We had a terrific time driving up to La Noria for a day trip. The adrenaline highlight was zip lining at Huana Coa. We are fortunate here in Mazatlán to have a couple of great options for zip lining, and this is one of them.

Have you ever zip lined? Remember what it feels like? If you haven’t, do you wonder what it’s like? Here’s video that I took while riding the line they call “Shotgun.” Surrounded by trees, it almost felt like I was carving my own tunnel. So very much fun!

La Noria is about a 45 minute drive up into the Sierras. It is gorgeous up there: trees and mountains as far as the eye can see.

Huana Coa was built six years ago. They have nine lines and twelve platforms, plus rappelling in addition to the zip lining. There is also four-wheeling and horseback riding up here, plus of course the gorgeous town of La Noria and the tequila distillery, Vinata Los Osuna, which I’ll write about separately later.

The video below is what Greg took on an earlier line, a wide open one. It’ll give you an idea of the contrast among the nine lines here at Huana Coa.

Their equipment is state of the art, mostly German-made Petzl. All equipment was very well maintained. Huana Coa uses two lines one above the other and double pulleys, so even should one fail or turn sideways, which is highly unlikely, you still have backup. There was not a second that I wondered about safety. The staff had us tied to a line every moment we were there, tying us off to a stationary line before unhooking our harness from the zip line.

Below are two videos of our son, one of him leaving a platform, and one of him coming in. This is a terrific family activity. He had a blast. Though of course, he’s 17, so he’s too cool to show too much enthusiasm when he’s with his parents.

Just in case you start thinking this is a young person activity, or one for thin people only, I’ll show some video of me coming in, whooping and hollering the whole way because it was just so much fun. They told us they’ve had 80+ year olds on the zip lines who fully enjoyed themselves. The lines themselves are fairly easy. Getting to the lines, however, requires an uphill climb, and there are stairs to several of the platforms. It does, therefore, require mobility.

Johnathan, one of the staff, gave us safety instructions before we headed out, and again once we arrived at the first platform. All the staff were bilingual and amazingly helpful and fun loving.

Staff members took time to help all of us suit up and get comfortable with our harnesses. They were so kind that they even taped on a woman’s flip flops so she wouldn’t lose them while she was zip lining!

All of the platforms were very well made, and while we were on them we were always securely tethered. Staff hook you up for each line, ask if you are ready to go, and then push you off when you are ready. It was soooooo, oh so much fun!

I was quite taken with how the crew transported water for us from one station to another. Fairly effective, wouldn’t you say?

If you have family, family visits, or you just need some fun, adrenaline-raising activity, I definitely recommend zip lining!

As we went through the course today, the staff kept telling us they had a surprise for us at the end. Danny knew, because he has learned how to rappel. He saw the little gizmo on our belts, and guessed that at the end we would be rappelling. What they did was have us jump out, off the final platform, and then free fall (with a gentle pre-ground slowing) to the ground. It was very, very cool. Here’s video of Greg doing his dismount.