While having breakfast at my hotel in Trinidad I picked up one of the local newspaper being offered to guest. As I scanned through the paper I noticed an add for a hike to Paria Falls and Beach the next day. I’ve hiked before and would consider myself athletic so I jumped at the chance. I told my friend of my plans and pretty soon our 4-some joined about 30+ other hikers on a rainy Sunday morning to begin the hike. About 1.5hrs into the hike, saturated from the rain and exhausted I noticed a slight burning in my left eye. I thought maybe an eyelash got into my eyes but despite me washing it out with water it still continued to burn. On my way back to the hotel we stopped at the local pharmacy for eyedrops thinking it was a simple mild irritant that I could sleep off but by morning it was 10x worst. The burning turned into chronic pain, profuse watering and I could not keep my eye open for more than 2 seconds. Immediately I knew I needed medical attention and went to the emergency room at 7am. My boyfriend helped got me ready and I could not get to the hospital fast enough. I was seen almost immediately but unfortunately the on call MD informed me that at the hospital they didn’t have the equipment needed to accurately tell me what was wrong with my eye and referred me to an eye specialist. At that moment panic set in and I began crying like a baby. I called my good friend and told her the situation and without hesitation was on her way to the hospital to take me to the eye specialist the ER doc recommended. She instead took me to another eye specialist a lot closer and I didn’t care I just wanted the pain to stop and to be able to see. I finally got called in and was extremely anxious to take the eye exam because I know I wouldn’t be able to read anything from the eye chart.. and I was right..SO I immediately started to panic and cry some more. The assistant comforted me and re-assured me everything would be ok and I prayed she was right. I finally was taken in to see the doctor and I guess he would take scans of my eyes and in order to do that I had to open my eye.. you know the eye I couldn’t keep open for more than 2 seconds? Yup that one.. He noticed I was struggling and dropped 2 drops of what I presumed to be unicorn tears in my eye. Immediately all the pain stopped and I my eye could remain opened for longer than 2 seconds. The MD order his assistant to irrigate my eye and then brought me back to his office for the diagnosis. I had a chemical burn in my cornea probably caused by a plant/tree thats common to cause this in the north coast area of Trinidad. With some antibiotics I was on the road to recovery just in time to fly home.