El Yunqe and San Juan

El Yunqe is a rainforest in the east of Puerto Rico. It's also rather hilly. And it has a number of well-kept paths and trails. This made it a very good place to do our second trek in preparation for the Inca trail in Peru.

We started by visiting the vistor's centre as that's what they're for. We watched a short film about it, and had a wander round the exhibits in a very impressive modern building with waterfalls, a tree-canopy boardwalk, and information desks. But there wasn't much to hold our attention for that long, so we drove up further to the start of the trails where a friendly ranger waved us on our way, and we headed up. The first path was remarkably well kept and paved with stepping stones, but quite steep and long. I'm not expert on flora, and the trees looked pretty similar to those you'd get at home. But as we climbed onto more rustic tracks, the forest changed quite a lot. The trees became more spindly, and coated with lots of dangling moss. According to our notes, this was cloud forest, and right on queue the clouds blocked the view and enveloped us in a wispy light fog. Eerie, but strangely pretty. We climbed on up, occasionally getting tantalising glimpses of the view only to have it blocked out. Every so often it'd threaten to rain and we'd get our plastic rain ponchos out, struggle with them flapping in the wind and finally get them on as the drizzle stopped. Anyway I was already wet from the unaccustomed extertion. We reached the top after two or three hours and were rewarded with foggy views of satellite dishes, mobile phone masts and humming generators. Disappointing, but at least we'd made the top without too much difficulty and could feel more confident about things to come.

Going down was easy. There was a road to the top, presumably for the engineers who have to visit the bristling array of masts, so we headed down it. On the way we met quite a few people who were struggling up what was actually a very steep road. They'd ask hopefully if there was a good view from the top, and they visibly deflated when we informed them that they were unlikely to see more than a few yards into the mist. We tried telling them the path through the forest was both more rewarding and easier than the road, but they'd look at us as though we were trying to trick them and continue on up the tarmac. Oh well.

We returned to the ecolodge, and feeling still able to walk a bit further, headed down the hillside to the river. It was a beautiful spot, with swimming pools and waterfalls. Accorinding the our host, Matthew, at night the pool is alight with glowing shrimps, but we didn't venture down in the dark to see them for ourselves.

On the way back up, I got a nasty scare, as across the path, sticking out from the undergrowth about a foot or so, and about the same distance from my face as I looked up, was a large snake. At least that's what I thought at the time. It took a few seconds of fast heartbeats before I realised it was a fallen palm branch. It was uncanny how much it looked like a snake's head, and even once I'd followed the shaft back with my eyes and seen the leaves growing out of it, I felt the urge to give it a wide berth.

We were no longer the only guests at the lodge. A family had arrived, and we chatted with them about Puerto Rico, and on discovering she was from Chile (he was from Germany but had lived in Ecuador for a long time) asked them about the continent we'd soon be visiting.

Dinner was superb. The chefs were local women from a bit further down the mountain, and presumably cooked us some Puerto Rican fare. It really was delicious, and is strongly recommended.

The next morning, we headed back to the airport to drop off our car and head into San Juan, the capital. Actually, San Juan used to the name of the island, and Puerto Rico the name of the capital but at some point this got reversed. The drive took us along the coast on the slower but more scenic roads. Therer really is some lovely coastline in Puerto Rico with bike trails following it for miles, but as you approach San Juan the buildings around Condado get bigger and bigger and it starts to look rather too commercial for my liking. Anyway, we used the useful tourist office At the airport again, and booked into a hotel called La Galleria in the old town. The taxi journey took us into town along the freeways, amongst the multi-storey hotels, and into the old town.

What a contrast. The buidlings were beautiful, the streets narrow, and the view as we drove along the coastal street to the north fantastic.

Our taxi driver knew the hotel, which was fortunate as it was completely unmarked, and fitted into a number of houses behind a courtyard filled with statues, trees and parrots.

The hotel was in a great location, overlooking the sea, and easily in walking distance from the bars and restaurants in town. It also overlooked an area called La Perla which according to our guide book was a no-go area where you'd get mugged in minutes. Dangerous it may be, but it was also very pretty with pastel coloured buildings tumbling down the hill to the shore, some with swimming pools. Odd for a "slum".

The hotel was a unique place. The owner is an artist, and the whole place was filled with artwork, sculptures and antiques. There was a cluttered charm to all the rooms, and it was fun exploring the courtyards and spaces to see what treasures they held. There was a music room with pianos, rooms with antique chaise longues, and at the top a roof terrace looking out over the town from pretty much the higest point. Beautiful. And the room, while small, had the most comfortable bed we'd seen since leaving home. Add in the free cheese and wine in the evening and the chatty parrots and we decided we'd done very well with our find.

So, into town. We spent the afternoon wandering the streets, impressed with the amount of it still in pristine condition (or at least very well restored). Old San Juan really is a great place to just wander around. We had lunch in the Parrot Café and discovered American service. It was all smiles, and a list of specials as long as your arm. Ask a question about a dish and you'd get a stream of information about the way it was cooked, the fresh ingredients and so on, far more than you possibly take in. And the food was great, if unnecessarily large.

Good food continued as a theme. In the evening we went wandered along looking for a restaurant and chose one pretty much at random because it looked cool. It had a great bar that would not look out of place in New York or London, and waiting staff who surely must be models in the daytime. One waitress had the longest legs I'd ever seen. Well, until I saw another one with even longer legs. Most distracting. I had a deliciously light seafood curry, and Esther the salmon teriyaki. Our waiter was friendly and chatty and after we retired to the bar area, he brought us some VIP entrance arm bands to the club upstairs. We'd had a good time and thought why not? I did feel a bit old when he said the first floor was for the kids but the top was more refined, but hey. We skipped the queue and were whisked up to the roof which was very cool, with low soft leather chairs and sofas so that you more lay down that sat down. We reclined sipping mojitos and g&t's until the early hours, thoroughly enjoying Puerto Rico.

The next day, we headed off to see the forts that had been used to defend the island over the last few hundred years. They had seen a lot of action. The British, French and Dutch and been fighting with the Spanish for control of the island pretty much continuously until things settled down with the Spanish in the 18th century. And then the Americans invaded, supposedly to liberate the island from the Spanish, but seeing as the Americans then stayed and set up huge navy bases there I'd take that with a pinch of salt. In fact the Americans have only just shut the huge naval base Roosevelt Roads with the loss of thousands of jobs. Some locals say this was in spite, as there had been a successful campain to end the use of one of the prettiest islands in the east as a bombing target practise area after someone had been killed by an errant bomb. Anyway, the fort El Morro had a very good exhibition describing the history of the island; informative without being boring. It was odd to see photos of the defenders of the fort, and of the modern looking warship (albeit steam powered) the Americans used in their invasion. It seemed wrong that an old fashioned fort like this would be in use in the same period in which photography was commonplace.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the squares and streets, and then headed back to pick up our bags and leave for the airport. Customs were as friendly as before, and American Airlines staff as surly as before, and we headed for Washington, DC.