Sunday, February 24, 2013

Puerto Rico: Day 3- In the Rainforest


Day 3:

Today was going to be GREAT. I could feel it in the air. We were going to a rainforest  I was going to go rappelling and zip lining! It already sounded awesome. Our family rode in a van with our tour guide and two other families, also from the US (United States, not “us”). I was literally bouncing in my seat. When we finally got to the rain forest, I was so excited. We first got our gear on, a harness around our waist (it felt kind of weird) and a hard hat (which messed up my hair). Despite all the complaints, my mood didn't go down at all! We climbed up a huge hill, and got to the entrance of the rainforest. It was STEAMING. But obviously, because it’s a rainforest. There was a huge puddle of water, which we had to wade through. From there, we hiked on. It was hard, because there wasn't really a trail, and some of the rocks were slippery. There were random puddles of water too. And finally, there was an exciting part. There was a steep cliff (not a huge one, just a small one) which we had to climb. There was a rope hanging down, which we could use to help us. It was so… nerve racking! I climbed up without much difficulty. It wasn't exactly “fun”, but it wasn't “scary” either. After that we moved on.

The next exciting part was REALLY EXCITING AND SCARY. It was time for rappelling. Ooh, it was so exciting! We were supposed to go down a cliff/waterfall. A rope was attached to our harness, and we were supposed to use the rope, by letting it go to go down, and pulling it to stop. Our feet would be balancing on the wall. The bottom was 65 feet below. Scary! Well, actually I wasn't that scared. Jasmine and my mom were though. I knew that even if I messed up, I wouldn't die. So, it was okay! My mom went down pretty quickly. Jasmine, on the other hand, took quite a while. And finally, my turn! I was attached to the harness, I stepped down. It wasn't really uncomfortable, I was a bit too nervous to feel that. It wasn't too hard… I got to the point where I had the waterfall behind me. People below kept yelling, GO TO THE LEFT! But on my left was the waterfall! Yeah, I knew I had to get my feet wet in the waterfall, but STILL. THAT WASN'T THE PROBLEM. THE WATERFALL WAS LIKE 10 FEET AWAY! And how was I supposed to reach that? Finally, thankfully, I figured it out. Dangle in midair! Wonderful. It was actually fun, but how was I supposed to know to do that? When I got close enough to the waterfall, I put my feet on there, and slowly descended to the ground. I got that feeling where you know you could have done something better, so you want to do it again. I wanted to rappel again, because now I knew how to do it. I wanted to do it again!! Seriously, I did.

My dad came down after me. The next exciting thing was… (Drumroll please) ZIP LINING! Fun, but easy! They attached the rope to my harness again, and I swung through the treetops, whooping happily! WHOOOO! Like that. We went through 3 zip lines. It was really, really, fun! After that, we had lunch at a nearby house. The food was homemade and REALLY GOOD. It was amazing. It was simple, just rice and chicken, but it still tasted great! I had a good time in the rainforest!

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