Lafayette, You Can Zipline Costa Rica (PHOTOS)

When it's time to get away, Costa Rica is a great place to unplug.

From its beautiful beaches to its lush rainforests, this Central American country has beautiful landscapes, wonderful food, and friendly people.

As for activities, the choices are as varied as the average traveler's interests.

Let's look at a partial list of activities one can enjoy (or hate, of course) during a visit to Costa Rica:

• Hiking
• Bird Watching
• Beachcombing
• Surfing
• Swimming
• Sailing
• Fishing
• Snorkeling
• Diving
• Rafting
• Tubing
• Ziplining
• Eating
• Shopping
• Sleeping
• Drinking
• Off-roading

Remember, I said a partial list, so there's more to Costa Rica than just those listed above. A lot more.

Today's adventure takes us ziplining through the canopies of and over one of the beautiful rivers of Costa Rica.

We went to the Province of Guanacaste for a visit to Canon de la Vieja Lodge where, on Tripadvisor, they boast a 4.5-star rating.

One of Canon de la Vieja Lodge's featured activities is ziplining through the local canopy.

While zooming through the trees, you can hear the sounds of the local birds and other animals going about their daily routine.

The staff at Canon de la Vieja that prepared you for the zipline experience were very friendly and, at times, quite funny.

They fit your harness to your body, strap you in, and then lead you on a short hike to the first zipline platform.

Once you reach your first platform, the staff then guides you through the process of "hopping up" to attach your harness to the cables.

After another quick lesson on how to properly zipline through the trees (and, more importantly, how to use your trail hand to slow yourself so you don't slam into a tree at the other end of the cable), they send you on your way.

You can see the water behind the zipliner in the above photo: that's Rio Colorado, and it's the river that runs through the canyon over which most of this ziplining experience occurs.

Not seen in the photo above, but commonly seen during your zipline experience are the people in the river below on innertubes.

After your zipline experience is done, you can also experience white-water tubing on Rio Colorado (for an added fee, of course).

The tubing takes you through some wonderful scenery.

And the white-water tubing trip also takes you through some fun areas in the river that will pump up your adrenaline almost as much as the zipline does.

After you are done with the zipline excursion or the tubing trip, you can enjoy a buffet-style meal featuring local Costa Rican cuisine.

You can also buy the volcanic mud experience, in which one of the employees takes a Sherwin-Williams-looking paint brush and slathers local volcanic mud all over your skin. It's said to have health benefits but, being the skeptic, I've yet to see the statistics on that claim.

After the volcanic mud dries, you can either take a dip in Rio Colorado to rinse or use one of Canon de la Vieja's thermal spring pools to rinse.

It was an amazing experience and, if you find yourself in Costa Rica, it's one of the excursions you might want to put on your list of possible activities while you are visiting.

There are several places that offer ziplining throughout Costa Rica that give a similar experience, but this is the location that was chosen by our guide, a local man who works as a tour guide. His name is Marvin Martinez and, if you ever plan to go to CR, look him up, he knows SO MUCH about his country! You will learn a lot.

You can also check out Canon de la Vieja Lodge on Tripadvisor as they not only have the excursions, but they are also a full-fledged hotel/resort/spa!