Since we were always looking
for things to do in Peru,
our travels on this particular day had taken us to Lunahuana, a quiet little
town a few hours south of Lima. The little pocket of civilization flanked a
roaring river, and as a result of this fortuitous location, Lunahuana was also
a popular destination for white-water rafting in Peru.
In fact, we had just
finished a two hour white water rafting trip through class-four rapids, and had
just regrouped at our adventure guide headquarters.
Two ziplines stretched
across the raging river, anchored to the huge mountain just across from us. Our guides offered a longer tour of several
hours, but we didn’t have the time today.
Since none of us had been ziplining before, this was an obvious place to
start. Just across the river and back –
it couldn’t be that bad.
We paid our money, less than
the cost of a few cocktails, and were told to wait near the harnesses, and
someone would help us get geared up.
I kept looking around, until
I realized that “someone” was an eight-year-old boy who spoke no English.
I’m pretty sure that there
should be some sort of law or regulation or something, but I thought back to
something our river guide said, as we were rafting:
If someone gets hurt or dies, it’s bad for business.
Okay, so we were going to
let the free market decide this one, but honestly, the kid knew what he was
doing, and it wasn’t the first time we had gotten ourselves into a ludicrous
situation. Within a few minutes, my
whole family was geared up, and we stood in line on the launch platform.
Probably the scariest part
was the climb up the cliff on the opposite side. Steel rungs had been driven into the rocks for
a thirty-foot climb to the return platform.
A video is worth a thousand
kilobytes:
Read about some of our other
adventures, and give them a +1 or a like/share if you enjoyed them:
The ride, like the post, was too short. More please!
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