Un Camino en el Yunque

Hola, mis amigos digitales. This is Emily, and I am sitting on our balcony at the Casa Cubuy watching the forest get dark and listening to the various bugs and the coquís get louder. A coquí is a little frog that eats mosquitoes, bless its amphibian heart, and is the reason we can leave the giant sliding glass door to our balcony open all the time. The rainforest is definitely louder at night, and I love listening to all the animal noises and the waterfall.

We had a relatively busy day today. And by “relatively busy,” I mean that we left the Casa and went and did something. It’s easy just to dig in here and watch the forest and never leave, I think. A lot of our neighbors did that today. But we wanted to see the visitors’ center and the more developed side of El Yunque, so after a delicious communal breakfast of fresh fruit and French toast, and a quick hike down the to the Río Cubuy (where I slipped on a wet rock and fell on my booty) off we went.

It took about an hour to get there, 20 minutes of which was driving down the Mountain Road of Doom. (Digital high five to Cary for keeping us from dying in a flaming wreck down the side of the mountain.) We ended up only about 15 km from the Casa, but since the mountain road that connects it with the rest of the forest is closed, we had to go around the long way. We stopped at El Portal, the visitors’ center, first. It had some fun informational panels about the forest in Spanish and English, someone to explain the maps, and a big, air-conditioned gift shop. So, three obvious ways to tell that the US federal government was involved J After that, we drove up the mountain a ways, stopping to check out La Coca Falls (lots of tourists) and la Torre Yokahú (observation tower with awesome views of the valley and ocean). Finally, we parked and hiked to La Mina Falls, which was about a 45-minute walk uphill and down. The walk was very pretty and reminded Cary of the wilderness hike he took in Appalachia a few years ago – just more tropical. When we got to the falls, we kind of wished we had brought our bathing suits, because a lot of people were swimming just under the falls. It was really crowded though, so I think in the end we will have been better off saving our swimming for the waterfall near the Casa Cubuy.

After we walked back, our Floridian, flat-land-loving bodies were tired, so we hopped in the Yaris and headed back. We took a ridiculously good and long nap, and now we’re just sitting here relaxing, enjoying the vacation part of our vacation. We’re going to dinner in just a little bit, where hopefully my Spanish food ordering abilities will have improved since last night. I’m getting by okay – today we stopped in Luquillo to eat empanadas near the beach and also to get some bread to snack on, but both of those ladies spoke some English and were very patient and helpful. The ladies at the Restaurante Cubuy are very patient and helpful too, but no English. I think we’ll manage. Thanks for reading, and see you soon!