“I don’t want to walk to a waterfall,” I say in a nagging voice. We were half way through a one hour hike in the middle of a forest, a waterfall with a beautiful swimming hole was promised to be at the end of it, there was large trees all around and the musky smell from a rain storm that lingers still.
“We are almost there and you can swim. “My dad is walking beside me holding my hand and a tote full of towels in the other. He has always had the most calming voice, and since I was a baby he was just about the only one you could keep me calm in my moments of disparity.
“I’m not getting wet, daddy,” My mom who is walking with my sister turns around and gives me that, you better knock it off look. I suddenly hear a yell from my sister.
“Snake!” She is pointing to two mossy green rocks where a brown tree snake is slithering away.
“Tree snakes are not poisonous, stupid.” My brother says laughing.
“And how do you know that,” my sister snaps.
“Because Fred told me,” says my brother.
“That is enough you two, let’s keep moving,”says my mom. We continue on hiking through the forests trail to get to the waterfall. I am still very upset about the whole hiking thing.
“I’m not getting wet,” I start repeating over and over. Splash! My entire family erupts into laughter, I have fallen into a hole that swallows me from head to toe and I am now soaking wet. My dad grabs my arm and pulls me out of the hole, my mom hands me my George of the jungle towel. After, I get over the fact I am now soaking wet, I can hear the sound of running water.
We finally made it to the waterfall and it was the most spectacular sight, you could hear the splash of the water hitting the swimming hole underneath. There was a lot of tall trees only a few rays of sunlight got through and the rest was all shady and the breeze was nice and cool. There was a whole bunch of huge boulders surrounding the swimming hole. I am sitting on one of the boulders sulking about the whole thing, my sister comes and sits with me.
“Let’s go swimming, we came all this way and you are already wet.” She gives me this nudge and smiles. I look at her and smile and nod my head yes. I take off my bathing suit cover, I am wearing a pink bathing suit with blue polka dots. My sister helps me down into the water and I look around the swimming hole and up at the waterfall, it is huge, with no top in sight. I splash around the water with my sister and brother. After a while, we have a picnic, we all eat sandwiches and have chips with Coca Cola to drink. My Mom and Dad explore around the waterfall after lunch while my brother, my sister and myself continue to swim and jump of the boulders into the swimming hole. About thirty minutes goes by, and I see my mom and dad walking back from looking around, my mom is shaking her head no and looking up at the neverending sight of the waterfall.
“We are going to climb up the waterfall,”my dad announces. We all just stare at him in disbelief.
“Let’s do it,” my brother exclaims.
“How, we have all this stuff to carry,” ask my sister.
I just stared at everyone with a puzzled look, first they want me to hike an hour to a waterfall and now want me to climb up it, they have lost their mind.
“It won’t be hard to carry the stuff out,” My dad tells my sister. We finally agree to climb up the waterfall, according to my dad, if we climb it then we will only be a few minutes from the car. My brother helps get the ice chest and the totes with towels, my mom holds my hand tight, she is nervous about all of this. Off to the side of the waterfall is a trail, that has since been overtaken my tree branches.
“I’m going to have to use my machete to cut some of these trees,” says my dad. He hacks at the branches for what seems like an eternity. We finally make progress up the waterfall, the area is muddy from the splash of water, the waterfall is just a few feet away. We are halfway up and we have to stop because a tree has fallen over and is in our way. My Dad and brother spend about thirty minutes moving the tree out of the way.
“I’m tired,” I say sitting down in the mud. After the tree is moved, we finally start moving again and I can see larger openings in the trees.
“We are close to the top now, not much longer,” says my brother breathlessly. My dad hacks a few more branches and we finally make it out of the forest and we see our car where we left it. My dad has a huge smile of triumph, he starts loading the car with the ice chest and totes.
“We could have climbed down to the waterfall instead of hiking through that trail,” says my sister and my dad nods his head in agreement. We pile in the car and head home after a day of adventure in the many wonders Guam has to offer
“That wasn't so bad afterall.”
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