Puerto Rico, El Yunque

Our second big outing in Puerto Rico was an excursion to El Yunque, the rainforest. We wanted to take a memorable trip into the US Forestry Service's only rainforest. We arranged the tour with EcoAction Tours. Reviews I read after booking noted the outfit is a little disorganized. We found that to be true, in part. We were picked up by Peter and Miguel. Peter is the owner, Miguel would be our guide. Apparently they were having a fight (sitting in the front seat, I picked up on this instantly and whispered to Mike), as Miguel later explained with far more detail and frequency than was necessary. After about 2/3 of the pickups, Peter handed us off to Miguel for the rest of the day.

We began the tour by leaving Isla Verde and traveling through the countryside to reach El Yunque. Our guide, Miguel, is a history teacher from Bayamón and grew up on the island. He was very knowledgable and shared some great information throughout the tour.

We stopped along a local beach for photos (sorry, I've forgotten the name). He was kind enough to take our picture.

We loaded back into the van and continued to the rainforest. At this point in our trip, the rain began. It continued off and on throughout the day. Fortunately, it was a nice warm rain and was quite enjoyable. We checked in at the ranger station and got a pass for our group. We then continued through El Yunque to stop at a beautiful waterfall called La Coca Falls.

The fall had crystal clear water and a spiggot that can be used to fill bottles. The water tasted very crisp and clean.

We continued up the road to the Yokahu Observation Tower. This tower gave an incredible view of the rainforest and nearby islands. And check out those rain clouds!

Next on the trip was a hike down the Big Tree Trail, which ends at Cascada La Mina (La Mina Falls). Big Tree trail has an impressive Ausubo (“Bullet wood”) tree and other various natural wonders. The 0.7 mile hike was enjoyable and had a nice path that was easy to navigate. Miguel pointed out a variety of plants and animals along the way an made the hike a lot of fun.

We arrived at La Mina Falls and took advantage of the opportunity to play in the water and take some photos. La Mina Falls descends about 35 feet into a couple of pools. The current was stronger near the falls, as you would expect.

Mike took photos (to protect the camera) while I was the guinea pig model :)

 

We left the falls on a different trail than we came in on, taking La Mina Trail instead. The trail was more difficult than the first one and a great workout for our quads! We hiked uphill for about 500 vertical feet and arrived at the ranger station where we met Miguel (who left at the falls to go move the van).

We stopped at La Muralla for an authentic Puerto Rican lunch before leaving the rainforest. We got the special which included pasteles (I think it is called that), along with rice, beans and other local specialties.

We saw something that was pretty funny after the meal. The roof of the restaurant is the front yard for a house. The owners had a dog tied out on the roof so he could see visitors or sleep in his dog house. You don't usually see that just driving down the street!

Miguel continued sharing local information and stories on the way back from El Yunque. The trip was definitely memorable and worthwhile!



We planned a nice walk in the evening to get something for dinner but were interrupted by a rains storm -- a common occurrence in the Caribbean. We decided on eating dinner at the Cherry Blossom. We had Japanese food that was good. The cook wasn't terribly showy, which was too bad, but the food was good.

Monday was another wonderful day in Puerto Rico!