Attack of the Bugs! --> Updated

POST TRIP UPDATE:

Well we thought that Luke had a clean bill of health after his visit to the Costa Rica clinic - but when we returned home we noticed Luke seemed to have a bit of pain in his ear...so we took him to his pediatrician, Dr Daley and look what she flushed out:

Luke was a good sport letting his dad take this picture!  The thorax, since it is soft tissue, fell apart a few seconds after coming out of the ear but the wings, head and legs are still there and you can see how big this was - I couldn't believe that this was in his ear for 2 weeks and he didn't complain...nor did we notice any change in his ability to listen since he normally doesn't listen to a word his parents say anyway...DOH!

********* History of the bug attack below *******

So - back to the attack of the bugs...it started off as a fun horseback ride up into the mountains:

The horses were not in the best shape but my horse had enough spunk that my butt was sore the next day from the 20 minute or so ride.  Both of the boys enjoyed the ride too, I think it was their first time riding a horse.  Luke is taking a horseback riding class with his friend Alex this summer so Luke will have a little experience under his belt.

Once we got to the jungle - we got our harnesses on and then they put this on our hand:

This is the brake!  The zip lines went anywhere from a hundred yards to the long one - which was a quarter mile of some serious 'zipping' through the jungle.  It was actually safe.  Both boys went along with guides so they did not have to worry about braking. But on a couple of the short zips the boys went on their own as all they had to do was hold on! 

As you can see by the video - we were wayyyy up there.  But I never felt in danger as you were always connected to a cable - there were always 2 connections, a primary and a safety so when you "arrived" at a platform, they would take the safety line and connect you to a cable and then you would "dismount" the zip line.

So the trouble started when we were high in a tree waiting for our next zip line.  A few big black flies started buzzing around Luke who was with the guide waiting.  Well, as Luke started moving around the bugs started to get excited too - then suddenly there were more of these flies and apparently they like to dig into hair so they were soon in our helmets - me Luke and Jakob took the brunt of this attack. It felt like you were being stung or bit - it was really uncomfortable - not to mention that we were way up in a tree on tiny platform - the smallest and most precarious one of all of them actually so lucky us!

So Luke is now frantically screaming his head off that he is being eaten alive, the flies are now biting or digging inside his helmet, shirt and the worst part - HIS EARS!  The strap from the helmet is trapping the flies in his ears so he is screaming and the guide is trying to calm him down - I'm about 5 feet below Luke so I climb the ladder to the platform with Jakob who is between me and Luke (since we have our safety lines hooked to a cable) - well I'm not much help except to pull these flies (as big as a bumblebee, just all black and with sharp legs!) from his hair and shirt.  Luke just wants to get down which can NOT happen as the only thing is to just go to the next platform.  So we get Luke's helmet back on and he is completely flipped out as now two women with us are screaming for their lives too! 

Essentially we just put Luke on the zip line and push him to the other platform which was just about a hundred or so yards away.  He is still not too happy on the other platform as a few bugs are still on him - at this point his helmet goes flying off into the jungle too ;-)  But we now have all the bugs off him and a guide takes him to the next platform where things settle down a bit.

We have just one more zip line to go, which is good - as Luke has blood coming out of one ear!  So it takes a while to get back to the "base camp" but they had radioed ahead and had a doctor waiting to examine Luke so we took a ride to "La Clinica" where a doctor made sure there were no bugs still in his ear.  The bug did bite in this ear but the blood was likely Luke's fingernail or the bugs claws...but he is okay.

Does anyone know a good therapist though ;-)  Not sure if that is just for Luke or for all of us~

The good news is we went back to our hotel and enjoyed the evening swimming in the pool and just relaxed so we all had a good laugh out of our adventure later that evening!