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It’s part of a growing trend of urban zip lines — popularized by a temporary zip line at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics — and a far cry from the early zip line days. They began as a practical means to move bulky items across mountain ranges and even made an appearance in H. G. Wells’s 1897 novel, "The Invisible Man." Graduate students in Costa Rica began using ziplines in the 1970s to get close to plants and animals amid the rainforest canopy.

Tourists love that kind of wildlife exposure, too, and some of the earliest offerings began in Costa Rica and other ecotourism destinations. Yet Costa Rica has upped the ante with the launch of the Miss Sky zip line, described as the world’s longest canopy tour — propelling folks over a jungle forest, across a river and a turtle-nesting habitat, and ultimately dropping them on the fifth floor of what will be a disco bar.

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