ziplining in Costa Rica

February 22, 2013: Puerto Limon, Costa Rica
I had a liferaft drill this morning (the usual one for newly-embarked. Apparently I’m good for another month because my liferaft just had a drill last week!). It wasn’t until 10:30, but I woke up around 7 while Charlotte was getting ready and we talked for a while. She told me about a crew excursion to go zip–lining today that I hadn’t heard about yet. They’d been trying to do one for a few weeks now, but there have been some complications with drills and not having enough people, etc. That got me thinking about it. Once she left, I slept for a little bit longer, then got ready for the day. I decided to check and make sure I knew where my liferaft and raft 1 (where newly-embarked crew meet) were before I went to breakfast. After that, I decided to check in with Charlotte in the library and let her know that our bathroom light was fixed (more about that in a second).

Charlotte emailed (amongst departments on ship, they use a certain email that doesn’t use internet or something? I’m not sure how that works) HR to ask about the excursion for me and they said they had room, but to come by ASAP to get my name on the list. So, I ran downstairs, grabbed $25 from my room and signed up! Before getting off by 11:45, I had to go by the entertainment office and get a shore pass (new for me, but apparently it’s something Costa Rica makes crew have to come ashore). I met Charlotte at breakfast, then we went back down to the room to kill time until my drill. It was a normal drill, we went over all the important stuff that’s in the rafts, how to lower it, what to do in an emergency, etc. Same as every other raft drill.

I got my shore pass, then changed to go zipline-ing in the rainforest of Costa Rica! I was the first one out there, probably because I was so worried about having the time wrong, but I did make friends with a few of the others that got there not long after me as we waited 15 minutes for the rest of the group to get there. Jacob went too, so all of Club HAL was out today. We sat together on the bus (25 minutes from port) and I put his stuff in my bag to check it in a locker when we got there. Next time I know though, I can take whatever I need to and don’t have to worry about actually ziplining with it. Also, I know to leave my sunglasses in the bag instead of wearing them.

I was in the first group to get set up. Here, they had the a chest harness in addition to the regular harness, gloves, and a helmet. When I went ziplining in France, it was more ‘independent.’ We didn’t have to have helmets, there was no chest harness, we had to brake ourselves when going across and there was only one zipline instead of the double one (here there was a contraption that went across both cords to keep us stable). Here, there was someone on each platform, and they had a rope and a kind of stopper thing on the second zipline to stop us from coming in too fast. Sometimes they weren’t quick enough though, Jacob got to the platform once and kneed the girl working there. Whoops. It was fun! I had my camera attached to my chest harness and got pictures of Jacob (who was in front of me) and a girl named Ally (girlfriend on board of one of the tech crew, she was behind me). We all got pictures of the people before and after us. I got a video too of going down the line as well. I’d pressed record before they attached me, and just let it hang from the harness as I went. I had a TON of fun, and got to know a few of my fellow crew members in the process! Pretty good day in port considering I woke up this morning thinking I’d just walk around on my own again.

Back to the bathroom light issue. Last night, I discovered that the light in the bathroom started flickering like it has been as it turns on, but it wouldn’t stay on. It flickered the whole time I had the switch on. I asked Charlotte if she knew about it when she got up this morning, and she said she’d put a work order in for it. We ended up taking showers by flashlight this morning because the flickering was so bad. Luckily, as I was getting ready, maintenance came by and fixed it; not long after Charlotte put in the order for it. She says it came up as a priority 5 (one of the highest) when she put in the order. It surprised her, but not really me since it is a big deal not having light in a bathroom that really doesn’t have access to any other light source. I’d hope they want us to be clean, haha. They fixed it very quickly and all is well now!

After the excursion got back (we were nearly late getting back because there was a car crash and traffic was jammed up on the way back), I quickly changed and went to the Lido for pizza. That’s a good thing about this ship: most of the food is available most of the time; the lines are open all afternoon instead of just burgers and sandwiches. I took a nap until dinnertime when our cabin steward came by. I haven’t really been too impressed with the food thus far here. I’ve had pasta or pizza every night for dinner. They try to make everything too fancy, there’s not just plain chicken it’s stuffed with something or coated in some gross bready crust. I am getting meat every day though just so you know Mom, haha: pepperoni on pizza, chicken in sandwiches, burgers, etc.

I hung out in the room and watched Mamma Mia for a while, then went up to see Charlotte before going to work. I told Charlotte how bored I get in the Loft when the teens don’t come, so she found books for me to borrow and printed out lots of pages of sudokus to keep me occupied! I put on my music and did a few sudokus for the first hour, then went to the show since it was on the schedule. The show was a magician, we’ve been taking care of his two boys in Club HAL; apparently he’s rather famous. Does anyone recognize the name James Cielan?

After the show, I stayed in the Loft for a bit to make sure no teens were coming by after the show, then took over after-hours for Jacob. At least the kids are more open now to learning new games. I got sick of playing Apples-to-Apples, hide-and-seek and keeping the balloon in the air; we played Taboo instead, and Jacob taught them Spoons earlier.