Even though we were on a tropical island in the Caribbean, the days leading up to day six has been somewhat stressful. Why? Well, Mae and I had booked a day of adventures for this day. In every respect, Mae was extremely excited. But me? I agreed to do this reluctantly.
I admit it. I'm a big scaredy cat. But I like to push myself to do things out of my comfort zone thinking I may get over my fears. Scary things I've done include skydiving, snorkling in underground tunnels, skiing on the intermediate slope, jumping into a pool, walking across a wooden log over water, eating some of my mom's cooking (yes! these are in fact very frightening to me!)... that's all I can think of right now. No matter what I do though, my fears are never overcome. I am still afraid of water, heights, tight spaces, some of my mom's cooking, but what I do gain in these experiences is confidence and the knowledge that the chances of something bad happening to me is pretty slim. And after doing these "dangerous" things, I always am glad I did it. No regrets. (Except for my mom's cooking.)
So when I agreed to do this adventure, I knew that I would not regret it, but the fear of jumping into water was truly petrifying. I HATE water. I HATE heights. What I would be doing is the combination of my two biggest fears. The thing about this day was that our adventure was never confirmed. They needed a certain number of people to join in order to make the trip profitable. During this time of uncertainty, I was praying we would receive a call saying the trip has been canceled. My prayers weren't answered. The evening before the big day, we got a confirmation that the adventure was on.
On day six, we woke up waaaay before sunrise, packed some food from our inn's kitchen (the employees here are the most helpful
ever!), and waited for our cab. After waiting a pretty long time, we were finally on our way to our meeting spot. We got dropped off at our location. Odd. No one was there. We peeked around the area, but didn't see a group of people with activewear, a bus, nothing. Mae called our point of contact and realized we were at the wrong place! Luckily, we were close. We ran, fearing the bus would leave us. After signing our lives away, we hopped onto the bus with the Aventuras Tierra Adentro team and were headed to El Yunque National Forest for a canyoning adventure.
While most people in San Juan were probably still warm in their beds, we were in a bus with the most entertaining crew. Ever. The group leader fed us information using lots of jokes, and the bus driver (and also the second in command) contributed by adding his own sound effects. This delivery not only woke up everyone, but also made us feel comfortable and safe having them as our guides.
The active part of our adventure, the activities that I stressed over, was finally about to start. I was just praying that I would come out of this unscathed. After gearing up and passing a few safety lessons, we made a short hike down a steep hill to get started on some via ferrata, a route equipped with fixed cables and metal rungs as footholds and monkey bridges, a very simple bridge made entirely of ropes. We then rappelled down to a platform and from there, ziplined into a cold pool of water. Once everyone had been dunked, we jumped into the water once again and swam towards a roaring waterfall, checked out some little white crabs clinging to the damp walls of the waterfalls mouth, took some photos and swam towards land and clambered back up onto the rocks. While they gave us a little time to rest, we were served a bit of hot chocolate. After a few minutes, we grouped up and continued our adventure. The via ferrata continued. We carefully crossed gulches via two cables, one to hold on to and one to step on, while the terrifying white water made its way down many many feet below us.
Next up was a zipline that would stop mid-way, and we would unclip ourselves from the cable and free fall into the water waiting below. Oh boy. This was was when I started to panic. Remember I told you that I'm afraid of heights and water? Well, this was pure anguish. While others went ahead, a mental war was going on full force in my head. "Should I push myself to do this? But I really don't want to! I am truly truly horrified of this. But you should do it! Everyone else is! But I have to drop into
water! That's crazy!! What's the alternative? Go to the end of the cable and jump into the water from some rocks that are waaaay up high! Oh my gosh!! I can't do that either! What if I jump too close and hit my head on the rocks and die?! Might as well just fall from the cable!! But I can't!!" And so this continued up until the guide asked me if I was going to go for it. I honestly don't remember my answer, but I was stopped halfway through the zipline and was told to unclip myself by swinging my body up. I tried, but didn't have the strength or just couldn't figure it out (probably because I was petrified), so I asked them to just let me off at the very end. There, they told me I had to jump into the water from the rocks. I looked down to the water to see how long the jump would be. Holy mother of god. I can't do that. That's insane. I will die. They kept trying to coax me, but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I finally got my way and chickened out of this portion and made my to the group by hopping down some rocks.
The entire group climbed back up onto the rocks where I had just been. We had three options here. One, jump from ten feet (where I just was which was already the scariest thing I could imagine). Two, jump from twenty feet. Three, jump from thirty feet! These were all approximations, but this certainly looked a lot higher!! None of these options sounded good, so I just stayed at the lowest elevation. There were several girls in my group, including Mae. Others climbed up to the other levels. One girl had the guts to go to the highest one! One by one, they jumped off. It was finally our turn. Some of the girls weren't scared. Mae was excited, but she stayed with me until the end. Luckily, I wasn't the only one who was scared. Another girl needed some support as well.
When it was finally my turn to go, I was frozen. I couldn't. I was already unwilling to go once, how can they expect me to do it this time? After a lot of encouragement and a lot of deep breathing, I was ready to go. I stepped to the ledge and looked down. Oh god. I can't do this. I stepped back. Crazy. More encouragement and deep breathing. I fearfully approached the edge again, looked down, and felt a small nudge on my back. With that, I tried to launch myself as far from the rocks as possible so I wouldn't smash my head and kill myself, held my breath, and waited for impact. Splash! As quickly as possible, I kicked to the surface, and once my head was no longer submerged, I screamed. That was exhilarating stuff! It wasn't bad at all!
You see that cable in the back? That's where everyone jumped from.We were all supposed to swim to another waterfall to take a group photo. It was not that easy. The rocks at the foot of the fall was heavily coated with slippery moss. People were sliding around everywhere.
Once our photo opp was done, we all swam back to dry land where we had lunch. I think we were supposed to continue down the hill, but they were afraid of flash floods, so our next little task was to climb up a rock wall to get back up to higher land. Again, we had three options, extremely easy, very easy, and easy. Cool. I've rock climbed before and didn't think it was too bad, so I chose the very easy option, the middle one. Man. This was not "very easy". More like very difficult! Some holds were far from each other and some were pretty small or at weird angles. By the time I climbed up to the top of this vertical face, my muscles had become soupy mush.
The rest of the trip was easy. We were all urged to dunk ourselves in a very cold pool of water before starting our way back up the trail. This helped with the heat. We hiked back to the trailhead, rested, changed, and were on our way back to civilization. But not without a quick stop at a roadside food stall! Mae and I shared lots of deep fried stuff and a virgin pina colada. Soooo good. It was such an excellent way to wrap up a day of adrenaline packed activities. This day had been wonderful. I pushed myself to do things I have only dreamed of doing but was afraid to actually do it. Everything about this trip was incredible, and I really thank Mae for her encouragement and sisterly ways. She watched after me like an older sister would take care of her younger sis. I love that Mae.
After we got dropped off near our guest house, we showered and decided to have dinner there. How can you go wrong with a table on the sand with a view blue skies that eventually turn to hues of pinks and purples while the glow of the sun slowly dip behind the sea? It was a good meal with good conversation and more people watching opportunities.We walked along the beach that night, at times, taking photos of San Juan's night lights. This was our last night in Puerto Rico. :(
The light building in the back is Numero Uno Guest House. It's really sitting on the beach.
