I was off. I braked to early this time. It was fine, and another man hooked me up to a rope next to a classic storybook wood bridge dangling over the forest floor. It was quite high up, and very shaky. Xander had been waiting for Mom and I, but she was a little far behind. Suddenly, I saw mom zip closer to the platform that connected to the bridge. She braked, and the man hooked her up to the bridge. Xander and I then started walking. Mom was a little slower then us, for reasons unknown. ( There were men at the end of each zipline, who unhooked you, then hooked you up to a different zipline.)

They hooked Xander up to another long one, and sent Xander off. Then it was my turn to whizz through the trees. It was the first long and high one, and we ended up at another zilpline. This one was two in one. I thought the second one was optional, but if I said no, we would all have to turn back. The first one I was attached to something then had the option to be lowered down slow, fast or medium. I chose slow, and then at the end I switched to fast. Really gets the adrenaline pumping. Then I climbed back up to a very high platform, and watched Xander fly across a very tall valley.  This was the first hardcore zipline. It was probably 350ft in the air, and about one minute long.  They hooked me up, and sent me off. It was so windy! It also was kinda rainy. I could barley see, but I could tell it was incredibly breathtaking.

A golfcart came over at the platform at the other side of the zip line. Xander, Mom, And I got in, and it drove up the steep hill, then we got out and walked up the hill a little more. We came to a little service tent, and got some water. This was a special zipline, where you got a harness that allowed you to fly like Superman. We watched them hook up a man with a said harness.  Xander and I went towards it, thinking it was Xander’s turn, but the worker said that we were to light, and we couldn’t Superman. They ended up hooking Xander and I together and asking us to hold each other’s rope.  They told us to lean back, and pushed us off the platform. We whizzed through the trees together, over the same valley, but much higher. They stopped  us on the other platform, and hooked us up to another one. It was slanting down, and we did the same setup  for it. It took us to a platform, where they took off the metal contraption that hooked us to the zipline wires, and gave it to us.

We then walked down to a thing called the “Tarzan Swing”, where we waited in line, and we hooked ourselves up one by one on a white rope. The white rope was connected to a high rickety bridge. Xander went first, and then it was my turn. I whatched Xander walk off a 40ft tall platform, and swing up an down, and IMMEDIATELY PANICKED. I just full on chickened out. I figured I would get another chance when Sal (My Moms Friend) came. I was just doing that to justify my chickening. I then whatched my mother plumet to her demise. That’s what sealed the “I’m not doing that” deal. I do not regret it.

Sadly, that was the end of our zipping parade.  I waited a few minutes before seeing Mom and Xander come up, and then we started walking towards the exit. I stripped of my sweaty and wet gear, then tried to pet the same ginger cat, just to be rejected. The cat was very hyper. We clambered onto the shuttle, and went back to our little house.