JOURNEY TO CARRIBBEAN NATIONAL FOREST ( EL YUNQUE)

Thursday morning began with some showers but by the time we left the motel to pick up our rental, it had stopped.

We began our short drive to El Yunque from Isla Verde. It was only an hour away. We decided to take Route 187 so we could experience this scenic Atlantic Puerto Rican coastline passing through Pinones.

We drove through the windy and often times shady roads with the coastline to my left and residential houses on my right. Along the coast, stood coconut trees after coconut trees. As you stand on the beach, you can see nothing but rows of them that grew high above sea level and for miles and miles either direction. The color of the sand was so rich that it made the greenary sorrounding the beach even greener. As you can see in the images, it was rather misty along the coast further away from us even though it wasn't a misty morning at all. We ended up spending roughly 40 minutes alone just passing through Pinones. Well whats the hurry anyway?

As we left the misty coastlines of Pinones, we were driving through a long tunnel of trees with branches of leaves hovering over our slim two way lane country side road providing us extra shade that stretched for miles. As the roads winded itself away from the coast, we found ourselves in the middle of green pastures and hills where domestic cattles hung around grazing the fields as if time didn't exist.

In the car, Jessica and I were discussing how incredibly long it took us to pick up our rental car back in town. Our rental car manager was interrupted by phone call after phone call. We had a feeling that it was normal. Probably a destination with the most relaxed pace you can find in the States. At first we were abit restless and grew impatient but a voice in my head told me to just "BE." Besides we were getting some good recommendations regarding our trip from the manager whom we couldn't thank enough. It was there where the manager shared some Puerto Rican facts.

The first fact was that in Puerto Rico, there are almost one hundred public holidays in a year. WHAT!!!! Anyway, we were also told that there were many festivals that will be taking place during the week we were there and that we might witness one in Loiza, a small town on the way to the rainforest. So all we could do was just hope and that we will be lucky enough to run into one when we get there. Lastly we were told that Puerto Ricans are into politics like Americans are into football. I hate politics so it was hard for me to comprehend. Apparently there was a public holiday yesterday for one of the political parties and on Friday(the next day,) they will be celebrating the other party.

When we were out of the shade, we drove by this bridge and I just had to stop to take a picture. I couldn't tell if it was a lake or a river. But I am guessing that it must have been a river since it was so close to the ocean. It provided us quite the scenary.


NEXT: JOURNEY CONTINUES BUT LOIZA IS NEXT......