The best way to experience this rain forest is to rent a car and drive yourself to the top of road #191, north side. Trails are marked and well maintained towards the top. Forest Service tours are offered until 2:30 on the half hour for a $5 donation. Private Guides may offer transportation as well. At the top of south road # 191 there are excellent pools to swim in the wonderful clear water. No real trails but walking on the road beyond the road barrier is a great way to see the forest.
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Having written so much about this gentle rain forest I realize that I have not really written about it at all. The ‘facts’ do not add up to ‘knowing it’. A one day experience in this rainforest does not give but a fleeting impression of it, whether it be a great experience or not.
What I know about this forest is simultaneously its silence, when you are up near the top, in the clouds, how really sunny and beautiful the light is on sunny days, the absolute spine chilling enchantment when the little coqui frogs sing their melodious ’song’ at night, if you allow yourself to really hear the music! The first time I heard a Puerto Rican screech owl at night I thought I was hallucinating!
On a hot day a plunge into a cold pool, putting your head and shoulders under a waterfall makes you feel massaged, cool and your skin feels so soft. On a rainy day sitting inside wondering if it will rain forever you have to remind yourself the sun will really come back soon.
I have lived on various slopes of this mountain for over 20 years and I still don’t ‘know’ it. It is still a mystery. It belongs to the birds, the frogs and the spirits. I am glad it’s there, like the coral reefs offshore are still there as well. They are both worlds we may only visit, they are not ‘ours’, nature is not ‘ours’. We may have come from nature at some point but it is its’ own entity. We can only be a happy race by respecting it.
I WHENT TO P R WITH MY HUSBAND IN NOVEMBER AND WAS THE BEST VAC IN MY LIFE THA PEOPLE WAS INCRIDEBLE GOOD THE BIG LAGUNE WAS BAUTIFUL