YouthInkwell Publishing

Hi Papa, John, Megan, Gabby, Eileen and Ivy

            Waking up in the hotel yesterday morning was a nightmare itself, with all the bugs and stuff floating over my head. But I was finally convinced to get up for ziplining!! We had a delicious breakfast in the restaurant, which consisted of papaya, pineapple, watermelon and mango, as well as bananas, potatoes, rice and beans. Along the tables were these odd orange fruits that Matthew and Shaina finally dissected and found to be gray and slimy. The seeds were encased in disgusting gray gloop, and reminded us all of alien eggs.

            According to Jennifer, the bus ride to
San Lorenzo should only have been 45 minutes. Hah. That was the longest 45 minutes ever (it took three hours, there AND back). Along the way we stopped at a souvenir store, where Shaina, Matthew and I found Maurice a cute Costa Rican dress! But then we were all kindly (and forcefully) reminded by Jennifer and Noel that Maurice was a boy.

            When we first got off the bus, the first thing we saw the long stretch of rainforest, probably the most amazing thing ever! We were harnessed up and given huge pulleys that were attached to our side. At first, we were all kind of nervous, thinking it was one long zipline and that we would go really fast! Turns out we were wrong. In the beginning, we had three really short ones to get us used to the zipline, but they got longer and longer, until we got the Tarzan Swing! Again, we were harnessed in (it was the like the Big Swing at Pali except higher off the ground and over the rainforest, not snow) and pushed into the open air with no visible ground below us. Noel and Matthew both screamed and Matthew did his blues thing. After the rest of the quite small ones, we were driven back to the beginning and faced the zipline towers. Now we were over the rainforest, quite literally. We raced each other, except the guys pushing us liked Shaina better…But the last one was amazing. It was the highest and fastest, and when we got to the top of the tower, I swear I saw the exact same picture as one in a calendar. After lunch (which happened to be tacos!) we were about to board the bus when we realized Maurice was gone!! Turns out he was in a pot in the gift shop. On the bus, we all took pictures of Jennifer and Ivy sleeping.

            For dinner, we went to a buffet of vegetables and meat (no fish for Matthew) and three-milk cake (?). There was also a mariachi band that kept us entertained while we talked about movies. Pretty much the end of that day. We also played UpWords in the hall and Ivy, Shaina and I shared a bed that night. How fun.