El Yunque - The rain forest

So we slept in today and it felt good. I took a shower in a little trickle of water that was at least warm and then we went off in search of a rental car. We found a place near the motel and they informed us they had a minivan for $159 per day and that was all. I called Mom and had her look online and she found pretty much the same thing. She found one for $200 so that wasn't any better. We needed a car to get to the rain forest and also to leave our extra stuff in. We'd both brought a backpack and a duffle bag with extra stuff in it like Sunday clothes, etc.

We decided to rent the minivan for one day in order to get to the rainforest and then go from there. We got it rented and we were off. Drivers in Puerto Rico aren't bad until you get to a 4 way stop. I got to one and just sat and watched while I figured out how their system works. Basically u don't ever stop...u just slow way down and inch your way into the intersection being careful to wind your way around the maze of cars. It was hilarious.

We drove up into the rainforest which is a national park. What an AMAZING place. We stopped at the visitors center to get a camping permit and we were amazed at how it looked. It reminded us both of Jurassic Park.

We drove up into the park and first stopped at "El Bosque Encantado" (the enchanted forest) to grab some lunch. We had empandadas, chicken kabobs and drank the juice right out of the coconut. Not my favorite but its all about the experience right?

We finished our lunch and drove to the trailhead. We got our backpacks ready and headed down the trail. Needless to say it was very wet and muddy...hellooooo its a rainforest. It was BEAUTIFUL. I kept feeling like I was in a movie or that it wasn't real. It was just so different from anything I'd ever hiked in before.

The foliage was very thick so it was rare to get a view but when we did I was amazed at how lush and green and thick everything was. We assumed and were told there would be plenty of water but we started to get concerned as we hiked and hiked and didn't come across any streams. Finally we decided, reluctantly that we better get some water from the puddles, filter it and then boil it before we used it for dinner that night. It was pretty cloudy but hey...you do what you gotta do right? The pictures below show us trying to filter water from a puddle.

Not long after we did this, VOILA, creeks a plenty. We had to walk over some muddy creeks and some cool though slick bridges.

It was so cool to watch the landscape change. We turned a corner and the rainforest turned form a very tropical forest with lots of palms to a very different kind of forest...still a rainforest but different trees....these trees weren't as tropical looking and were covered in a hairy moss. VERY cool!

It started to get dark and we soon realized we weren't going to make it to the peak that we had originally planned on. We found ONE spot suitable for camping and it was in the middle of the trail. The trail was raised up in this spot and a had a little more gravel in it so it was well drained. PLUS it was right next to a creek. It also was one of the few spots with a view. We could see all the way down to the ocean. Incredible.

We set up our little tent and started to get dinner ready. The cool thing about the rainforest is the sounds. We walked past one part where an insect was making a noise so loudly that it was almost deafening. Thank goodness none of those came near our camp. There was this cool little tree frog that we never saw but we heard his song all night long. He's called the Co-qui (koh -kee) Frog because his song sounds like (koh-kee). Its the most beautiful song. Its about a seventh that he sings. I started mimicking him with my whistle and he would respond. Very cool.

As the sun set I noticed a faint light. Then I noticed the light was flying. They were these awesome glowing flies. Different from the fireflys we have in the states because they stay lit instead of just flashing for a brief moment. They were beautiful!

We had dinner, went to bed and chatted for a while before finally going to sleep. In the night I woke up to rain and more rain. We hurriedly put the rainfly on. I dunno why we were surprised...it was the RAINforest. It rained all night and was still raining when we woke up. We finally got out in it and cleaned up camp quickly before packing up and heading back to the car. It was muddy and not very fun to hike in the rain but its all part of the experience right?

We got back to the car and were extremely muddy. Ryan cleaned up in the car a bit on the way out of the rainforest. We were anxious to find church in the nearby town of Rio Grande. We had an address but NOBODY knew exactly how to help us. We were sent to just about every church BUT the LDS church. We found the 7th Day Adventists who don't even meet on Sundays, we found the Jehovah's Witness, Catholics, Pentecostal, and a few more but no LDS church. We gave up because it was well into sacrament meeting by this time. Pretty soon we saw a sign that looked like it was the address we were looking for. Sure enough we pulled in and there was a cute little church. There was only 20 minutes left of sacrament meeting and I still had to clean up so we decided not to go in. We called to find another ward but none of the wards met late enough to accomodate us.

We turned the rental car in, cleaned up and got ready for our next adventure!