By Emily Nicholls, a newly not-so-germophobe
When I was five and came to El Yunque for the first time, I was on a mission to find monkeys. On that quest I slipped and cut my knee on the slippery rocks, something I thankfully didn't do during this trip, an accomplishment I probably owe to my new hiking sneakers (thanks mom). Now 15 years later I understand that the only animals that lie in El Yunque are mongoose (yikes), snakes, frogs, lizards and bats; creatures that would be neat to see, but definitely not touch. There are supposedly chupacabras in El Yunque too, and that's something I'd definitely not like to meet anytime soon. Anyways, I'd always been adventurous but in more of an "I'll watch you do it" sense of the word, and this certainly hadn't changed. Case and point: swimming.
We all wore swimsuits for a reason, but I didn't really plan on using it in the rain forest...In fact, I didn't plan on doing any swimming whatsoever on this vacation seeing as the only running water I like to drink flows right out of my Brita filter. I'm more of an observer-tanner when in the outdoors and less of a do-er. I decided maybe I'd walk in but certainly not go to the waterfall..maybe just ankle deep like the other two times. 3 steps in and i slipped into a freezing pool of running water and surprisingly enough, instead of panicking, I enjoyed it. Splashing and attempting to swim like my childhood idol The Little Mermaid was so enjoyable and made me rethink my neurotic need to avoid potentially contaminated water, dirt, tall grass, bugs...you get the idea. Although I'm certain I drank much more of La Mina than anyone else on our trip did, I was alright with it because 1) it didn't taste dirty, 2) I didn't see anything funny in it, and 3) as funny as it sounds, it kind of made me feel more in touch with my Puerto Rican roots.
Judging by my slip 'n slide experience back into La Mina, my roots were happy to have a tighter grasp on me too.
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