Part III - You never know what's around the next bend

I know, I know...You're getting tired of looking at vacation pictures, but these taken in the Carribean National Forest (aka El Yunque) are pretty cool.

This is a typical tree with it's roots exposed due to erosion from the rain. And you know what? It really does rain in the rainforest!This is La Coca Falls, one of the two easily accessible big falls in the forest. In fact, all you have to do is pull your car over to see it:There was no swimming hole under La Coca Falls and you know no trip to any self-respecting waterfall is complete without swimming below it and risking life and limb to get behind it, so we headed down La Mina Trail in search of La Mina Falls. Here's a picture of the very well-maintained Forest Service trail to La Mina falls.I must admit this is the best maintained, least populous National Forest I've ever been to. Too bad when we got to the falls we discovered that everyone else visiting the park that day was already there. And even though that appeared to be less thean 40 people, it kind of makes it less fun. They do look happy, though, don't they?We decided to forego swimming with the masses at La Mina Falls and decided to hike up to the top of the falls to look down them. To do this we had to go off the trail, down a slope and up the creek a ways. It was well worth it because this is what we found:Yeah, it was pretty nice. The water was deep, clean and refreshingly cold. Best of all, no other human was in sight - it was just us and the coqui frogs. We hung out there by ourselves for about an hour before a family from New Jersey stumbled upon us and we did the get-your-clothes-back-on-quick-before-you-scare-the-tourists scramble. Note to self: Leave clothing on nearest bank in future.

By the way, if you're ever in Puerto Rico and want to visit El Yunque, note that the Visitor Center, while very nice and clean, is a waste of time and money ($3.50 a person) if all you are interested in is hiking. However, if you want to read about the rainforest and visit a clean bathroom, it is worth it. Otherwise, just keep traveling up the road into the forest until you see other cars, park, and find a trail - it will undoubtedly lead somewhere beautiful. There are also maps along the road and trails are well-marked with informational signs about vegetation and wildlife. Good stuff.