Hike of Death.

When I was in the Caribbeans, I went on a lot of tours. Unsuspecting me, I decided to go on a tour to the waterfalls, crater lake, and national forest. For most of the tours, they would drive us to the spot, we'd walk 5 steps and proceed to take pictures. The waterfalls were ok. The crater lake was disappointing.

[Sidenote: Here's a picture of me and monkey at the waterfalls. For some reason, I want to name him Maurice.]

"Let's take a walk through the national forest," the guide says.

Heavy purse in hand, I follow the crowd. Keep in mind, it had poured rain an hour before so the trail was pretty muddy. The walk soon turned into a hike, mostly because we kept going.

Because it had rained, I found myself sliding backwards with each step that I took. As my feet sunk into the mud, I soon found that the mud had made its way into my shoes and between my toes. Additionally, as we tried to push uphill, there was nothing to grab onto. I found myself grasping at mysterious vegetation. To my joy, the blades of grass I grabbed onto turned out to be blades of spikes. (I counted over 17 cuts in my arms and legs afterward.) When I think back now, I laugh that I asked people to hold my purse while I climbed over tree logs.

I was lucky because the guy in front of me took it on himself to watch over me. This stranger seriously did everything. He would pull me over things, push me when I needed momentum, catch me when I slipped countless times. Not to mention, I called him the wrong name for half the hike. Oops.

We reached a point when half the group turned back because they had worn flip-flops. (We weren't told it was a hike, remember?) I contemplated turning around, but the hard-core hikers ahead of us pushed on. Sadly, we pushed on for no reason because after an hour of slipping uphill, we were told to turn around.

Going down a slippery slope (teehee) was even worse than going uphill. Everything that went wrong could have. The girl in front of me almost plummets off the cliff. Stranger caught her and she ended up with a twisted ankle. Then night begins to fall. As we traverse in the growing darkness, a torrent of rain starts to shower upon us. Dirty, wet, hungry and blind, what could possible happen next?

Our guide turns around and yells, "We are lost, mon!" Turns out, we went on a wrong path and ended up on the other side of the crater. We wonder around some more and by the time we finally reach the buses, they're out of sight! The first group that had turned around had waited for an hour for us and decided to leave. And it's still raining.

By now, you can either be miserable or make the most of the situation. So we started cleaning the mud off ourselves in the rain. To your right is a picture of my shoes after the rain cleaned it. I ended up throwing them away.

I don't normally like hikes because I end up looking down more than I do around. BUT, I think everyone should go on a dangerous hike if they want to bond, because there's nothing like keeping each other alive to force immediate intimacy. And everyone should get down and dirty some time. In any case, we finally made it back "home".

Would I do it again if I had the choice? You bet my sore butt I would.