The patent holder wants the owners of all canopy businesses operating in Costa Rica to apply for a license. He plans to collect royalties from canopy tours of $15 for every foreign tourist and $10 for locals.
Arenal is the unofficial capital of adventure tourism in Costa Rica — whitewater rafting, ziplining, canyoning, mountain biking, horseback riding, all-terrain vehicles — and all of these adventures are served up with a few spoonfuls of fear.
The new Diamante Eco Adventure Park near Playa del Coco aspires to be the best adventure park in Central America, and its Superman flight is a good start.
A challenge course at Sky Adventures in Arenal offers ziplines, tightrope walking, rickety bridges, hanging ladders, a waterfall Tarzan swing and a pregnant pit viper. Who could ask for anything more?
The jungle canopy zipline was invented in Costa Rica by a U.S. biology student doing research, then reimagined for adventure tourism by a Canadian entrepreneur in Monteverde. And what a tangled web they wove.