In the end, we picked one of the canopy tours that included 10 ziplines, two waterfalls, a hanging bridge, a visit to an indigenous Costa Rican village, horseback riding and a frog and butterfly garden...all wrapped into one! It was a sweet deal! You'll find out about the second tour we chose later on.
The tour we selected was Arenal Mundo Adventura, Ecological Tropical Park, and it ended up being a GREAT choice! Highly recommend it! Here's a picture of us pre-canopy tour. Paul was pretty nervous, lol.
We were schooled in ziplining...learnt about the gear, the lines, the safety procedures, how to ride the ziplines, how to "brake", and what to do if you find yourself off-track...ie if you remove your braking hand from the line, or if you don't make it all the way to the next platform and have to pull yourself in. The safety instruction, although having been on a zipline before, made me a lil nervous too. Poor Paul, it didn't settle his nerves at all.
Following the learning session, three others joined our group and we were trucked off to the start of the canopy tour. It was quite a bumpy ride.
Here's one of the photographers stock photos of Volcano Arenal on a clear day...very nice.
Now it's time to gear up. We had three staff members with us: the lead tour guide, a second tour guide, and a photographer who documented the whole zipline adventure. We purchased a CD after the tour. He had a lot of cool shots, plus videos, which added to our own photo collection. 
Prior to the hike up to the first platform, the photographer took a group picture for us, as well as a photo of each individual group. I can't believe there were only five of us. The other part of our group was a son and his parents.
It's time to go!!! Two of us out of the group, myself and the father, had been ziplining before. He "words of wisdom" on our hike to the first platform did not help ease the nerves on the way up. Once we arrived at the first platform, we got a lil bit of a zipline procedure recap, and we were ready to go. After one of the tour guides went, I volunteered to go first out of our crew. I love ziplines, and I wanted to ease Paul's nerves. Paul was next.
So, are the nerves gone yet? Oh ya, he's loving it!
The first picture below is a view of Volcano Arenal on our way to the canopy tour drop-off. The second photo is a view of the volcano from the highest canopy platform. We were so high up! The views were amazing! This lead to the second longest line in the tour!...it also took us right over one of the waterfalls. It was so cool.
The photo above is one from the photographers set. The photo below is of the waterfall from the platform. Not only did we have waterfalls on the tour, we also had a hanging bridge. Thanks to my Mom for instilling a slight fear of hanging bridges in me. Needless to say, I waited until the first guy was almost off the bridge before I got in, whereas everyone followed right behind, and the wonderful tour guide jumped and swayed the bridge.
At this point, we were almost done the tour. Paul survived the ziplines, and I survived the hanging bridge. The last line was the short and the fastest! I waited for this one!! I love the speed...and wish that they were all faster lines. Woooo, what a rush!
At the end of the tour, we posed for a group photo....but first the tour guides had some fun!
