Honeymoon Day 6 - Leaving Vieques and El Yunque - The rainforest

Today was a very sad day. Today was the day we had to leave our cottage at Evamer and our beautiful island of Vieques. We first had breakfast at Belly Buttons in Esperanza, turned in our rental car, and then waited for the ferry back over to the main island. While waiting we noticed the ferry port was full of the same jellyfish we had seen while snorkeling. Apparently some change in the weather had brought them near the island. We were glad to be leaving since being in the water would be too dangerous with all the jellyfish around!

Vieques Island in the background

The ferry ride was about an hour and fifteen minutes. It was warm and beautiful and it was a great day to be out on the ocean.

Goodbye Vieques

We arrived back on the mainland, rented a car and headed up into El Yunque (the rainforest). The rainforest was beautiful. We went to a little stand up in the rainforest to have lunch. We had all sorts of fried Puertorican treats along with some yummy pina coladas (virgin of course). The food was good and the view was better.

We saw a movie at the visitor's center and then headed up to see some of the sites in the rainforest. We first took a hike down to La Mina Falls. It was incredibly warm and humid but the scenery was so beautiful it was well worth it.

The falls were amazing and beautiful. After enjoying the scenery for a few minutes. We decided to hike back up. Soon it started to rain...and I mean RAIN. Suz and I just started to laugh because we had water literally running down our bodies. Welcome to the rainforest! The rain was warm so it was comfortable...just very very wet!

Boyce and Suz at La Mina Falls

Needless to say we were soaking wet when we arrived back at the car. We had a ranger take a picture of us because we felt so ridiculous.

After the falls we climbed to the top of the tower in the rainforest for an incredible view of the rainforest and the hills all the way down to the ocean. It was an awesome sight even though we were still soaking wet!

Here we are at the top of the tower

After the tower we made one more stop at La Coca Falls before heading to our bed and breakfast for the night.

All of these sights are on the north side of El Yunque. Our b&b was on the south side of the rainforest. They used to be connected by a road until a landslide wiped it out. So we had to drive around the rainforest and back up the mountain to where we would be staying. The drive was beautiful. The south side of the rainforest is much more remote and not touristy at all. We drove on a winding road until we arrived at our b&b, Villa Sierra Palms at the very top of the rainforest. It was like we were the only people on earth.

After checking in we had dinner at a small cafe down the road a bit called Cafe Paradores. We were the only ones there besides the locals at the bar. The waitress was very attentive and she LOVED Suzanne. She showed her books and told us some fun things about her place there in the rainforest. We had a very authentic meal that was delicious and then headed back to our room for the night.

We were lulled to sleep by the sounds of the rainforest. These tiny frogs called the Coqui frogs sing all throughout the night and the sound is absolutely beautiful. What a heavenly place to be!