Last year, my family decided to go on a trip to the beautiful Island of Aruba. We had so much fun, but there was little bump in the road that happened while we were there.

This story is how I got this pretty big scar on my knee. Now picture this, a lush emerald island that is covered in plant life. There’s some parrots handing out in a tree by your window. It’s paradise, really. Well, Aruba is not that island. It’s beauty focuses on the desert like quality of the landscape. It’s rocky and sandy but even that still hold beauty, and some pretty fun cliff to go jumping of at the beach.

Now they also have a national park and a trail that you can rent a jeep to drive to take about a three mile hike to the Natural pool, which was amazing! There was just one little problem, By the time we made it to the park to rent a jeep they were all gone! So my mom, twin, two cousin, and my aunt all had to walk down a dusty, sandy trail that was also covered in gravel at some point. Thankfully, I wore the only closed toe shoes I had on the way there.

Now, I am not a sporty person. When we started I knew that I was going to be near the back of the pack, and then my mom slipped and fell on the sand. I laughed about it, but not five minutes later I was the one that fell. But I fell on my knee and I started bleeding. Here's what it looked like by the time we made it to the pool: (if you're super, super squeamish, you might wanna skip it.)

But, I kept going, we already about a mile in, and I was not about to turn around. The funny thing was, I kept bleeding as we walked. My sister and my cousins were about a mile ahead, seen here. While my mom and my other cousin were only about half a mile ahead, and my aunt and I brought up the rear. A few jeeps would pass us by, a few of the stopping to ask if I was okay. I think the funniest one was when someone asked if I wanted a shot of Whiskey, either to drink or to pour on my leg. I turned it down, but a ride would have been nice.

The pool was beautiful, and a lot deeper then I thought it would have been. I brought my snorkel mask and could see all the cute little fish that were swimming around in it. The salt water also did a good job of cleaning out my knee.

You know that old saying that parents use, “I had to walk up a hill both ways” that was the hike. We literally had to hike up hill on the way back. Thankfully, this really nice couple from Philadelphia, who had rented a large jeep picked all six of us up and drove us back to our car. It was a great adventure, and now I’ve got a great story to tell!