It’s something you’ve always considered, but feared too much to explore. And now, so many years later, you find yourself amid Costa Rica’s verdant forests, among fervent friends all harnessed up, each one donning a helmet, a sweat-laden t-shirt and an ear-to-ear grin. You ponder, “Am I really prepared to do this?” You’re 30-years old, relatively inactive, and prefer surfing the internet to the soaring canopies of Central America. And yet here you are, straddling a wooden plank from a staggering vantage point, overlooking one beautiful, exotic, and teeming tropical forest. You’re friends, all agog, nosedive into the lush, green labyrinth without fear or hesitation. You, on the contrary, are frozen in your tracks. It’s all so surreal, if not unreal altogether.
A compassionate tour guide takes your hand, sensing your mushrooming panic. You must look pathetic: a middle-aged man cowering beneath some silly, fluorescent orange helmet, on the brink of mental breakdown and/or urination. But you smile, and yield to his mollifying grasp; you take a moment to absorb the overpowering beauty around you as well as the fortune afforded you; you jump off the diving board, and then you soar.
The forest’s canopy zips by you in sudden, emerald flashes. You cascade graciously down the zip-line, suddenly elated, intoxicated by the incredible height and magnificence of the rain forest summit. You release a resounding holler of thrill and exaltation, one that rivals the canopy’s high-pitched twitters and reverberating calls. You spot a squirrel monkey leaping to a higher limb; a sloth dwelling languidly among the foliage; and a plethora of birds climbing the sky.
When you descend the horizontal traverse and prolific Costa Rican canopy, you feel yourself a changed man. Exhilarated, rejuvenated, you giggle much like the 8-year old girl in your periphery. You high-five companions and shake hands with the Canopy tour guide, who is clearly satisfied by your euphoric demeanor. You can leave Costa Rica with pride and accomplishment, having toured and soared among the canopies.
Enid Glasgow is a travel writer who enjoys traveling in the Americas and Caribbean. When visiting Costa Rica, she stays at luxury resorts like Paradisus Playa Conchal.
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