El Yunque, Puerto Rico: Mt. Britton hiking trail.

I got back from a short trip to Puerto Rico with my husband last week. Time went by way too fast and I don’t think we did any of things we planned on doing except for going to El Yunque. Anyway, our plan was to do the Angelito Trail, but because we got there a little later than we planned to, parking was a nightmare and so we parked in the first spot we found that was close to a trail. That trail happened to be the Mt. Britton trail. I know a few people on this page had mentioned it, but other than that, I knew nothing else about it. We wanted to hike so we read the big board at the foot of the trail and decided to just go for it.

Now, we’re not horribly out of shape, but we could definitely benefit from popping in to the gym a little more often. 5 minutes into the hike, I start questioning our choices. About 15 minutes in we start asking people how much longer we have to go. Most of them looked at us wide eyed while we gasped for air, and told us we weren’t even half way up . At that point, I was ready to turn around, call it a day, and go get something to eat as eating was one of our favorite things during our trip. But I couldn’t do that, you know why I couldn’t do that?!!! Because we were doing this hike with my 73yr old uncle (who was also gasping for air like a fish out of water) and my 75yr old aunt. Who despite being an asthmatic and doing this hike in FLIP FLOPS was perfectly fine!!! There was NO WAY I was going to let anyone know that she was doing better than I was. NO WAY!!! So we pushed on. This has been the only time in my life that I was glad to have a big nose, with big nostrils to suck in as much air as possible. Anyway, we finally made it to the top, and and we were rewarded with an incredible view. Was it worth it, absolutely! Would I do it again, not likely. My legs hurt for a full two days after, my uncle said he went through more Bengay than he had ever used in his entire life and swore he’s never going back to El Yunque ever again , my husband was also sore for a couple of days, but my aunt…she was totally fine.