The Rain Forest

On March 14th, we left the ship and took a bus ride to the El Yunque National Forest, established in 1903, comprising 28,000 acres of native rain forest high up in the Eastern part of the island. The park has both forest land with established trails, and a wilderness area. From it's 3,500 foot heights, you can view both the Atlantic and the Caribbean. I've tried to capture a few of the better sights observed with my lens, and included one of the many falls, and the flower leaf of one of the 23 trees exclusive to this forest. Of course, if I'm wrong, it's one of the 50 different species of orchids. It's not that I take the greatest notes, but when Elizabeth reviews this, I'm sure she'll correct me as to which is what, or what is which.

Actually, she purchased a book on flowers, while I purchased the proof set of the Puerto Rican state quarter (except Puerto Rico is not a state). Our tour was shortened on this day, as they had a formal presentation of the coins and the place was swarming with US Forest Service rangers, and various other law enforcement. You'd have thought Santorum was in town - turns out he was, but I don't think he was seeking the tree frog vote that day. Other factoids: It rains more than 240 inches per year, and there are no large native animals (urban gang bangers excepted), however the forest supports 127 species of smaller land animals. I snapped some really good close ups of large snails, but decided not to include them here - I will mail them to you if you provide a SASE (that's short for self-addressed-stamped-envelope). I've decided that mollusks cannot be emailed, they can only be snail mailed. OK, rotten attempt at humor, but we're talking high humidity in the tropics that effects my brain.

The park sees more than 1,250,000 visitors each year, from the local population, and visitors from around the world - including our cruise ship. If I had to choose between Olde San Juan and El Yunque - I'll take the rain forest any day.