The Rainforest Inn

August 18, 2014

The Rainforest Inn

El Yunque Rainforest

Puerto Rico

After spending the day walking through Old San Juan and her forts, we drove up to where we'd stay the remainder of our time in Puerto Rico, The Rainforest Inn.  Guys, if you ever go to Puerto Rico, I would HIGHLY recommend staying in this beautiful and private bed and breakfast.  There are currently only 2 villas, and this is the one we stayed in:

And this was the view from our porch.  I honestly wish we'd planned a day in our schedule to do nothing but sit outside and read and nap and drink virgin pina coladas.

It was completely charming and secluded.  The owners are very earthy, so the breakfasts were all organic, cooked with herbs from their own garden, and vegetarian!  Didn't know cooking without meat could be so delicious, actually.   They were also great about giving us tips on our excursions during the day, which was really helpful.

Our first adventure was some hiking in El Yunque, our nation's one and only National Rainforest.  We hiked to Mina Falls and Britton Tower but ran out of time to hike to the peak.  Parking at this place was a little nuts--the parking lots are far too small for the demand, so there is lot of parking along the side of the windy road and walking to the trailhead.  Just added to the adventure.  :)

Here's the map that we used trying to find all of our rainforest destinations.  Not sure who designed this map, but there are a lot of inaccuracies.  :)  I put it in here so I could remember.

Cool view from Yokahu tower

Arthur on top of Yokahu tower

Just hiking through the jungle on our way to Mina Falls

This waterfall was beautiful, but it is the most popular spot to hike to in the park, so there were a good 80+ people trying to cool off in the water and sitting all over the rocks.  Our heads are blocking most of them but now I kinda wish I had a picture of how crowded it was!  However, if you climb the rocks downstream a bit, there are two other much less crowded falls, and that's where we cooled off.  After our humid, sticky, jungle hike, the water felt so refreshing!

After we hiked back out from Mina Falls, we ate lunch at a yummy concession area, and shared a very delicious pina colada.  However, honestly I think the lunch may have given us food poisoning.  Arthur's stomach of steel was only mildly affected but I did not feel well the rest of the afternoon.  I had to take a nap when we got back (which normally I would LOVE but it's not nearly as luxurious when you are curled up in a ball wondering if you're going to throw up.)  On the way to dinner we had to make an emergency stop at a Walgreens to get some tums, which helped a little.  I was able to munch on some chips and pico during dinner.    Thank goodness it passed and by the next morning I felt fine again.   

But the tummy-ache happened after we hiked to the Mt. Britton Lookout Tower.  So back to the rest of our hiking.  I thought my kids would love this tower--it reminds me of Rapunzel.  

a cool, weird jungle flower growing out of a tree

The top of Mt. Britton is often cloudy and we caught it on a cloudy day.  Although the views were not as sweeping, it was pretty awesome standing on top of this tower and feelings wisps of clouds touching your cheeks as they blew by.  It was awesome to see the clouds moving and curling over the top of this peak as the wind rush over it.  And sometimes a gust of wind would sweep the mist out of the way for a few minutes and you could see further.  Beautiful.