Hiking in the rainforest

Todd and I went on two nature-oriented adventures in Puerto Rico, and the first was hiking in the El Yunque Rainforest. It was beautiful! We kept trying to describe it to each other, though we knew that none of the word we were using really captured it. Still, we kept repeating adjectives like “lush” and “verdant.”

The hike itself wasn’t that strenuous. We spent about two hours climbing up to the first peak, which is called the Cloud Forest. We didn’t have hiking boots and both wore our chucks for the hike, so the hardest thing was taking good care of our feet. The path was very rocky, and Converse really don’t provide a lot of support! The rocks also get pretty slippery, so I paid a lot of attention to not wiping out—I came close only a couple of times and managed to stay on my feet throughout.

Once we made it to the Cloud Forest, we took a few minutes to enjoy the spectacular view down the mountain. Looking straight out or up wasn’t much to marvel at—it’s not called a cloud forest for nothing! We were literally standing in a cloud, so when we looked straight out we saw nothing but a thick fog. We were awed by how we could watch the clouds actually move in on top of us and were loving it until we realized they were rolling in for a big ol’ rainfall! There we were, at the summit of a rainforest, standing in a cloud, suddenly getting wet. It started out as a cold but light mist, but within minutes it was a downpour. We hadn’t worn any rain gear, so it didn’t take long to get soaked through. We started quickly back down the trail, this time being extra careful for our footing. Things just got more slippery as they got wet and muddy.

We were cold and soaked by the end, but it somehow seemed perfect. First of all, it’s a rainforest. How disappointing to not experience the rain! Second, there was something pretty magical about watching the clouds come and feeling the rain right at its origin.

We took countless pictures over the course of the hike, but I’m playing blog catch up at work (shhhh...), so I don’t have any at hand. I’ll update this post tonight, though, with some images.