thar's outlet malls in them thar hills

When we got back to Puerto Rico proper, we rented a Corolla, and headed straight for the interior. The Caribbean National Forest, known to locals and tourists alike as "El Yunque", is, as everyone will tell you, the only tropical rainforest administered by the National Forest Service.

that's where we're headed

xtreme zoom!



The rangers explain what the technical requirements are to call a bunch of trees a tropical rainforest. It's well they do, since it don't look like it could make the cover of National Geographic. Puerto Rico's excuse is regular hurricanes, the last major one being Hugo, which gave a buzz cut to the eastern end of the island in 1989. As a result, none of the trees are particularly tall, and there is no canopy. The tallest trees are bamboo and eucalyptus, both clearly non-native.


the "canopy"

Being an island, there are also no large wild mammals. Instead, they have lots of hard-to-spot, inch-long coqui frogs. There are warnings about rabid mongooses (introduced species), which sounds pretty exotic. We didn't see one, but I'm not sure I would recognize one if I saw it. The craziest animal we saw was an iguana, and we saw that back on Vieques.

Actually, with all the paths paved, the Caribbean National Forest looked alot like the older parks in Northern California - minus the big trees and mule deer. There is a reason for the similarity: the Civilian Conservation Corps built the trails there in 1934, about the same time they built the hiking trails in Northern California.

Growing up in the American West takes some of the wonder out of hiking elsewhere. We got hills in Cali bigger than El Yunque. Look a tall tree - eh, it ain't Muir Woods. A nice waterfall - seen Yosemite or Yellowstone lately? Big cave - yeah, but does it have a 60's-era cafeteria inside like Carlsbad? At the caves, they teach you how to pan for gold. 'Nuf said.

We expect ET to speak Spanish!?

It seemed that whenever we went inland, we had a close encounter with Americana. On the way to Arecibo (run by Cornell University, btw), lacking any food options on that part of Highway 22, we stopped for lunch in Barceloneta. Wouldn't you know it: the mall we stopped at was the Prime Outlets Puerto Rico. We ate in the food court, at "El Sandwichon", apparently a knock-off of popular cubano-sandwich chain El Meson.

and I thought a digital SLR was cool

Similarly, when we ventured back to visit the Rio Camuy Caves, we stopped off at Walgreens to get our kayaking pix developed. On our way back, we had a late lunch at Chili's in the local mall, and shopped for souvenirs at WalMart.

The sights themselves? Not much to describe. Look at the pictures.

the light at the end of the cave