Zipping Through the Jungle of Guaynabo, PR

As mentioned in me previous post, we had family visiting from the mainland and took in Canopy Tour’s Zip-line traverse on the grounds of the ‘Parque Forestal La Marquesa’ in Guaynabo. This is a very nice park and worth a visit even if you don’t do the Zip-line thing.

Note that this is a very funky 11 minutes 30 seconds of pure fun.

Since I had not done this before, I was not sure on how to rig for it. What’s more, I had not done any prep for my new Sony HDR-AS10 ‘ActionCam’ so I shot this from my Sony NEX-7, instead. I had never used the NEX-7 for video either, but at least I was familiar with the camera. To add insult to injury, I could not hold the camera in my hands since you need both hands free to steady yourself when running down the Zip-line.

This meant I had to strap the camera to my waist via another camera strap at the very last minute.

This accounts for much of the video being shot at a silly angle with a waist level view, but I think it adds to the ‘crude’ look of the finished product.

I used a Sigma AF 10-20mm zoom at the 10mm focal length and set focus to infinity. I forgot the masking tape I usually use to lock the lens down so it kept creeping off the mark requiring me to reset often.

Also worth mentioning, once we got into the shadow side of the mountain, it became relatively dark. Because I had strapped the camera to my waist, I could not see to reset the ISO to 400 or 800 to deal with the reduction in available light.

I ordered the headband clip for the little HDR-AS10 so I’ll be better prepared, next time. With this, I could strap it to my arm for a better perspective.

Please know that my remark about mosquitos was regarding Alaska and NOT Puerto Rico. We have mosquitos here, but nothing like Alaska in the summer.

The background score ‘Ritmo de Amor’ was courtesy of Los Macuanos and was downloaded from the Free Music Archive. A great music resource.

My only complaint is that there was a fair amount of walking to get down to the first launch platform and then at the end, we had to trudge uphill to get back to the original staging area. I cut a lot of video from this part of the trek. I was beat by the time we stepped off the last Zip-line, but then I’m out of shape and that’s due to my ankle condition.

Both paths could use some ‘dressing’, but there were good ropes or railing to hang onto so it was not too bad. Sturdy walking shoes or boots would be a good idea.

Forget the flip-flops.

Cost was typical for this kind of venue. Reservations are a good idea because they are very busy on the weekends or holidays. We were there on a Thursday afternoon so traffic was light. Allow plenty of time for this if you are in a large group.

The Canopy Tour’s Website has more specifics and you can get your tickets online too. I score a small commission for the sale, but it does not affect the ticket price.

In the end, It still rates 5 Skulls on me Scurvy Blog.. ARRG!

A special thanx goes out to Manuel and his crew, we felt very safe the entire time. Would I do it again? HECK YEA!!! It was awesome!