Weeee!!!!

I was awakened by Howler Monkeys and a collection of birds. Since we stayed in "rustic" accommodations, we slept with the windows open to keep the room cool.

I had been waiting for today for a very long time. After breakfast, we hiked up into the mountains with harnesses and pulleys, and hooked onto cables allowing us to zip from tree to tree at the top of the canopy. It was quite a Tarzan experience. If only Carroll Burnett was with us. This was probably our busiest day. Just 30 minutes after the zip lines, we mounted horses and headed into another part of the forest for steam, hot mud, and tubs.

My horse "Feetlebaum" kept trying to challenge me. After he tried to ram my right knee into the rear-end of another horse named "Pokie", I figured if he was was going to be a jackass, I'd have to use the reins more. Soon we established who was doing the walking and who was doing the navigating. I heard one lady in our group, whose horse went in the wrong direction several times, say, "Horsie, you're a non-conformist!"

The mud baths weren't really baths. The mud (heated by the local active volcano) was brought in and put in a ceramic urn. We changed into swimming suits and would reach into the urn and scoop the watery mud from the cooler sides of the vessel, and then we'd smear it all over ourselves. I've been to mud baths before. In Napa, California we lay in peat moss which was hot enough to scald in places (and you wonder who was in it and what they did before you). In Nha Trang, Vietnam, they put you in a small tub and then hose mud all over you. I'm not sure if wallowing in mud is good for you. But it can be fun.

After mud, there were warm pools of clear water. I don't think everyone enjoyed the mud, but I didn't see anyone who didn't enjoy the water. After you're this relaxed, it's a bit of an effort to go get dressed, but there was a horse waiting.

When we arrived at the mud baths, we were asked if we wanted to the ride the horse back after the soak. Two thirds of the group opted for a ride in a cart pulled by a tractor. Since I had not ridden a horse in over 15 years, I chose the former. With fewer horses on the trail, we had less "bunching" of the animals, and more galloping. At one point it was just a full run.

I had never ridden a horse this fast. I loved it. It was like driving on a curvy mountain road, only your motorcycle has a brain and won't drive straight into anything. It might try to brush you off its back, but it won't crash. We were told the horses would be faster on the way back because they knew it would be feeding time when they returned.

It was feeding time for us as well. The zip lines and the horses/mud were all morning activities. It can get very hot in this part of the country, better to do all of this in the relatively cool morning.

After lunch we stopped by the shop to look at the pictures the resort had been taking of us all day. Buying the CD was probably the most-difficult part of the trip. They wanted us to show them which pictures we were in. They weren't going to just put all of the pictures on the disc. This was quite a hassle because every time a new customer showed up, all the work stopped. The poor shop worker had to keep track of who got which pictures.

This is the worse way to manufacture and sell a high-margin item. The CD cost maybe 25 cents to make after the pictures are shot. The retail price was 16 bucks American. Asking the customer to do so much work, and increasing the probability of a manufacturing error is just plain crazy. The only conclusion I could reach was that the establishment was afraid only one person from our group would buy the CD and then pass out copies.

The good news was, that so many of our group had gone through the hassle and bitched about wanting all the pictures, the guy in the store just put all shots on all CDs. It was a great result, but it shouldn't have been so difficult.

The rest of the day was spent at a very nicely designed pool, and then sunset at the appropriately named bar. This was a really good day.