Amazon Adventure: Day 3 - On Top of the World

Today is the day LJ has been waiting for -- we're heading to the canopy zip line.

Given that it was named by Fox News as one of the Top 15 Craziest Zip Lines in the World, I have some pretty high expectations. (No pun intended).

We load into canoes and begin the 20 minute trek through the dense rainforest that lies behind the Tahuayo Lodge. 

We are visiting right at the end of the Amazon's wet season. As the dry season begins, the water level of the river will drop rapidly -- so much so that Cesar tells us that in just a few days, the water we are now canoeing in will be replaced by mud.

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The zip line platforms tower over us. In fact, I can barely see the top, which is more than 100 feet in the air.

LJ on his way up to the canopy zip line platform

Using their bare hands, our guides work a pulley system to hoist us, one by one, above the rainforest. It's exhausting work for them, I am sure. There are nine of us in the group and three guides take turns with the pulley.

Once atop the platform, the view is incredible. It gives me an entirely different perspective of the canopy, its birds, and yes, its flying, buzzing insects. 

LJ wants to be the first across the zip line -- and nobody stops him. I'm content to be the last one through the course. I figure that if the other eight group members make it across without the line snapping, chances are pretty good that I'll make it too.

It's my turn now, and our guide, Samuel, urges me, Vamos!

But I'm frozen. Even though I've been zip lining before, I'm mentally stuck.

The view from the top

This course is so high, so remote, I just can't will myself to move.

I take a few deep breaths and remind myself what Cesar told us when we first arrived at the zip line. Each year, engineers are brought here from the U.S. to check the safety of the course. Because the trees (which serve as the anchors for the zip lines), are under water for about half the year, they must be checked with regularity.

I survey my options and figure I don't have much of a choice. After all, I'm 100 feet in the air and attached to a rope, a harness, a steel wire, and a couple of carabiners. 

I don't really see any other way out.

I take a deep breath and decide to go for it.

Besides, if I chicken out now, LJ and Julianna will never let me live it down.

There's no turning back now