TARGET 110518

Going to school.....
the hard way

Zip(line)ing off to school in the morning.

Is an education worth risking your life for? Yes. For the children of Los Piņos, Columbia, there are only two ways to get to school: either a 2 hour walk along dangerous mountain paths or by a zipline strung 1,200 feet above a raging river canyon.

In the photo above, take a good look at the bag which Daisy Maura, an 11-year old girl is carrying across the abyss with her. I'll tell you later what's in it.

You can't live here and be afraid of heights

Some days, it's so foggy you can't see the other end.
Some days, snow and ice make the line as slippery as glass.

Even when the weather is at its worst, the zipline is often the safer way to get to the nearby town. The Columbian government promised the 40 inhabitants of Los Piņos a bridge across the canyon, but then they said that there was not enough traffic to warrant the expense, so the eight children of the village still go to school by zipline.

There is a separate line for each direction of travel.

You may be wondering how they get back home, since gravity won't carry them back up the line. Well, there are two lines - one for each direction of travel. No matter which way you are going, though, you have to climb the mountainside to the top of the line you will be using.

The only thing holding you up.

Everyone in the village has his/her own pulley, to which a rope sling-seat is attached. The pulley is simply hooked over the line and the rider wraps the rope-seat around him/her for safety. No one really ties themself in. Since the pulley is open on one side, with only a small catch-arm, the rider has to be very careful not to tilt too far to the opposite side, lest the pulley come off the wire. When there are high winds blowing the rider sideways, that can get tricky.

The rider achieves a speed of almost 40 mph (62 kph) by the time he/she gets to the other side of the 1,312 foot (400 meters) line. A small forked branch (shown in Daisy's hand in the very top photo) is twisted sideways to act as a brake to slow the rider down before he/she slams into a post at the other end. Just in case, though, the post at the other end has an old car tire attached to it to cushion the blow, should the rider not slow down enough in time.

But what was it in that bag?

But back to that bag that Daisy is carrying with her. If you look closely at this second picture, you will see what's in it..... it is her little sister, who is too young to maneuver the line, but needs to go to school, too.

And you griped about having to ride a crowded school bus.

A video of the zipline is provided here:


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Many thanks to Ray McClure for this target.