After breakfast at the condo, we headed out to El Yunque. We started off at the visitor center, called El Portal. To get into the visitor center, you go over a high bridge that goes through the trees. The bridge is about mid-tree level, so you can see lots of neat plants, flowers, animals, fruit, etc.
Inside the visitor center were lots of kid-friendly exhibits with things to touch, move, spin, lift, look into, etc. Cameron LOVED it and ran from one exhibit to another. He didn't actually care what the exhibit was about, just so long as he could play with something on it! Here he is showing how big he is compared to the lizard.
Cam was interested in touching everything, including this big tree that was on the side of the visitor center.
After spending some time at the visitor center, and having a great lunch of Puerto Rican specialties, we headed into the rainforest. Our first stop was an overlook that had great views out to the ocean. The two buildings you can see in the center of the picture are the condo that we stayed in.
Next stop along the way was at La Coca waterfall. It was right on the side of the road, so it was very easy to get to and look at. Cameron really liked it, although you can't tell from this picture because he was trying to hide his face so Daddy wouldn't take his picture!
Along the side was a pipe that had run off from the waterfall. Of course, Cameron wanted to touch the water...
...and drink it!! Oops... well, hopefully there isn't any bacteria in there that is too harmful. Actually, we saw a bunch of people drinking it, so we figure it is fine!
Along the way we stopped to change Leah's diaper. She was very happy to get out of her car seat and was giving some huge smiles after her diaper was changed.
"No Daddy, don't take my picture!"
"Well, okay, I guess you can."
We decided to try doing a hike with the kids. We picked Big Tree Trail, which leads down to La Mina water fall. We figured we wouldn't make it all the way to the falls, because the trail was around 1 mile each way, but we thought we would go for as long as we could.
Starting out - Cameron walking and Leah in the sling.
The independent hiker takes off down the trail!
Soon he wanted to walk with Daddy though, so they could look for things. There was so much to find along the way - snails, lizards, and lots of trees and plants. We heard tons of the coqui frog, but we never did see one.
Cameron wanted to stop and look at this tree. He called it "the Carrot Tree" because its roots were bright orange and skinny like carrots.
Cam in his little hiding spot under the fallen tree.
Making our way down the trail. It was so gorgeous and lush! It was actually raining a good part of our hike as well, but since we were in such dense trees, not too much of the rain made it down to us!
Leah was a great little hiker, snoozing in the wrap for most of the way!
Cam pointing out a mini water fall. Alas, this was just about the biggest one we saw because we never did make it to La Mina Falls at the end.
A big part of the hike for Cameron was finding things and then touching them. Here he was touching a mossy stone, which he declared to be "soft like Soft Buh" (Buh is his fleecy blanket.)
On top of a big rock being a goofball!
Gorgeous hiking - so different from anything we have done at home!
Along the way there were some steps (70 of them, in fact). Cameron insisted on climbing them himself. This made for a very slow part of the hike. :-P
Mama, Leah and Cam
Cam loved this giant leaf that he found.
I like hiking, especially when I don't have to walk at all!
At the end/beginning of the trail. In total, we probably made it about 3/4 of the way to the falls before Cam got too tired and Leah started fussing. We hiked for about 1 hour, 15 minutes round trip and probably went 1.5 miles. Cam walked for almost all of it, only riding up on Daddy's shoulders on the way back for a few minutes at a time to rest. Leah was really good too, sleeping most of the way or looking around with interest when she was awake.
Our last stop was the Yokahu Tower. We climbed to the top and had a great view all around the rain forest and out to the ocean. On clear days, you can see all the way to the US Virgin Islands. It was not clear enough to see that far when we were there, but it was still a great view.
Rain forest vista
Cam and Daddy on the top of the tower (or "castle" as Cam called it).
Mama and Leah on the tower. Leah was not crazy about the wind and spent most of the time nuzzled into Mama.
Looking down from the top of the tower. There were 96 steps from bottom to top.
Climbing back down. Cam insisted on doing it all by himself, so it was a rather slow descent.
Back in the car, Leah showed off her curious face.
And a big smile!
We had a great day at El Yunque. Cameron was really interested in all of the different things we did and Leah was such a good girl. It was exciting to see how well they did on the hike - we feel like we will be able to do more things like that at home now.
More to come...
3 comments:
Leah is certainly growing up and turning into a little girl. She is so cute!
Love it! Some great pictures! That's one of my favorite things to see...kids outside enjoying nature :). That's so great that Cam is able to do that with you. Leah probably won't remember it, but looks like she enjoyed hanging out anyway, and she'll have the pictures!
Sounds like a great trip! You're missing a heat wave at home. Look forward to hearing all about it when we come up in a week and a half.
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