Wilson takes a hike

Wilson and I have not quit hiking.

We've just been busy. But yesterday we went on our first real hike in more than a month, and added another 600 feet or so to our total of vertical feet climbed.

The 3.6 mile hike took us up a steep and curving road to the River Fortuna Waterfall, situated near the Arenal Volcano.

Not much in terms of elevation gain, but we paid our dues by hiking in the rain and descending an estimated 500 steps to the bottom of the falls. The descent was a bit of an engineering marvel in terms of human comfort.

When I tried to descend to the base of a high waterfall in Yellowstone National Park last June, I had to turn back because the steel grate staircase gave me the willies. But the Ticos (as Costa Ricans call themselves) designed these stairs for comfort.
There are walkways with high-friction paving stones that resist slippage; stair steps designed in a waffle pattern that makes slipping pretty difficult; cement steps that provide a solid footing;  lots of foliage to provide a sense of enclosure; and covered walkways for those bridges that cross short chasms.

My fear of heights was totally untroubled as Wilson and I made our way to the bottom, where Wilson took in the splendor of the falls.

The path is well defined, broad and mostly comfortable.

The staircase hugs the hillside and often features solid cement steps.

Waffle-shaped steps lock the soil in place and provide good traction.

On a rainy days, covered walkways provide an opportunity to prepare a camera for the next photo.

These high friction paving stones diminish slippage.

Midway on the hike to the falls the sky opened up with a deluge. Just at that moment Wilson and I spotted a a covered facility where tourists can tie up their horses.

Horses can pull forage from between the slats where they are tied up. This area provided a chance to rearrange garments and dry off photo gear for the final ascent to the parking lot leading to the falls.

 Speaking only for myself, the 100-meter descent to the falls was a less hair-raising experience than the zip line at Arenal Mundo Aventura, where we began by climbing a metal tower for the first of several zip line rides. I've zip-lined before, but that was within a forest canopy.

The tower, on the other hand, was out in the open, with nothing to keep your eyes from straying to the empty space around us except good sense and a lot of discipline. From a standpoint of trusting the cable, climbing that open staircase wasn't what you might call a confidence builder; more likely, it served as a means of enhancing your impending sense of doom.

These rides -- one of which was almost a kilometer in length -- carried us up to 300 feet over canyons and at pretty good clips. In some cases the destination was a tiny distant spot over there in the foliage; in other cases it wasn't clear exactly where we would end up.

Some of the women on the trip, particularly those with shoulder problems, were dubious about their ability to put on the brakes at the end of the line; not to worry, however, because it wasn't hand strength that slowed the descent, but the weight of an arm pulling down on the brake strapped to the hand. And it was important to lean back and keep the arm riding the cable well behind the body, in order to make sure we didn't begin an uncontrollable spin. You have to be poised to stop at the end of the line.

For me the biggest challenge was looking at that enormous open void and believing that a cable that was almost an inch thick wouldn't fail.

Into the void: Stepping off into thin air over a wide-open canyon is a genuine test of faith.

One hand on the supporting straps; another reaching behind for stability. Now go thataway!

 For those readers who have Facebook access, and who know Shirley Ganse, (shown immediately below) you can watch a video of her  participating in the bouncing cable ride we all had to endure.

The guide pulls on the blue chord to give Shirley a bounding ride down.

Sorry, there are no photos of Wilson with the zip line. Being indestructible isn't enough; you need hands to ride a zip line.

However, Immediately below is a photo of the Arenal volcano. There are 112 volcanos in Costa Rica, but only five are active, according to one guide; the Arenal volcano came to life in 1968, covering two villages but sparing a third, which came to be called "Fortuna," for reasons that should be obvious.

The volcano's  top is obscurred by rain clouds, but the flanks clearly show that this is a young volcano denuded of foliage by the pyroclastic flows that cascaded down its flanks. It is probably best described as "inactive," but not necessarily "dormant."

Love,
Shirley, Robert
and Wilson