Narrative Essay Sample about My Trip to Puerto Rico

Family, an exciting trip to a new place, and a young, curious soul. We all have that one trip that we can never stop talking about. Whether it’s to Florida, or on a cruise, or somewhere like Paris, we will always cherish that trip and the people we went with. Even though you might not always be able to recall everything you did you'll still remember the important things like the delicious food you ate or the crazy excursions you might have been able to do, and most importantly you’ll always be able to remember the cherished time spent with others.

I hadn’t ever really gone on any real trip before, but my mom, my Aunt Betsy, and I were getting ready to leave from the stuffy Detroit airport to go to Puerto Rico. I was in 5th grade and so excited to go on my first big trip and get to sit at the beach all day and go do fun things in a place much different from where I lived. My aunt and uncle lived in Detroit so my mom and I went there to stay the night before we flew out, in their cozy apartment in the busy Forest Hills of Detroit. We woke up very early the day of the flight to make sure we would make it on time, especially because my aunt and uncle are notorious for being very late to everything. When we got there we got in the long line to check-in and noticed that my aunt had missed a notification from Delta saying our flight had been moved up by about half an hour! We started to get very nervous that we would miss our flight, we were just getting through our first line and the security check line was even longer than our first line. We ran to the security line but we all knew if we had to wait in that long line we were going to miss our flight. “This is it.” I thought to myself. The trip had ended as quickly as it had begun. 

“If you have a child with you, go through this line!” a loud booming voice yelled out of nowhere. Where did this voice come from? Over to our left a little! There was an empty line only for people with younger children. At the time I was considered one of those younger children. We ran over to go through that machine to have them check us. We all made it through without any snags and were able to go on our way and try to make our flight to Puerto Rico. 

“Thank goodness, you made it just in time. If it had been thirty more seconds I would have given your tickets away.” Said the man at the gate to our airplane. We all were able to take a sigh of relief. We were able to take our seats in the nice, cool airplane and relax. On the around 6 hours long flight to Puerto Rico, I slept and watched Miss. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children while eating cinnamon flavored biscoff cookies and drinking very bubbly Coke. When we finally landed we exited the plane into a tiny, cramped airport. It was very chaotic from the moment we stepped off of the plane until we were able to find the shuttle to take us to our resort. We finally were able to get on our way to the resort and the driver pointed out a house Pitbull was building on our way into the resort. Once we parked there were beautiful, colorful parrots to greet you at the front doors. And inside the resort was beautiful and open with marble floors and marble desks. I was so excited! The resort was absolutely gorgeous and I couldn’t wait to spend my next week there. Outside they had two huge pools, one with a swim-up bar, and a separate little tiki hut for food and drinks, and a hot tub, and beyond that was the gorgeous beach with crashing waves and a beautiful horizon. After we got all checked in we went up to our room to set our stuff down and take a break from the hectic day we had trying to get to Puerto Rico. We didn't have any major luggage problems, the only thing was that my hairbrush had melted onto the back of my luggage, which really wasn't as big of a deal as it sounds, I was able to just pull it right off. 

“Want to head down to the pool?” My mom asked.

“Yes!” My aunt and I replied.

I was so excited to go to the pool! I love swimming, so that was the first thing I wanted to do. When we got downstairs there were so many iguanas running all over the place! Some people were feeding them oranges and other fruits from off of the drinks they had got from the tiki bar.  

They were even swimming in the pool! It was insane! We all got into the pool with the swim-up bar and got virgin pina Coladas. I loved getting to be able to sit at the swim-up bar and get to drink a fun drink. Once we were done with our drinks we sat on these lounge chairs that were in the shallow part of the pool and watched the sky change as it turned into night. Then it started to cool down, so we transitioned into the hot tub. And then we were all hungry and tired so we went back to our room and took showers and ordered room service to end the day off. I was so happy to be able to finally get to Puerto Rico and I was excited for our next days there! I loved being in a new exciting place! The next day we got up and spent the day swimming in the cool pool and laying on the beach, letting the warm, salty breeze wash over us. My aunt and I went into the water and jumped over the waves for hours. I normally didn’t get to spend that much time with my aunt and I was so glad we got to spend that time together. My mom, my aunt, and I would all go on beach walks and explore what was around us. On one of our beach walks, we discovered a little hut near an area where the trees parted to show a beautiful river where the El Yunque rainforest flows into the ocean. There were beautiful white crane-looking birds flying over the opening in front of a lovely sunset mixed with pink, purple, and vibrant orange. It was the most breathtaking, awe-inspiring thing I have ever seen. The image of that will be imprinted in my memory forever. I was so delighted I got to share that with my mom and aunt.

 Later in the week, we were able to actually go to El Yunque and explore the magnificent trails of the gorgeous rainforest. We drove ourselves there and that was the only driving we did by ourselves when we were there. It was a very nerve-wracking drive up the steep mountain with a narrow lane. You felt like you were a person trying to hold onto the wall of the mountain, inching along on the edges while rocks were breaking off at your feet and plummeting down just like you would if you made one wrong move. When we finally reached the top where you park your car. We all got out, our legs shaking, and got our stuff around to make our trek on one of the trails you could take to go see a real waterfall! I had never done anything like this before and was so electrified to be able to go see a real waterfall. We started on our journey to the waterfall and saw so many huge, full, green trees towering above us. They weren't like the type of palm trees you would see in Florida; they were full, healthy, vibrant, and you could just feel they were full of life. We could hear the roaring waterfall as we approached. When we first saw it the sun was just peering through the leaves of the plants above and it glistened on the top of the water and emphasized the spray of the water that was breaking away as the strong stream of water rushed down. The water was a deep green, blue that was difficult to see through. You weren't able to see where you were stepping at all in that water. We swam in the frigged water for a little while until we were too cold to go any longer. Then we walked back to our car and were able to get dry and hot on our trip back. 

Finally we made it back to our car and back down the side of the mountain when we noticed a little shack on the side of the road that read, “FRESH COCONUTS AND SOUVENIRS.” We had to stop and see what this was all about. We parked the car next to this leaning shack with rust metal for its roof and was basically falling apart with a man in front of it holding a machete next to a shopping cart full of coconuts and a big log that looked like it was his cutting board. 

“Hi, may we get three coconuts?” My mom asked. 

“Sure, three.” The man with the machete said with a smile. 

He swiftly cut the tops clean off of three coconuts with his machete and grabbed three neon pink straws from the rickety shack and placed them in the coconuts and handed them to us. 

“Thank you.” We all said in amazement of how quickly he cut through the thick coconuts.

It had a very refreshing and earthy taste to it and was the first time I had really liked anything coconut. It was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. We all got to sip straight from coconuts looking off over Puerto Rico on the side of the mountain. Once we were done with our coconuts the man pointed to a shopping cart full of cut-up coconuts so we all threw our empty coconuts into the cart and went on our way back down the mountain. That was the coolest thing I have ever gotten to do in my entire life. I was so glad that I got to experience that with my mom and aunt and be able to share that memory with them forever.

 After that, it was about time for us to head back home. So we packed our things, melted hairbrush, and all back into our luggage and got ready to leave the next morning. Back we went to the small cramped airport back through the chaos to make our flight. As we were taking off on the plane I felt a sadness in my stomach as if I were leaving home. Puerto Rico had become a type of second home for me to experience new and exciting things like I had never before and grow closer to my family. Now my Aunt Betsy and I are like sisters and do almost everything together. I was sad I had to go but I knew I’d be back again sometime soon to revisit all of the amazing and cool things and explore even more things and have a new appreciation for it. I can’t wait until the next time I go to Puerto Rico!