Day 6: Hacienda Guachipelin and Drive to Tamarindo

Early this morning around 6:30 we drive the 3 hours towards Hacienda Guachipelin to make it in time for a full day of adventure here. the first activity we do is the zipline tour. And wow, do they attract a crowd! We start getting gear on and do a safety briefing with about 50 other people. We have to wait around quite a bit for everyone to get started on the first zipline, but once you are on the cable, they roll you through the entire course fairly quickly and seamlessly. We go across about 18 platforms with many zips, a Tarzan swing, and a rappel and rock climb back up in one part. The variety of this tour was impressive and certainly helped to break up any potential monotony. The scenery is also very different than the SkyTrek one. Rather than zipping across the canyon up high and above the trees, in this one, we often are zipping through the canyon, down low which creates a different feel. My son and I both agreed that while the SkyTrek Zipline was faster and had more 'thrilling' zips, this one was also very good and offered a more extended length of fun on the whole. We would highly recommend it to anyone! 

Next, we surrender our gear and head to the horse stable where we mount horses (again with many other people, about 40 this time) to ride the 30 minutes down to the put-in for the tubing. The horseback ride is kind of like a bonus, and I loved how they used them as a method of transit. The horses seemed to be in very good shape, well-fed, and I enjoyed the little jaunt quite a bit having grown up riding. We next grab tubes, and not just any tubes, very robust, taped-up, and reinforced massive tubes, to get in the river. Upon entering the river, I see what a ride we are in for! The river rocks appear to have been shaped intentionally to create a kind of toboggan run or a shoot just wide enough for the tubes to pass. The next hour and a half consists of quite constant rapids with some big drops and a lot of bouncing off rocks as we navigate our way through the course. It was SO much fun and one of the best tubing experiences I have ever done. Again, my 13-year-old absolutely loved it, but I think my 7-year-old would have been a bit terrified. 

After the tubing, we return to the main center and find our way to the Rio Negro mud pools, to enjoy a dip in the most natural hot springs we have encountered so far, along with a volcanic mud bath along the banks of a fresh river. The hike in the forest and soak was a great way to end the day. We then drive the two hours from there to Tamarindo the rest of the way, and check in to our beautiful beachfront hotel, Tamarindo Diria Beach Resort.