Volcan Velocity

So, after a week or so of just hanging around Antigua shopping, golfing, eating and playing cards, we decided to try something a little different (read: Andrew wants action)!

Mountain biking sounds fun, doesn't it? The good people at OX Adventure Volcano Tours (website here) not only offer some pretty cool volcano hikes, but they do some mountain biking trips too. (which they should have on their site, but don't...but that's neither here nor there!)

There were many to choose from: Quiet ride to and through a coffee plantation (difficulty level:easy, rider skill level: none existent), A combination hike, bike and zipline trip (dl: moderate, rsl: moderate), a  high speed downhill volcano trek on a single wide path (dl: medium, rsl: technical) and a few more that became pretty advanced...

Hey, let's drive halfway up that and bike down. Sound good?

So, of course, we decided on the Volcan Velocity highspeed downhill vocano trek on a single wide path...

This is going to end well...

Our ride to the volcano...possibly the safest part of the trip.

Take 1 risk assessing, insurance minded individual with speed issues and place her on a 2 wheel chariot with 1" rubber pads for breaks and send her down a 2' path filled with rocks, tree branches, various other pieces of debris and then cover all of that with a layer of loose dirt. This sounds smart, doesn't it?


I'm  SUCH a great husband...

Nobody said anything about having to go uphill!

The trip started with a brisk ride in the back of the smallest pick up truck known to man up about halfway to the top of Volcan Pacaya south of Antigua. Then there was a little ride through a part of a little shanty town I never caught the name of. There was a brief instructional period of how best to manipulate the bike (basically: don't break on the curves or declines...) and then off we go!

This doesn't look too difficult, does it?

The views were quite spectacular, if I do say so myself...

At least, the views where spectacular when you were seated on your bike...Apparently this wasn't exactly my beautiful wife's best sport ever. The guide mentioned something about setting a record for most falls by a single rider on this trip...

Pride goeth before the fall...or falls, as it may be.

Penny fall down, go boom

The walk of shame!

Shame Penny...SHAME!

Honey, do I have any dirt on me?

I have to say, she is a total trooper though. She managed to keep a smile on her face, and a laugh in her voice as she fell, drove off the path and fell some more. In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit that I dropped my bike twice as well...including 1 seriously impressive unintentional vault of the handlebars as my front wheel jammed into a fairly large rock. Thankfully I came away relatively unscathed.

1 of these things looks not like the other...

Penny...nooooot so much unscathed...

Again, I couldn't ask for a partner with a better attitude. Better balance yes, better attitude, no.

Look ma! No skin!

In this episode of Woman versus Nature: Nature wins!

 You know what they say: The couple that plays together, stays together...

Maybe next time we will play at something that is a little slower, with a little less dirt and a little less incline.

I wonder if there is a shuffleboard table somewhere in town?