Of Covid, Capuchins, and Canopy Tours
One of the less enjoyable elements of traveling these days is navigating all the Covid requirements – both for the country you’re traveling to and the one to which you are returning. The US is currently requiring all incoming travelers, even US citizens, to complete a Covid test and verify a negative result in order to be readmitted. I opted to order a home test kit via eMed and conduct my test under the oversight of a virtual medical assistant. The boys will do their testing at a local clinic tomorrow. We were curious to see how these two approaches would compare…more on that later.
[Some friendly capuchins enjoyed entertaining us!] The home test kit cost us $150 because they only come available as a 6-pack and the entire set of 6 is assigned to a unique user so that you can’t share them with multiple people. Eww. The process itself was seamless. I connected with the medical assistant (available 24/7) and he walked me through the procedure. Fifteen minutes later I had my negative results and another assistant recorded it and linked it with my Navica app profile. The results were also emailed to me in the form of an image with a QR code that I then uploaded to the Travel Ready center of the United app so that they could process all of it ahead of time and I could complete the check-in process prior to arriving at the airport.
We were ready for something a little more fun after that, so we made our way to the neighboring hotel where we would be picked up for the excursion of the day. Tip of the day: if you’re staying at an Airbnb that’s not included in the list of select pickup locations offered by the tour company, just locate the nearest hotel and use that as your pickup and drop-off point. We had a hotel two doors down from us, so it worked perfectly!
Today’s adventure? A canopy tour (aka zip lines!) with El Santuario, a local family-run operation that offers impressive views of the jungle from within and above.
El Santuario boasts 10 different zip lines connected by rickety hanging bridges that can be experienced while safely connected to steel cables.
The longest zip line measures just over 4,300 feet – the longest in Central America!
Two of the lines slow for upside down travel, which makes for an interesting perspective as you cross above the jungle canopy.
The fastest line descends the hill at speeds of up to 60 mph!
The final drop is a double-belay descent from the top of the tree to an awaiting shuttle van.
A few minutes later we were back at the main building feasting on a Costa Rican tipica meal of chicken, rice, salad, and plantain.
After an afternoon siesta on our balcony hammock we made our way a couple doors over to La Lambretta Pizzeria. We split two of their delicious 12” pizzas and had enough leftover for a snack the next day.
We also split a slice of Oreo cheesecake (acquired from Emilio’s Cafe next door), and it was so smooth and creamy. It’s probably a good thing we didn’t know they were baking such delectable desserts next door all week!
