I am not a hiker, I like walking and running and if I’m invited on a hike, I go, but I am not a hiker. My balance is not the best and I am terrified of falling and hitting my head again.

However, when my boyfriend invited me on a hike with his family, who I would be meeting for the first time, of course I said yes. The hike was in El Yunque National Rain forest, where I went during the summers with my family when I was young. I remember walking around the trails with my cousins, brother, aunt, uncle and mom and then cooling off from the heat in the little ponds under the waterfalls.

Those were my memories of El Yunque, so I was ready and excited to show my boyfriend and his family how beautiful Puerto Rico is. But, I don’t remember when was the last time I went hiking in el Yunque. I know for sure it was at least before my accident so more than 12 years ago. However, even if it had been a long time, I remembered walking without any difficulties through the forest, so I was ready.

We were a group of 10; nine adults and one child. As we started going up the “trail”, it was nothing how I remembered it. We weren’t walking down a clearly marked path, we were sometimes walking, sometimes climbing up an unmarked path up the mountain. I quickly realized that my hands, which I always try to keep clean because I’m a little bit of a germaphobe, weren’t going to stay clean. I had to grab onto anything I could to keep my balance sometimes, so forget about having clean hands.

I was still a little tense because of my fear of falling and hitting my head so I walked and climbed very slowly, but my boyfriend and his sister kept me company. She was as nervous as I was, he loves hiking but he wasn’t going to leave me or his sister behind so he helped us get through the more difficult and slippery parts.

Jenny, Mike and me

The three of us were going so slowly, we lost the other seven members of our group. We thought they kept climbing up the mountain so that’s what we did, until we got to a point where another hiker ahead of us said it was too difficult to keep going. When we were heading back we found a way to a waterfall where we thought our group might be. It was beautiful and there were a lot of people having fun in the water but we still saw no sign of them.

After the waterfall we walked down to the car, where we finally found them waiting for us in the car, wondering where we had gone. Even though we didn’t intend to get away from the group and do such a long and difficult hike, it was a lot of fun.

I don’t know if I would have been up for it if someone would have told me beforehand I would get so dirty, but since getting lost wasn’t planned, I was there and I couldn’t do anything about it, I just went with it. After my foot went into the first puddle and had to grab on to the first rock or tree trunk and even after I tripped and fell seated on the dirty floor, I just just got back up and kept going. I wasn’t hurt, nothing was broken and I wasn’t alone. It was definitely a new, a little unexpected experience and I had a lot of fun.

That view tho

Now I can say I got lost in El Yunque and survived, right?

Published by mariacristinasanfeliu

I’m an aspiring writer still looking for exactly what I want to write about, with a lot of creativity, imagination and desire to write. I studied Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University where I explored many different sides of writing through my classes and extracurricular activities in order to narrow my search for an identity as a writer. I have written for Citrus TV Noticias and La Voz magazine, both of which gave me the chance to explore different mediums in which to write in. Through Citrus TV Noticias I also gained experience in translating from English to Spanish and vice versa, which is also something that I would be interested in working on since I am fluent in both of these languages. I was also an intern at Syracuse University Press where I got hands on experience in what goes into actually editing and publishing a book. Through out the last four years I have faced a lot of challenges, which helped chape the person I am today. After being in a tragic car accident, being in comma, having a Traumatic Brain Injury, and being in therapy for over a year, I am a new me, willing to face challenges and knowing how to deal with them. I want to write about my accident and life after it to help others, show them it can be done and help in any way I can.

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