Sunday 22 November 1998
(transcribed from my diary)
Today has been a full day with Kathryn and I riding with Peter and Agathe (I think that's her name), a couple from Germany who happened to be in the dining room of the lodge while we were eating breakfast, and who happened to be going to the Sky Walk, Sky Trek and then the butterfly place and then to see some orchids, where I looked at Epidendrums and others.
Took 2 rolls of film on Sky Walk and Sky Trek then had nothing for butterflies, which was okay cause I would have just taken 1 pic of Stacey our tour guide who had that sexy scratchy voice I like and was all smiley and stuff.
Sky Walk was 5 bridges strung across small valleys on the mountain, which allowed us to walk within and above the cloud forest canopy. (cloud forest = rain forest, but at an elevation high enough to be often foggy)
While on the bridges and within the forest, I experienced a cool state of being while walking among the trees - a sense of awareness unlike most others I've had. I imagined that I could feel, sense, experience more stuff around me... and it worked. I felt more connected with the trees and forest in general -- I enjoyed the expanded awareness of sensation in a slow walking meditation for about five minutes.
I got bored with this though, and by the fourth bridge I walked across the bridge with my eyes closed, trying not to touch the sides. I was fairly successful. On the fifth bridge, I walked across with my eyes closed and spun slowly in circles still with my eyes closed, trying not to touch the sides (I wasn't as successful this time).
There was just so much beautiful stuff to see; my brain had gone into fabulous scenery overload.
Here are pictures from the Sky Walk
Some bamboo
This plant was huge! It was at least 20 or 25 feet across. It was so far below the bridge (notice how the bridge is out of focus in the lower left of the pic) and oh my gosh so big!
Here is a view looking down the length of the bridge at all the cables that supported it.
Here is a common view that was visible from each bridge.
The bridges had some kind of fencing along them to offer more traction.
This bridge sign indicates the height of 82 feet and 334 feet long. In the pic from bottom to top is Agathe, Peter, and some woman who moved off the bridge for us to pass, then went back onto it to continue her viewing.
Some bromeliads and more bromeliads
Here is a view looking up a tree
This pic is one of my favorites, not because I had just changed the film while riding a horse, but because of the wonderful lighting.
The Sky Trek was cool - Seven cables for a total of 1.3 kilometers stretched between valleys that we could zip down on pulleys like James Bond. They were essentially like any zipline from ropes courses that I've done, but not as steep.
Here's Kathryn on the first cable. It wasn't too long.
The first three cables were all pretty short like that. Then we hiked up a ways and then climbed this tower, which was 41 meters tall. I took a pic before Kathryn got all the way to the top. The tower was pretty tall.
Once most people had climbed down, I watched the mist come rolling in. It was silent, and reminded me of a short story by Stephen King.
Here's someone zipping away. Notice how exceedingly long the cable is! Here's me.
Here's someone coming in for a landing.
On the way out, I got this pic of the next group as they walked up toward the first cable.
Though people started the trek with some fear, by the end most people were like, "can't we do more??"
