What better way to start out a Puerto Rican adventure than camping in El Yunque's rainforest.
Trip Itinerary:
Goal of the trip - hit up the El Yunque National Rain Forest, roam the Island of Vieques and its Bioluminescent Bay, and explore the Toro Negro Reserve.
Danyelle and I were unable to make camping reservations at any location so we headed to Puerto Rico with just our gear(which of course included a healthy amount of beef jerky) and planned to wing it.
Here's a snapshot of what we brought.
El Yunque National Rainforest
The Forest gets its name from an Indian spirit Yuquiye, which means "Forest of Clouds", and covers 28,000 acres of tropical forest. You'll see in many of our pictures the clouds that surrounded us near and at the peak. The winds at the peak were also awesomely intense, as you'll see in a video below.
We arrived in Puerto Rico around noon and set out to secure some camping permits. Once we arrived at the Forest's head quarters it actually went pretty smoothly...we were given permits at no charge and lectured by a 70 year old Puerto Rican man about what I assume were the Forest's rules.
Permits in hand, we headed out to set up camp before exploring the rainforest and hiking to the peak, the following day.
As the sun went down we had just enough time to get our tent set up and cook some yummy bean burritos. I'd bought some homemade hot sauce from a little tourist shop on the way to El Yunque - although I didn't think it was possible to add anything to my burritos to make them taste any better than they already did, the homemade hot sauce definitely added a little kick and helped Puertoricofy our dinner.
One of the things I love about camping is the peacefulness of sleeping outside, but as soon as it got dark it was anything but quiet. I'm not sure what all I could attribute the sounds to but there were far to many to count. The only time the sounds of the Forest quieted was when the rain rolled through...as it did at least a dozen separate times throughout the night. Also, the intense humidity and moisture provided a unique experience as it caused little rain showers inside our tent as moisture developed above us on the inside of the tent and dripped down.
At the break of dawn, we ate some oatmeal, packed up camp and set the camera up on a rock to take a picture.
To the peak!
On our way to the peak we stopped at a waterfall to enjoy the views as well as take a dip. Although the tempetures in Puerto Rico consistently reached the 90's in the previous months, the water had a chill that would have normally kept me out of pool, had it not been in such a beautiful place. I will say though, after ten minutes or so, it got pretty comfortable as the cool chill of the water, mixed with the hot humid air above, was a great combo.
After a solid hike we finally reached our first stopping point, and entered the cloud level where we stopped at an old lookout tower a few hundred feet below the peak.
Although the peak had some good views there was a little gem just a few hundred feet from El Yunque's peak and maybe 50 feet or so lower in elevation. So we headed that way for lunch.
After a little climb/hike,
we were able to settle down for lunch, coffee and some killer views.
the views...
Some pictures from the hike...
The Forest was thick...
Intro for the next post....the Island of Vieques and its Bio Bay:
After hiking El Yunque we made a sprint down the mountain so we could catch the ferry over to Vieques. We weren't sure what time the last ferry would be leaving so we had to hurry. The only info we had came from a map that had a little ferry boat on it with a dotted line going towards Vieques.
Once we arrived at the ferry and discovered that we had arrived with just enough time to catch the last boat of the day, I decided I would try to find out a little more about where we were going. After meeting an island native who now lives in Florida, but was returning to visit her mother, I told her that my girlfriend and I were camping on the island and asked her what she thought about it. Her response shocked me. She said the island had an extremely high crime rate and that crime is one of the main reasons she doesn't live there now. Genuinely worried for our safety, she began asking other locals about alternative places we could stay. After a couple conversations she told me about a small town called Esperanza where most English speaking people stay but said we might have trouble finding a place. It just so happens that the biggest festival of the year was taking place in the main town where the ferry would drop us off and that it was very likely every room on the island would be booked. Even the small little town of Esperanza.
So here we were, headed to Vieques after being told camping would be extremely dangerous but it may be our only option considering the festival would attract enough tourists to book every room on the island.
On the ferry headed to Vieques...
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