Friday, July 8, 2011

Waterfall Hiking and Ziplining

“It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane.” ~ Charles Lindbergh

I hope that words will provide justice to this wonderful “Break in Routine”. Being immersed in our daily routine, we forget how being amidst Mother Nature could bring inexplicable contentment and excitement. To sprinkle some adventure in our lives, my hubby and I did Waterfall Hiking and Ziplining in the Rainforest. This was a real adventure with such an adrenaline rush.


After researching on the internet, we booked our adventure tour with Ecoquest Tours. They picked us up at 0800AM from our hotel. 6 more couples were to join us however eventually, it was just us and another couple from Texas. A personal tour of the rainforest just for us !!!

Our tour guides Hector and Sayid drove us to San Salvador Rainforest in the beautiful Caguas Mountains located 40 minutes south of San Juan. After a drive through the narrow and winding road that burrowed the countryside, we arrived at our starting point. We put on our helmets and harness and our journey began...

Our trail began with short but STEEP hike from where the van was parked.
Steep hill climb from the van
After some huffing and puffing, we arrived at a small waterfall from where our incredible waterfall hike began.


Waterfall Hiking
The path was through the river and waterfalls. We were hiking uphill alongside of the waterfall, and at times we traversed right up through the waterfall. Water levels changed throughout our route; sometimes only knee-deep other times ankle-deep and in some places chest-deep. This divine river was loaded with small and big waterfalls and we would soak ourselves in the waterfalls to augment our amazing experience.




We arrived at some steep waterfalls and the only way to go was straight up through it so we used ropes to do some thrilling steep rock climbing



I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We walked up and......up through the rocks,waterfalls and river... 
























When we finally reached the top, we were greeted by the sound and sight of a majestic 80 feet waterfall. The water was gushing down with full force with the bountiful rainwater. This was a pristine beauty of nature.


Our tour guides told us that they had never seen it so full and when they usually rappel down the waterfall, the water is less than a quarter of what we saw and experienced. They cancelled the rappelling part for our safety, however we just stood and admired the beauty of the surroundings and the falls. We stood enthralled under the gushing water of the magnificent water fall.


After some yummy fresh mangoes and bananas, we set off towards our next big thrill, the ZIPLINING adventure.



Ziplining 
We ziplined a total of 3 lines from different locations in the rainforest.It was extremely thrilling to zip by the rainforest from one tree to the other. It was splendid fun and we let gravity do most of the work to push us along the cable. When the guide would signal, we had to apply pressure to the cable to slow down at the end. The distance of each line was about 300-400 feet long and it was pretty high from the ground too!!

We saw stunning views of the rainforest as we ziplined



I could do this the whole day .... We could hear the coqui frogs and the birds chirping and the river flowing. It was simply beautiful everywhere.

That's me Zip lining...

Once we finished the ziplining, we walked down the mountain and again through crisp clear cool water streams. We then went back to our van, changed into dry clothes and went to eat at one of the resident family’s home.

Lunch Time
It was a fantastic traditional lunch (vegetarian for us) with an amazing view of the rainforest. No restaurant could beat the rainforest view, ambience, lunch and the best flan dessert that we had. Nothing could beat this experience.


I totally recommend Puerto Rico's Ecoquest Adventure Tour (www.ecoquestpr.com ). Some pointers - Book in advance since they get booked up pretty fast. Get a load full of excitement. Enjoy the day!! 

Ahh!! What a day and what an amazing way to celebrate our anniversary month. Love you A :)... u are simply the best!!!
This is where we ate... Great food with great view!!


15 comments:

geeta said...

Deepa loved the photos really wonderful trip amazing...a very happy anniversary to both of you

Lakshmi said...

wow what an adventure...what a thrill...shall keep this in mind when we go there...I had the adrenaline rush just by looking at your pics!!Cool stuff gal!Keep rocking!!

Deepa said...

Thanks ma for the lovely comments.. I loved the place and would love to go there again :) Coming?

Deepa said...

Thanks Ramya(Lakshmi)for the motivating and lovely comment :).. I think I will write more about Puerto Rico now ;)

Gaya said...

Awesome!! Fun and thrilling adventure..I am sure you both had a life-time experience. Loved the pics..truly inspiring blog once again. keep writing!!!

Deepa said...

Thanks Gaya.. Your positive words really motivate and encourage me to continue blogging :)

tony said...

those were some absolutely amazing pics. keep up the adventures

Anonymous said...

As long as I read your pictorial script, it gave me a feeling that I have gone for waterfall hiking and ziplining. For a moment I got scared the way you were hiking up through the rocks and waterfalls. I loved that Ziplining pics and would love to do that. Food seems like Indian style. Is it Indian/Mexian food. Anyways, great writiing Deeps. Keep writting.......

Deepa said...

Deepa M - Thank you for such a wonderful comment. I am glad you could experience the hiking and ziplining by reading the blog. The food pic is traditional Puerto Rican cuisine prepared by a local resident there. In the pic - the samosa lookalike is cheese empanada, the orange finger food (Surulitos De Maiz) is tasty corn fritters and (tostones)fried green plantains. The tasty dipping sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise,ketchup and tobasco! sauce. The tour guides joked with us that they eat more rice than Chinese or Indians and to prove their point they mentioned that they even have rice ice-creams in Puerto Rico!!!

Deepa said...

Tony - Thanks for the comment :)...More adventure coming up!!

The Think Tank [TTT] aka Melwyn Abraham said...

love the writing style. narrative but yet so 'chatting' types. very visual style of writing cos reading it i kept imagining what it is like, even without looking at the pics. great start dips.

looking forward to the coming articles and some incidents from the past about handsome dance partners and what great guys they were so that other women can read abt them in public.

do write more and do have more adventures.

Deepa said...

Mels - Thanks for the wonderful comment about the handsome dance partners that are smart, funny,available, single and ready to mingle. For more information - click on The Think Tank ;-)

Mels your comment abt the blog and writing means a lot.. merci mon frere!! Keep checking in!! :)

Bilwa said...

What a great way to celebrate your anniversary :)
Like Deepa M, I was wondering about the lunch too. I thought I was looking at samosas, rajma masala and gulab jamun (the orange finger food which I now know are corn fritters)... :) It looks oh! so yummy.
You have to tell me more about how you went about planning this trip... maybe another blog post?

Deepa said...

Thanks Bits... :) The food was super yummy. Just thinking about it makes me hungry :)

Good idea :) .. maybe a small blog with our Puerto Rico itinerary :)

Photos of Kanab said...

Wow! It's very nice and awesome photos, I really love it. Thanks for posting!

Photos of Kanab