As our driver Isaac drove down the freeway, he spoke about his love for his native land. He talked about the terrible hardships and heartache wrought by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Looking at the lovely city skyline as we zoomed by, it was hard to imagine how bad the damage to Puerto Rico had been. Anthropogenic climate change gloom sayers may blame humans, but these storms are a naturally re-occurring phenomenon.
The first recorded hurricane was San Roque in 1508, and in 1530, Hurricane San Ramon arrived just nine days after another hurricane to wreak even more terrible destruction. Yes, there will be terrible damage from hurricanes in the future, whether you drive to work or not.
Isaac also lamented the terrible follow-up to Maria for his generation, the Covid-19 shutdowns that crashed the tourist industry in Puerto Rico for two years. He veered from his tourism career to become a commercial truck driver, still much in demand to rebuild the island from the hurricane damage.
His only complaint about his home was that politicians there are terrible, a lament shared in most Latin America countries. Isaac made it clear that was the only reason anyone would want to leave that island paradise, in his opinion.
The United States has never been perfect, but our government and economy remain considerably less corrupt than its American neighbors to the south. It is the reason why so many working age people flee Mexico and South America to live in "the Home of the Free."
It is an oft repeated story that enriches the United States when law-abiding immigrants assimilate into the most successful culture on earth.
In the play West Side Story, New Yorkers from Puerto Rico debate the virtues of their current and prior homes in a fantastic song, America.
I was fortunate to have watched Steven Spielberg's updated movie take on this classic 1950s musical a couple of years ago. It's well worth watching, especially if you happen to be cruising from New York City to visit Puerto Rico, like Julie and me.
Isaac's own West Side Story included the departure of his beloved brother and sister to America to attend college. In their family's case, their new home is Atlanta, not New York City. He's proud that his brother is now a football coach, and his sister is studying to be a doctor.
But Isaac remains strongly tied to his homeland. His love came through as he described the various places we went and other parts of Puerto Rico he touted as being wonderful places to visit. As with the best guides, Isaac was a very well-educated ambassador for his country.
When we began our ascent up the mountain into the rainforests, Isaac proved to be an expert on nature and the history of the region. I didn't take any notes and won't attempt to give an accurate account by doing research to confirm what I remember hearing.
Instead, I will just recommend that you visit El Yunque on a similar tour yourself.
After a brief restroom stop at the top of our drive, we hiked into the jungle.
On cue, it started to rain.
Everywhere we went was beautiful.
Small frogs made odd tweeting sounds. In one of the caves, Isaac pointed one out. They make a lot of noise, given their size.
We began our descent in the van.
We stopped at a viewing tower. Once again, we had it to ourselves, although another small group was there and departed when we arrived.
Their guide left a hat made out of leaves for us.
Julie tried it on, but we left it with our guide, because we rarely have any extra room in our densely packed luggage.
From the top, we saw trees with white leaves pointing skyward, which Isaac said was how natives knew when a storm cloud was arriving.
We stopped by La Coca Waterfalls, where a young family was taking it in. Click here to see Julie's short video of La Coca Waterfalls.
As they left, I climbed up close to the falls for photos.
Continuing down the mountain, our final stop in El Yunque was a pond below rocky, downhill rapids that would have been too rough for rafting.
Back to the hot, sunny day we'd left at sea level, the cold water felt refreshing.
I hadn't brought water shoes, so I didn't spend much time in the water as Julie. The small rocks on the bottom were sharp.
Click here for Julie's video of this river pool area.
A local mother and daughter were there when we arrived. The mother told Julie they came to this "spiritual place" every day.
Two young couples soon arrived to join us. They were from the Carnival Cruise ship but had ancestral ties to Costa Rica.
They were all happy, friendly people.
Before going back to the ship, we stopped at a roadside eatery featuring foods enjoyed by locals. Isaac had a big platter, which was reasonably priced at about $12. but Julie and I went with the 12-year-old kid choice of deep-fried empanadas.
As I've often recounted, we usually return to the ship for meals, but if local cuisine is a big reason for your travel, cruising definitely gives you plenty of opportunities to sample unique seasonings and foods, if you choose.
We had a rather short day in this port, but having selected a five-hour excursion that would give us the best chance of returning to the ship before "all aboard," we could have done some shopping or sightseeing in the old own town by which we were docked, or we might have visited one of the nearby forts. Instead, we headed back to our comfortable floating resort to prepare for sail away.
Puerto Rico is a port that offers lots to see, so returning multiple times will bring new things to see. If you start a Southern Caribbean cruise from San Juan, spend a few extra days there.
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| Double Rainbow was auto-corrected out of colors by iPhone. |
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| Large Tree Snail |
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