Loterie Farm-Extreme Fly Zone

     For our day on Saint Maarten, John and I ventured out on our own. There was an activity I wanted to do and the ship didn't offer it, so we booked it on our own. We got an early start to our day as we wanted to have as much cushion in our day and time as possible.

      For those that haven't cruised before, the ship has a guarantee that if something were to happen while out (transportation breaks down, delay of some sort) on a excursion that you bought through them, they will not leave the port without you. However, if you are out on your own, you "risk" being left behind if not back on the ship in time. This isn't an empty threat either- we have seen people left on both of the cruises we have taken. This was our longest port day, so we felt comfortable that we had more than enough time to go to several places. Top of that list was Loterie Farm!

 On the French side of the island, Loterie Farm is a beautiful area with gardens, a pool, covered relaxing lounge/bar area, hiking trails, and what they call Fly Zones.

 Lots of beautiful trees everywhere!

 While we were waiting for our hike and fly time, we saw this cool lizard.

 He put on a little show puffing out his colorful little throat thingy.

While hiking, if felt as if we were deep in the jungle.

Tons of Mango Trees as well.

There were some challenging spots on the hike. See the wire leading up the rocks? That was the "path" to go up the mountain.

The footpath after the little climb up those rocks.

At the top of the mountain, there were fabulous views!

The photos don't do this justice. It was amazing.

There were even wild monkeys on the hike! He's on the trail in the lower/center part of this photo.

Might be hard to see in this photo, but this is a view of the longest zip line that I would be taking very soon.

Time for the Extreme Fly Zone! All of the harnesses on the railing. I was trying out my camera the guide had taped to my wrist since I didn't have a head mount for it.

 All strapped in and ready to go!

 The Fly Zone wasn't just simply zip lines- there were lots  of different obstacles to get to the different platforms.

 Of course they were up in the air. These are from the "regular" Fly Zone. The Extreme is, you guessed it, more extreme! I only had the small camera taped to my wrist, so I wasn't always aware if I had just snapped a photo or took a video. The end result wasn't what I hoped for being captured, but there is always next time!

 There were many suspended bridges like this. We would clip our safety ropes on each side and walk down to our next platform,

 There were a total of 12 zip lines on the course. Some were pretty short and others were pretty long. 

I did manage to take one selfie while on the course. It took about 1.5 hours in all to complete.

 This bridge had a pretty steep decline.

 These were some of the most challenging. I can now say I have walked on several tight ropes. 

 It was so much fun zipping across the treetops.

 A photo of someone else from our group as she came in to her platform.

A view from the beginning of the longest zip line- 1,200 feet long!

A view from the other side after I finished. Hard to see where it begins.

Since my camera was mounted on my wrist, most of my videos were sideways or upside down depending on how I held my arm. Instead of making you all ill from trying to view those videos, I selected a few from YouTube so you can picture some of the thrills we experienced. I can't wait to do something like this again.