The activity for the day was ziplining in the jungles - something else I have always wanted to try but was afraid of. We made it out to old San Juan by 8am to hop on Aventuras Tierra Adentro bus that would take us back to Arecibo area for a day-long adventure including zip lining, cave exploration, and ferrata (climbing the mountains using iron steps arranged to form a ladder of sorts).
The adventura started right on the bus - our guide Rosario (who we later found out to be the owner of the company) was very entertaining throughout the hour and a half trip by leading the introductions, giving us the scoop on what to expect, and running through the gear and safety procedures.
Once we got there, everyone strapped their gear on, got checked out, and practiced the procedures we were going to use “out there”. Finally, it was time for the first zip line which was definitely a lot scarrier looking than it actually was. Everyone got a hang of it pretty quick and we enjoyed a few hours of ziplining that culmiated in a descent into the Angeles cave.
Once inside the cave, we put our flotation vests and helmet lights on and tracked into the cave, jumping off the rocks into the river below, ziplining through the cave in total darkness, and finally floating down the river back out of the cave.
Once out of the cave, we had some lunch, dried up a little bit, and started our climb back out of the sinkhole after one more zip line ride. Everyone made it back up in one piece, wet, tired and with a big grin on their face. It was definitely a hit, just like all of our other adventures on the island!
There is a nice ziplining video on Aventuras Tierra Adentro website if you go to Adventure Tours, select Zip Line and then click Video at the bottom of the page.
An amazing day trip sail on a catamaran in Virgin Islands sparked my interest in saling a few years ago so since we were going back to the Caribbean, I decided to introduce the other folks in our group to it. I spent a great deal of time trying to find a smaller catamaran just for our group, but in the end booked us on the Spread Eagle II cat since I could not find anything smaller. Once again, we had to get up early and make our way back to the east side town of Fajardo to board the cat. The party started with some pina coladas while we were still waiting to board (before 10am).
Once on board, we motored out of the marina and set sails for a nearby island where we ended up spending the whole day. We anchored at the beach there and were directed to a snorkeling spot at the end of the beach. The only problem was that there were four other catamarans with 30-40 people each “parked” at the beach as well, so it was a very crowded snorkeling spot - I definitely saw more people than fish in there. Soon I got tired of getting bumped into left and right and went back to the boat where they were ready with some lunch.
After lunch we sailed around the island to another snorkeling spot. It was deeper waters and much more coral build up providing for some nice snorkeling up until the other boats arived and we had a zoo of people in there again. We hung out on the boat, doing some diving off the sides and just swimming around for a little bit before setting sails back to the marina.
While it did not compare to my Virgin Islands sailing experience and did not really live up to my expectations, the rest of the group seemed to love it and some people have asked me about sailing instruction. I am hoping that we can work out something next year to go down somewhere in Caribbean and get certified for bareboat charter. This way we can get a boat all to ourselves and go sailing and scuba diving anywhere we want
We had a couple certified scuba divers in our group so they suggested we book a scuba trip. A few of us decided to go for that so we were up bright and early on the way to Fajardo on the east side of the island to go scuba. The newbies had to watch an intro video about the diving techniques, signs, and equipment before we all headed out to a boat, loaded our gear and got on our way.
Our first dive was at a shallow spot of about 15-20 feet. Our instructor walked us through the procedure and the signs on the boat, we put our equipment on, and jumped into the water. He took one of us at a time down to the bottom and once everyone was there, we practiced procedures for blowing the water from our goggles while under water and replacing the regulator in our mouth. After that, we went for a quick trip at the bottom.
Once we got back into the boat, we had some snacks and fruit and headed out to another diving spot nearby. It was definitely a much more happening spot - we saw two sea turtles, a barracuda, and lots of fish and coral. At this spot, the sea floor does a quick dive, almost like a canyon, but we could not go that far down, only the certified divers could. Instead, we swam alongside the “wall” and got as far down as 55 feet and it was a pretty amazing experience.
I was always a little bit afraid of going deep under water - take me to 10,000 feet in an unpressurized airplane, and I will be fine with that, but 10 feet below the sea level - not so much. After this trip and experiencing the amazing sights “down there”, I am hooked and will be looking into scuba certification at some point this summer
A couple weeks ago a friend of mine was getting a group of people together to go skydiving. I figured it was about time to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. I was going to do that after I would get my pilot license, but I got my ticket a day before I was moving to Florida so never got to do it (and it was a good excuse). This time I figured no excuses, as SAS moto goes, “Who Dares Wins!”
Since we had a group of people coming, we got a safety briefing and instruction on Friday so we just had to show up, strap in, and go on Sunday. Fortunately, that was not the case - it was a perfect day and there were plenty of people feeling suicidal. We watched a bunch of them jump before us so by the time it was our turn we kind of knew what to expect. I did a tandem jump strapped in front of the instructor. We took off in a Cessna Caravan with another dozen of skydivers, climbed up to about 13,000 feet and then limped out of the airplane. After free falling for about one minute, I pulled the chute at around 5,000 feet and it took us another minute or so to get back on the ground.
I will not even try to describe the feeling while we were free falling. It was a little scary on the climb out, but everyone was so cheerful that it put me more or less at ease. But once the door opened and half a dozen people disappeared, I was just starting to get nervous and the next thing I knew we were out as well. It is definitely a rush on the way down, although a different one from riding a roller coaster or flying a plane. It is “only” one G so after the first few seconds, you do not really feel the pull anymore, except for the overwhelming amount of air rushing into your face that makes you scream more in awe of that power rather than in fear.
On Saturday I got a tour of our Cedar Rapids air traffic control tower and it was pretty neat. It was a solid IFR day with ceilings at 600 so the only traffic in the area were the regional jets coming and and out. The controllers were not busy and were happy to show us around, demonstrate how the equipment works (or does not…), and we just had a good time overall. Interestingly, they are still using the old (very old) ARTS stations in TRACON. Brrrr…
Then on Sunday we got together with all bunch of people to play some paintball. We had twenty people show up so mostly we just played 10 vs 10 and it worked out pretty good with almost everyone using the rental guns keeping the game fair. We played the maze and the city courses, three times each, before joining other teams for capture the flag game at the fort. We won both of the games and then we played on the battlefield with a medic. That did not work out that well since our medic decided he did not want protection and as a result got taken out fairly quickly.
