My Passion for Hiking started when I was a little kid. The funny thing is I am absolutely frightened of insects, bugs, spiders or snakes, but for some strange reason I Love Hiking. I grew up in a little ranch in the south of Brazil and I remember I used to sit in front of the telly and mum was always telling me to go outside, the sun was out and I should go and play in the garden. I did not want to go because of the bugs, but I was kinda forced to. Mum would not allow me to play video games for too many hours either. So I had no choice but go outside and explore the garden. This is when my passion for staying outdoors started.
Later on in school I met some more outdoorsy friends and I used to cycle with them on a regular basis. One day I invited them over to the ranch we lived. I had many books about walking in the forest and how to explore things, so I had this brilliant idea to go all the way to the back of the ranch with my friends and go through the fence so that we could trespass to the neighbours ranch, which was almost like a wild forest. They immediately agreed so we put some wellies on, took some wooden sticks and there we went. After 10 minutes one of my friends saw a piece of a branch on the floor and she thought it was a dead animal. She started screaming so loud that we believed her, so all I remember is those three little girls frantically running downhill, almost tripping. This was my first experience and despite the fact we did not finish the hike, I absolutely loved it. I think it was that sense of fear and adrenalin mixed with the smell of nature that became one of my biggest passions.
The scary branch looked more or less like this: