John and Rachel: Puerto Rico

The second part of our trip was spent in the rainforest. We rented a car and drove to Casa Cubuy Ecolodge in El Yunque Rainforest.

The "lobby"

View from the common areas of Casa Cubuy. One morning I grabbed my computer and checked e-mail while John was still sleeping. I was sitting in a covered area, but it would rain about every 10 minutes. I wish I could start my day out like that everyday. I also wish I could eat their breakfast everyday. They served an amazing fresh fruit breakfast at a big dining table for all of their guests. While we ate, we talked with the other guests. It was a great experience to talk with people who are not from the US.

This was the amazing view from our room. The far wall of the room was a giant glass pocket door that we did not close the entire time. During the day we could hear the rushing water of the waterfall directly below us and at night we could hear thousands of frogs.

We had small friends come to visit us on our balcony

There were no TV's in the ecolodge which gave plenty of time to relax and enjoy the beautiful rainforest surrounding us

This is what happens when John gets a hold of the camera...

We had one full day to hike through the rainforest so we took the advice from our good friends Mike and Elizabeth and set our to find this waterfall...

Can't see it? Here is a zoomed in view...

Bamboo blocking the road

Naturally, we had to stop and play

The bamboo was HUGE!

I'm not sure why I am in such a hurry...Maybe John is just slow

Beautiful view! You can see the ocean in the distance

View of Casa Cubuy from the other side of the rainforest

Zoomed in view

The trail started to get smaller as we hiked. It started out pretty, but eventually because almost impossible to hike. We later found out there was a landslide several years prior that took out a majority of the trail.

This tree was on the side of hill and I thought it was cool that the roots were growing into nothing

I'm not sure what this is, but I thought it was pretty

As we hiked we could hear a waterfall. Once we made it to the other side of the rainforest we realized we were not on the correct path to the waterfall. This was my reaction to turning around and facing the landslide trails.

So sad that we did not find the waterfall

On our way back we found a small waterfall where we swam and ate a snack. It brightened my mood slightly

Pondering

Some pretty nature shots we took on our way back

Another view of Casa Cubuy from a distance

On the way back it started raining

The rain brightened our mood and gave us a second wind. John is ready to go!

Once we made it back to the road we were re-energized and ready for more, so we CAREFULLY scoped out the trails and set out to find the waterfall. There were TONS of danger signs warning to keep off the trail and plenty more on the way. No wonder we missed the trail!

We found it!!! Unfortunately, the waterfall was pretty dried up at the time, but we still had quite the adventure. Here I am climbing up the side of the waterfall. If you look close enough you can see the bottom on the scary ladder, that is not on level ground, is all roped and chained off. We slipped through anyway

Here goes John. Unfortunately, the camera had to stay below. Once we reached the top of the ladder we had to climb WET rocks up a little further. It was probably the most dangerous thing I have ever done, but the waterfall was at the top! It was an amazing sight to climb up rocks and discover a beautiful waterfall.