Day 4: The Zipline!!!

Ooookay, so I feel that I should preface the story of Day 4 by letting you know how absolutely terrified I am of heights. Seriously it's ridiculous. I can't even stand on a coffee table. And looking up at really tall buildings even causes my hands to get sweaty and makes me feel like I'm going to barf. That being said, I agreed to go on the zipline excursion in Jamaica. Mostly because the excursions were freaking expensive (in my opinion) and if we were going to do one, we were going to do something that was really memorable. And I'm really glad that I did it!

There were 8 people from Sandals that went, including us and our friends Don and Julie. We also befriended a couple from New York, but, even after hanging out with them for several days, we never got their names! haha. So after our 1 hour bus ride (which, btw, was WAY better than the ride on the first day to the resort), we arrived at the zipline place. It was incredibly packed, and we learned that a cruise ship had docked there for the day too. Long story short, the zipline place doesn't have the staff for that many people at one time so we had to go in that huge group of 40 (i'm estimating low too, it was probably more). 40 people ziplining = a LOT of waiting in between rides = annoyed Sandals customers. But we still had fun.

Me getting my gear on. I wouldn't normally point out the monstrosity that is my behind, but you can see here that the harness accentuated it oh so nicely, and apparently Jamaican men love the booty, or "bump" as we found out they call it. This man in particular, whom Lee came to dislike greatly. haha.

Ready to go! You can also see that the harness does not let the men feel left out. ;)

Just an idea of how many people there were. We were dead last too :( (some of the photos from this day are blurry, my camera was set on a strange setting that took me forever to figure out)

Cute :)
Getting a lesson on all of the basics of ziplining. We all immediately forgot what was said here. It's hard to remember how to break when you're flying through the jungle praying that your harness doesn't break!

Our first line was a baby, only 150 feet high, if I'm remembering correctly. You can see me waiting on the platform in the back. The zipline company had people at a couple of the stations that took our photo!

I spotted the guy with the camera and smiled for him. Just because you are 150 feet in the air doesn't mean you should ruin your picture with a horrified look on your face!

Very proud of myself for not totally freaking out on the first one. That couple behind me is the NY couple. I was so glad that she was just as scared as I was so we bonded :)

After waiting on a bench for a little while (seriously), we joined the rest of the group to wait in a huge line. I was terrified to find that this was going to be much higher, 350 feet up I think.

Hey, if we're going to stand here for 40 minutes, we might as well take lots of pictures.

Holy s%*t! Do you see those little dots? Yes, that's where we were going to. It was the smallest platform ever, built around a tree. That was our next waiting station. We zipped across probably a 50 foot span and landed on that tiny ass platform. I think there were about 4 people on it at a time. I am not sure how I didn't have a heart attack while waiting on there. I did not dare look down while I was on it, but I was told that it was basically held up with tiny thin branches. That did not make me feel secure!

Here is a closer shot. The guy in red is a worker and yes, he is hanging out on a chair talking on his cell phone!!

In order to get off of that tiny platform, we seriously repelled straight down. It was scary, but not that far of a drop. The man who was catching us after the drop was my friend from the beginning, who put my gear on. He asked me if I was related to J Lo. I was really confused and kept thinking, is that what he said? I'm very white, why would he think I'm related to her? He then turned around and patted his butt and nodded his head! It made sense then, and I really couldn't do anything but laugh. Lee went down right after me and he said that the guy said something to him about my butt. I don't think he was happy but he didn't act mad so I laughed.

Anywho, after a couple more lines, we were on our next to last one, which we were told was the longest zipline in the world. Something like 1500 feet long. I also believe that we were about 500 feet high. Which is the equivalent of a 50 story building. Folks, I work on the 50th floor of a building and I cannot even get more than 3 feet close to the window! It was different though because you're in the tops of trees so you really can't tell that you are that high up. But, on this really long one, you can tell when you're in the middle of it because most of the really tall trees clear out and you can see everything! Pretty cool and terrifying at the same time.

Haha. Here I am with my admirer, in a pic taken by the staff. You can't tell but I was pretty much shaking like a leaf from the ride in. Also notice the huge cushion strapped to the tree! lol. In case they don't catch you, you won't smash your face into the tree! Lee said that when he came in after me, the guy said something to him again and Lee responded by letting him know that I was his wife. haha. He said that they guy kept apologizing and saying that he thought I was his sister or something!

And here we are waiting for our last ride! We were on the second of the 2 really small platforms. This one was not as bad as the first though.

There I am!

There's Lee!

On the bus ride back to the beginning!

We arrived at the beginning and went to the little shop to select our pictures. A guy was pulling them up for us and this other one kept saying "oh the pretty one! the pretty one!" It was bizarre, I have never had people say anything like that to me. Lee was like, these Jamaican men really like you. I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of flattering to have people compliment my most hated body part, especially when I looked like complete crap with zero makeup on and had been wearing helmets and gloves with God knows what in them and I just risked my life to fly through the air.

Okay, I'll stop talking about how I'm such a hot commodity in Jamaica. Seriously people, I'm not trying to brag about it at all, I just thought it was really funny. And I was sort of happy that it made Lee mad at them :)

The zipline took almost the entire day, over an hour longer than it should have since the cruise people were there also. When we got back to the resort I think it was around 3:30. We immediately went to eat and get water. We did that whole thing with no water! And it was still in the 90's the entire time. Then I think we laid in the pool for a while and then got ready for dinner.

Our traditional pre-dinner photo session!

:)

That's all folks!