I’m not much for adventure — call me a chicken, wimp, or scaredy cat, I don’t care! I subscribe to the “better safe than sorry” rule and as a diehard city girl, I find that riding the subway in the city late at night provides enough thrills! But I do mind missing out on family fun, so I sometimes allow myself to be cajoled into venturing out of my comfort zone. I’m not talking about rappelling, bungee jumping, parasailing or scuba diving. For that class of activity I immediately respond with an emphatic NO!

Don’t get me wrong... I am not a couch potato and have amazed myself at times. I’ve seen elephants right up close to our car window in Kruger Park and suffered the obligatory snake path climb up Masada. I once flew in a small plane that landed atop a glacier in New Zealand and even snorkeled on our Caribbean honeymoon. While accomplishing those feats I envisioned getting mauled, falling off a cliff, dropping into an icy crevice and of course, the dreaded shark attacks.

While in Puerto Rico last week my cousins wanted to show us the unique points of their island and proposed a kayak adventure in a nature preserve. We have paddled locally in Island Park and further east in Sag Harbor; both were refreshing and fun on a hot day but not exotic. This time, my cousin drove about ninety minutes out of San Juan’s late afternoon traffic to the furthest northeastern point in Puerto Rico to a fishing town called Fajardo.

I nervously laughed as I lowered myself down into the front spot of a two person kayak. After hearing some basic instructions we set out at dusk and began paddling against the tide towards a single lane opening in a mangrove forest.