El Valle de Anton

Yes, this is Emma ziplining in the rainforest. It’s one of those moments in my life where I didn’t need to be reminded to “pray without ceasing”. She was fantastic; I was terrified. I spent most of the week before this trip explaining that some people would be ziplining above the rainforest, but we might not be able to do it. Still, we could walk through the rainforest, play near the waterfall, etc. I really thought Emma would be too small to participate. While we were in line for the restroom, I noticed one of the tour guides getting into a closet and pulling out a small multi-colored harness. I didn’t point it out to Emma just in case, but when I looked behind the van and saw the giant grin on Wade’s face, I knew she’d be going. Once we were strapped into our gear, we had to make quite a hike through the rainforest to get to the first of four platforms. Wade went first and Emma and a guide went second followed by a very nervous Diana. Emma was hooked to the guide, but he allowed her to hold a cord and hang as freely as possible when traveling tandem. He was basically there to control her speed and to insure she didn’t stop before she reached the end (which her mom, afraid she’d crash into the guide did. Yep, I had to drag myself to the end of the first line. Lovely). The third portion of the zipline is really steep, so all of us had our speed controlled by a guide. Thus, Emma was allowed to travel this one on her own. She was thrilled. This leg of the journey took us over a 240 foot waterfall – amazing. It’s hard to tell in this photo, but she’s hanging over 180 feet above the forest floor. The fourth leg she indignantly traveled with a guide. This one was a little less experienced and very protective. Emma was quite annoyed that he wrapped his arms around her. After all, she’d just done this alone! When we finished the canopy tour, with participants ranging from 5 to 75, we headed into the village. We saw petroglyphs created by indigenous peoples, visited a hot springs area where several were having mud facials, and contributed to the local economy (aka went to the market). It was hard to choose what to buy among the soap stone carvings (animals, native peoples, nativity scenes), molas, panama hats, jewelry, and woven baskets. Hint: You should definitely stop by our place after Thanksgiving to see one of our acquisitions. El Valle de Anton is in the crater of an extinct volcano. I'll try to locate some online images as it's impossible to photograph this adequately from inside.