While hiking in Costa Rica, I thought I made a great choice, basing my decision on climate, terrain and my own personal fitness level.
The hiking tour described itself as using different types of transportation to descend into the rainforest, followed by a hike to and swimming at a waterfall. The tour lasted eight hours. Okay, I thought. No problem. I’m fit and based on the description, I can do this.
So, I signed up for the hiking tour and I was really excited about it, so excited in fact that I even hired a botanist to come along so he could point out all the plant life that I saw along the way and explain the workings of the rainforest.
Our group met in the hotel lobby bright and early; we had to leave early in Costa Rica because of the heat. If you aren’t deep within the rainforest by noon, it’s just too hot for the trip. We loaded everything up into the car and traveled to the location to get to our horses, which is how we traveled into the rainforest until they could no longer go any deeper, then we walked the rest of the way.
The things we saw included: a colony of ants extending over 2 miles, an eyelash viper sleeping on a tree branch and poisonous tree frogs hanging out in the trees above our heads. After two and a half hours of exploration we made it to the waterfall, exhausted, hungry and sticky-hot. And while I desperately wanted to jump in that water and swim, after seeing a huge lizard run across the water, I quickly had a change of heart.
But the waterfall was beautiful, so I did climb the rock formations and take advantage of the many photo-ops offered. We rested, ate lunch and prepared to make our two and a half hour hike back to our horses, which, unfortunately, proved much more difficult than the hike into the rainforest. By now the temperature was well over 100 degrees and we were dangerously close to being out of water. We were in trouble.
So our plan was simple: take it slow and steady, ration our water and take frequent breaks so we wouldn’t get overheated. Almost four hours later, we made it to the horses, tired, sore and thirsty.
But I have to say I learned a lot on this activity. Be sure to ask questions, a lot of questions, before signing up for any type of activity. You never know what you are getting yourself into.
