Treetop Fun: Ziplining in St. Maarten

For our honeymoon, Landon and I went on a cruise. It was his first time out of the country, and we both just wanted to relax, so a week on a ship seemed to be a good way to enjoy our new marriage-ness.

And when I say I wanted to sit on a ship for seven days and do nothing, I wasn't kidding. I'd finished grad school just 13 days before I'd gotten married, and the stress of teaching, defending my thesis, planning a wedding, and passing my classes had gotten to me at that point.

After a little cajoling, Landon convinced me that we needed to spurge on just one shore excursion: ziplining. We're both pretty adventurous people (even if I complain while I'm adventuring), and I love scuba diving and parasailing. I figured that, by day four of our cruise, I'd be rested up enough to manage a zipline tour.

The morning of our ziplining tour dawned grey and rainy, which wasn't ideal. We were committed to our shore excursion and weren't going to miss it for anything.

All of the shore excursions were lined up on the dock, and we found our group easily. After just a few minutes of waiting, the zipline group boarded a bus to head from one side of the island (where our cruise ship was docked) to the far end (where the zipline course was). We didn't pay for a tour of the island, but we ended up getting one thanks to our chatty bus driver!

The bus ride wasn't long--only about 20 minutes or so--and when we stopped, we were in the middle of a gorgeous tropical forest. The farm where the ziplining tour took place was incredibly pretty with these palm trees and bougainvillea everywhere.

But we had more exciting things to do than check out the flora, so Landon and I headed into the ziplining area to get our gear and sign waivers. You know it's not a fun time until you sign your life away on a piece of paper!

When we were finished with our harnesses and waivers, we entered the point of no return. It sounds seriously, but it was just that stone wall above. I couldn't take my camera with me into the actual ziplining course, so you'll have to trust me.

The start of the course involved us climbing four stories off the ground onto this rickety platform, hooking our harness to a cable, and jumping off.

There were no practice zips or mollycoddling. Just a "Have fun!" and a gentle push down this looooong zipline through the trees.

As one of the guides was helping me secure my harness onto the hook, I kept saying, "It's so high! Really, it's SO high!" He just smiled.

In the half second between the time I left the platform and the time I realized I was dangling over the tops of trees was incredible: I was terrified, elated, and amazed all at the same time!

Then, just like that it was over. I survived! (Spoiler alert: so did everyone else in our group.)

Slightly out of focus, unflattering picture thanks to one of the guides (who then charged me $10 for it)!

After that, I felt far more at ease as we traversed rope bridges, climbed into treehouses, and zipped down a variety of other lines. By the end of the trip (nearly an hour and a half later), Landon and I were both tired, but extremely glad that we'd decided to splurge on this particular shore excursion.

If you're ever on either side of St. Maarten/ St. Martin, a trip to the zipline farm is worth your time. Loterie Farms is on Route Pic Paradise 103 on the St. Martin side of the island. We did the Fly Zone Extreme (which goes higher) because we're cool like that.

Have you ever been ziplining? What's your favorite type of adventure travel?