Puerto Vallarta with the Family!

Today, we traveled into the jungle clad mountains outside Puerto Vallarta for a day of adventure activities. We started with a series of ziplines high in the canopy. I've always been an adventure enthusiast, but it was surprising to me how much more stressful it is to bring my kids on activities that I wouldn't think twice about doing myself. All day long I was checking every line and connection, thinking through all of the eventualities. Fortunately, the safety procedures were top notch. I think this was the only zipline I've ever done where everything was connected twice. We were even attached to two separate zipline cables for each route. Harnesses were in excellent condition and multiple safety lines were attached for each activity. 
 
In the midst of the ziplines, there was a ropes course with a huge net to climb, suspended logs to jump across and a tightrope to walk. We also did a giant Tarzan swing that was essentially a free fall out of the trees. 
Following the ziplines, we hopped into Polaris ATVs and splashed through puddles and around the winding jungle roads. Most of my kids piled into an ATV with one of the guides. Poor Matthew was stuck riding with me and complained that I drove way too slow! 
From here, we hiked up the hill to one of the longest ziplines I've ever seen, a Superman line 3/4 of a mile long that we rode laying down with arms extended (like Superman flying). This was the highlight of the day for most of us as the line lasted long enough to really enjoy the scenery and was fast enough to thrill even the most adventurous in our group as we sped between clusters of jungle treetops. 

Just when I was thinking the day was over, we put on flight jackets to try our skills at 'skydiving' in a wind tunnel. This required a LOT more skill that regular sky diving as you had to maintain a perfectly balanced position with arms and legs extended in an X shape to catch the wind. We each had two guides helping us, one inside and one outside the tunnel. Even with the help, we only managed to get a few feet above the ground, but it sure was a blast trying!
 
After skydiving, we all headed to a giant waterslide to wind back off the mountain and to our waiting snacks!