Day 12, Wednesday May 21, 2008

Woke up at 5:45 a.m., got to school at 7. Nobody else, but Buddy and the kids living at the school were there. It was rather awkward, so I jumped on the internet until the girls showed up.
Finally we had everyone and were all paid off to go so we jumped on the tourist bus to go to the Canopy Safari (i.e. the zipline). The drive took about 45 minutes and we finally got a great view of the mountains. The ride itself was alright, everyone was anxious to get there. All the sudden, like 40 minutes in, the buses stop and we see them trying to hit something in the bushes on the side of the road with a stick. When they come back on the bus they told us there was a big boa constrictor that had been in the middle of the road. Creepy.
We get to the main spot of the tour and eat breakfast and are lectured on how to do everything and afterwards I walk out to the road to have one last smoke and run across this Irish guy out there smoking as well (so I guess it wasn’t really “running across” so much as he was there. Anyway…) and he’s asking about my being in Costa Rica and I return the question to him and he tells me he is down to play in a poker tournament, and however long he is down here depends on how he does, but he has to be in Vegas in 3 weeks for the World Series of Poker (which is shown on ESPN) so that was cool. He just goes around everywhere playing poker and living off of his winnings.
After talking to him I go put on my shit and get ready for pictures and to start the zipline. We were advised not to bring our cameras, which was never going to stop me (I am the “paparazzi,” as they called me at the zipline, after all, I need those photo albums). Only Alysha, Danielle, and I brought our cameras. I took about 160 pics of just the zipline, so I don’t need to put much description of the experience. I won’t put all of them on this blog because that would take about a year and a half just to upload them all. Anyway, I just wish I were in more than like five of them, and only one where I am actually on the zipline (Alysha’s pic). Naturally I screwed up on not just the first line, but the second (and one of the last ones too) by slowing myself down too much and getting stuck, so I kept having to pull myself to the finish. The group had to encourage me a lot after the second one “You’ve fumbled twice now Adam, but all you need is that one touchdown to start turning things around, so get to it!” stuff like that. So my troubles ended there. After the first two ziplines the ground was barely in sight, we just hung out in the trees. Pretty high up, generally, too. The only one we were generally all nervous about, except for me I guess, was the “Tarzan swing” when they strap you to a rope really high up and you just jump off the platform and have to swing over to the other side. Naturally I was the only one to express a second of anything “o fucking shit” as soon as I jumped, everyone else seemed fine. The photographer on the other side seemed annoyed with me after when I was taking everyone’s pics, but he was charging $25 for his pics, so fuck him.
After we finished the zipline we were getting ready to leave when some of the guides heard me saying that I wished I had seen the snake and they lead me to another part of the area, where they are currently doing construction, and brought me to a wooden box with metal mesh all over it, and a huge boa constrictor in it. The very same snake that was in the middle of the road. He was fucking pissed and was making this loud hissing sound at everyone as more people joined us. Apparently a guide named Rocky had gone back and caught it. The guides were having a great time scaring everyone too.
Then we went back to school and we stopped at the Blue Monkey, thinking we were taking our time to eat before going to class. Their pizza is nasty. That’s all I am going to say about that.
We got to school and nobody was in class, everyone was just chilling until like 2:30 and we finally went into class. It was mostly just Andy, Scott and I talking about the zipline and everyone looking at my pics and videos.
We hiked back to the house in the pouring rain and found out that there was going to be a party at the school that night, 80’s night, and no one else wanted to go at the house, but me of course. But Ian came along with me when I went shopping, so I wouldn’t get into trouble walking alone at night in Quepos. I had decided I was going to get a pink shirt and very short shorts, but the first place we went to was too expensive, and the only other places didn’t take cards, though Seth and Ashley found the perfect outfit so that I could rival Grant, but again they didn’t take cards. So we just got cigarettes and went home. The rest of the night I debated whether or not to go out, since I wasn’t feeling well again, and had to turn back three times when I tried to head for the bus station. Finally I had what I needed and felt fine so I made my way to the bus station in time for the 9:00 p.m. bus. I waited 10 minutes before Jose and his girlfriend walked up and asked me what I was up to. I told them about the party and a few minutes later Jose and I are talking shit, as always, about each other while he also helped me practice my Spanish. Finally his bus was ready and I went over to my bus, which apparently wasn’t leaving until 9:30 (there aren’t any 830 or 9 buses… good to know at the end of the trip) and went to 80’s night. Like half the people were dressed up 80’s, a very surprising amount, and the rest were dressed as best they cold.
It was a wild night, Joe lost Buddy’s keys to the entire school and they were found over half an hour later. I danced with Allison a lot and me and Kristen finished off my Cuervo (mostly me) and I was just tanked. I was supposed to grab a taxi with Allison and Kelly, but Kelly wasn’t aware and told me to find a taxi, which I used as an excuse to walk home… through the jungle… on a dark sketchy road. I had had a feeling this would happen though, that’s just what I do because I just know drunk me too well, and so I had brought a flashlight with me and wore my tennis shoes just in case I needed to run. I doubted the walk would be a problem since there are hardly and people ever on that road.
So I’m making my way down the road and suddenly started to remember the boa constrictor from the morning and tried to come up with ideas of how I would defend myself if a snake or another animal came along. I couldn’t. so I started to get paranoid and as soon as I got to the stairs, I hopped them two at a time, and then I ran the rest of the way home.