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It’s 7:00am and the small taxi bumps mercilessly on the old beat up Jamaican road. Today my family is on our way to go zip lining through a Jamaican rain forest.

A horn honks loudly and startles me out the micro-sleep I had slipped in to. If I lived here I would have run someone off the road by now; It just goes to show how socially conditioned I am to feel anger or panic when I hear a car horn. In Jamaica they honk their horn regularly just to say, “Hi.” In a way it’s nice, but I was up until 4:00am the night before and it’s driving me nuts.

We are on a small winding one lane road heading towards a densely forested area. The horn is honking every few seconds now to alert other drivers that we are coming down. We come to an abrupt stop and I jerk forward, almost hitting my head on the seat in front of me. I get out of the cab and look around; there is a large gazebo with tourists lined around it. We go inside to sign in and get our gear. A cute Jamaican girl straps me into my zip lining gear and I’m off.

The cool thing about zip lining is that you are in the tops of the trees in the rain forest and it’s stunning. The bad part is that you have to get to the tops of the trees in the rain forest, which means we are in for quite a hike.

The climb is exhausting, there are about 8 people in our group and the paths are narrow, its very slow moving. Eventually we got to the first line. It was a couple hundred feet across a small river. The guide hooked his harness on to the line and flies across, leaving me up next. I look down and look at the line. If I fall I don’t stand much of a chance of surviving.

I pull the line down to me and strap in, back up to get a quick couple of steps in and leap off the platform. I free fall for half a second until the line catches and I’m on my way across. The small wooden platform at the end of the line is zooming into view. If I don’t slow down I am going to smash right into a tree. I grab the line with my gloved hands to slow myself down but at the last second I slow to a crawl and make my way to the platform. I unhook and look up. The line is raised at the end. Clever.

This just the beginning and wasn’t even the longest or fastest line but it was fucking thrilling, I can see why some of the people I know who do such crazy shit on a daily basis are so arrogant.

The hike is on, again. It all settles into a routine. Climb, zip line, climb, zip line… Most of the gaps are short hops between trees, as we inch our way deeper into the forest. In the distance a loud pounding increases in volume with every step we take. I zip line to the next platform and I see a large clearing.

I look down to see a huge, thrashing river. I look to my right and see the source of the pounding, a waterfall. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever laid my eyes on. I stood in awe for a moment until the guide shook my arm to tell me I was up. I look across and see a tiny platform that must be at least 1500 feet away. The guide corrects me, 2000 feet.

I sack up, hook on, run and jump off the platform. It starts off like any other zip line we did, and I’m gaining speed rapidly… too rapidly. I deduce that I must be going at about 30 mph, much faster than any of the other lines and I show no signs of slowing. The platform gets closer and closer, I should have started to slow by now. I grab the zip line to slow myself and my glove tears, the line slashing up against my hand. It starts to burn from the friction and I let go, leaving myself to the mercy of the line.

I start a countdown in my head, 3…, 2…, 1… SLAM! I hit a large pad that’s wrapped around the tree. It doesn’t hurt or even knock the wind out of me, but it surprises the shit out of me, as I had been readying myself for the pain. Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to unhook, so after I hit the pad I glide backwards, missing the guides hand and there I am, about 25 yards away from the platform, suspended over the river. The guide behind me got careless and my sister is on her way.

I turn my body around grab the line and start pulling myself in. This is made much more difficult due to the fact that one of my gloves is torn to shreds and I’m using just my flesh. I make it to the platform and my sister is closing in fast behind me.

I feel a rush of panic. I hoist myself up, unhook my harness and drop.

I fall about 3 feet right on to my back and my sisters feet miss me by a matter of inches. I get up and walk to the side on what must have been adrenaline alone, because after a few seconds it hit me. The fall knocked the wind out of me, I can barely breathe and my arms are burning, they feel like they are on fire.

But I’m alive, I made it. We’re done and we make our way down. It’s slow moving for me and the guides apologized profusely. I guess they think are scared of some sort of lawsuit, or probably losing their jobs. I have no such intentions though, I just had the time of my life.

We pile back in the taxi and I’m even more tired than this morning. I try to sleep but I jerk awake with every horn honk, as the taxi bumps mercilessly back up the old beat up Jamaican road.

This is part 2 of my Jamaican adventures. Click HERE to read part 1 about Cliff Diving.