.
I am completely and utterly afraid of heights... so much so that I caught vertigo when I climbed up the spiral stairs at the hotel in Jaco and had to sit down...
So I have no idea why I was desperate to go on the Canopy tour in Costa Rica... the longest and fasted zip-line tour they could offer us in the jungle.
But I'm glad I went. It was thrilling... there's nothing like playing Tarzan in the jungle, dangling from metal vines, whizzing by canyons that open up in the dense treetops to show the tree covered mountains that push up against the sky. Of course, I was attached by a pulley, so I guess it's not the same thing as swinging on vines through the jungle.
The adventure starts with a tractor (after you're all hooked up to your harnesses of course). They haul you all up the mountain side on a well-traveled dusty dirt trail. When you reach the top, you're on a treehouse.. and you can see the cable, and if you're like me... this is where you panic. But the only way to go is down... and it's a faaar drop... (See a map of the cables and tree houses)
When you're hooked up in your harness, it's so hard to think about jumping off the platform, even though everything looks safe, and even though there are 5-year-olds waiting impatiently behind you for you to gather up your bravery and go.
Anyway, there's a lot of peer pressure going on and so you just do it. You grab the cable with your leather cloaked palm and jump off the platform and into the air... only I was grabbing the line so hard that a trail of smoke followed me down.
But once you're flying down the cable.. you're cutting through the wind and you get a brief relief from the stifling, sweltering jungle heat.
Then the trees open up and show you a magnificent view of the covered mountains that hug Jaco.
Each cable is gently arched downward, and at the end of each one is a tree house... where they take you off of one cable and clip you to the next. 
The guides who clipped you in and caught you at the end of the cable were all Bilingual, so they completely understood me when I said "I'm scared". But the guides were patient, helpful and so sweet. They were careful to keep us safe and feeling comfortable, despite the fact that it felt like we were miles above the ground.
The whole tour took between 2 and 2.5 hours.. it was the longest one in Costa Rica. At the end of the tour we were greeted with fresh watermelon slices, crisp pineapple chunks and cold water.
The whole thing, including transportation to and from the hotel was $60 dollars and it was worth every cent. Especially since I can like, call myself a daredevil and stuff... once I master that staircase.