On day 2 we were ready to explore. We got up early had breakfast with cafe con leche, of course, and then headed to the lobby to meet up for our tour to the El Yunque Rainforest. As soon as we got on the bus and heard our very lively tour guide speaking English with a strong yet totally understandable Puerto Rican accent, I know it was going to be a good time. This was the kind of tour guide that is clearly entertaining enough to himself that entertaining us is a mere bonus. He told us his name but quickly told us to just call him Tooouer Guyyyyde. Typing doesn’t really do the accent justice but I think you can catch my drift. I really enjoyed his Spanglish in many sentences. It was like he didn’t even realize that he was switching between the two languages. It occurred to me that I’ve never been to a country with such impressive bilingualism. Whenever we got out of the bus he said “Vengan guys!” with which he meant “Come on guys!”
On the bus ride we were quizzed about the most common and most popular fruits and given lots of information about local sites. He also had us guess whether or not it was going to rain in the rainforest while we were there. I have to admit that this made me a little nervous as I hadn’t brought a rain jacket or a my water pouch for my $1500 camera. Luckily we determined by the humidity, the clouds and the lack of cows that it was not going to rain. Phew!! The hike we went on was about an hour. We walked down the La Mina trail to a small waterfall and then back up and out through a different trail. Many of our fellow tourers went swimming in the waterfall but I was not feeling that adventurous. Throughout the hike we saw many lizards and lots of awesome views. Being on an island the Puerto Rican Rainforest didn’t really have any mammals, which was interesting and also much less scary than say the Amazon (see my Iquitos post). At the end of the hike we went up the Yokahu Tower and had another beautiful view. On the bus ride back the tour guide suggested we stop for some local street food. Naomi and I got very excited and quickly opted in for the fried meets, rice, beans and tostones (fried plantains). Yum!
Hello little lizard!
Toooouer Guyyyyyyde does tarzan!
love the rocks, water and colors
As we arrived back at the hotel a frantic young man handed me a piece of paper and said “Here, take this. Its for two free drinks.” Who could say no to that? We promptly went to the poolside bar and ordered our drinks. Afterwords we put on our suits and hung out poolside. It was a nice bit of relaxation time before my parents arrived. They were visiting some friends in Florida and were finally arriving in Puerto Rico to join us for the rest of the trip. The ended up getting in a bit late but still made our reservation at the resort’s seafood restaurant called “Stingray.” I took the chance to try a fish I had never had before and it was delicious! Just another day in wonderful sunny Puerto Rico.