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Zipwiring Through The Colombian Rainforest

Matthew Parris gets the ultimate adrenalin rush, skimming the treetops of Columbia's dense rainforest

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Every nation has its eccentric national pursuits. Belgians eat chips with mayonnaise; in Hong Kong they bet on anything that moves; the Catalonians perform the sardana, a dance that involves moving around endlessly in a circle, holding hands and bobbing up and down. And in Colombia they go zipwiring.

Zipwiring (or zip-lining) is a sport that in Britain is usually seen only on a small scale in children's playgrounds. A steel cable is strung from one post to another on a gentle descent. A handle or cradle attached to a pulley wheel is hung from the cable. From the higher post to the lower, the zipwirer flies through the air for the full length of the cable. I've seen runs of up to 20m (60ft) in some activity centres.

But in Colombia they go from one hilltop to another in runs of up to 500m. Everybody does it. It's a family favourite - pack the car on a Sunday afternoon, drive into the hills, then take turns flying through the air at one of scores of zipwiring stations. Finally, enjoy a beer at the zipwiring bar-restaurant before a final flight as dusk settles.

My favourite zipwiring station is not far from Pereira, where the Andes drop into river valleys heading for the Pacific in descending curtains of hills clothed in the dark, shiny greens of coffee plantations. The plantations augment their incomes by stringing zipwires from hilltops, each lower than the next. You walk through the coffee to the highest, then spend half an hour in a long series of spans. By the time you arrive back at the restaurant you've flown for miles

It's a great feeling, like a high-speed cable-car run, except that you are the cable-car. Wearing a crash helmet and togged up in the sort of harness familiar to the habituées of bondage clubs, you stand at the top end of the zipwire while an assistant checks the fastenings, then slides the pulley-wheel into place on the cable by your head. Then you drop your weight on to the cradling, push off, lift your legs, and - whee! - the warm wind rushes at your face as you accelerate, the wheel and wires singing at a rising pitch as the speed increases to about 65km/h (40mph).

As this happens, the ground drops away beneath you and soon you're skimming the tops of the shade-trees planted to protect the coffee bushes. Then higher. It's like crossing a huge viaduct on a train - look down and suddenly the river valley is far below and your T-shirt is billowing in the wind. But the sun is warm, and as you follow the cable to its destination you can see the finishing post, with a big soft sack to crash into if you fail to brake.

I should have mentioned the braking. In a ten-minute training session, pre-zip, you learn to place your right hand, in a heavy leather glove, lightly on to the cable above your head, just behind - behind, remember! - the pulley wheel. To brake, cup the cable, exerting light pressure. Smell the burning leather as you slow down. Don't panic and grip too hard or you will end up stopping in mid-air, well short of the finishing sack, swinging in space above the valley - and have to be reeled humiliatingly in.

Get it right and - thwack - you thump gently into the sack, hands reach out to steady and decouple you, you gulp in a few lungfuls of clear, Andean air ...and you're off down the next span.

The coffee country is not the only zipwiring venue. At a superb mountain eco-lodge called Monte Vivo, near the little settlement of Santa Elena high above the great city of Medellín, we rode what was claimed to be the longest continuous series of zip-wires in Colombia - all the way down a long ridge. Though a safe and bustling city today, Medellín used to be one of the murder capitals of the world (think Pablo Escobar).

It's odd that, with fatal shootings commonplace during the week, the citizens of Medellín hankered to spend their weekends zipwiring. Maybe that adrenalin rush is addictive. It must be - I'll be back in Colombia this summer.

NEED TO KNOW

Journey Latin America (020-8747 8315) offers tailor-made 13-day trips around Colombia, including visits to the coffee region, from £2,173pp with all flights and hotels included. Zipwiring can be arranged. Trailfinders (0845 0505892) has flights from Heathrow via Paris to Bogotá from £762 return.

Zipwiring Colombia 57 (0800 0789157) is based in the coffee region with the highest density of zipwiring outfits - about £40pp a day with an English-speaking guide and transport. It can also arrange flights from Bogotá to Pereira for £90.

Read Colombia 57 recommends Colombia (Lonely Planet, £15.99).

Stay Hotel Bosque del Saman in Pereira has rooms from £35, with zipwiring from £9 a day.

Further information Colombia Tourist Board (020-7491 3535)

LEAF ENCOUNTERS

ZIPWIRE

There's no need to fly to a rainforest - you can zip through the trees in Britain. Go Ape! aerial assault courses in 17 locations from Devon to Kent offer a network of zipwires, rope bridges and trapezes that take about three hours to complete. Go Ape (0845 643 9215) adults £25; ages 10-17, £20

TREE CLIMBING

In a secluded “tree field�? on the Isle of Wight, you'll don hard hat and harness and, after training, climb as high as you like. Do a spot of branch- walking, then abseil down for tea. Good Leaf (01983 563573, www.goodleaf.co.uk ), adults, £35; 8-16s, £25

TREE CAMPING

You've clambered all the way up, so why not stay there? After a practice climb and a barbecue supper at the foot of an oak tree in Cornwall, you climb up to bed in a tree boat - a high-sided hammock suspended in the branches. After a night under the stars, eat breakfast while enjoying the view and climb a bit more before coming down.

Mighty Oak Tree Climbing Company (07890 698651), £140pp for groups of two to five.

TREETOP WALKWAY

For a less rigorous, yet equally elating, experience, climb aboard the new Treetop Walkway in Kew Gardens. The gently swaying walkway rises 18m in the air and runs for 200m through the canopy of limes, oaks and sweet chestnut trees. Kew Gardens (020-8332 5655), £13 adults, under-17s free.

Caroline Hendrie

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/latin_america/art...

By Medellin Traveler on Jul 26, 2008, 05:57 in Friendly Talkzone.