Ed

PR Day 6: El Yunque

El Yunque -- Yunque means "Anvil", despite the nonsense about Yuquiyu on Wikipedia -- used to be a long and strenuous drive away. Today it felt like we were there in no time. Better roads? Better cars? Or is it just the Puertorican Time Warp?

Once there, we made lots of brief stops: photo op at La Coca Falls (at the entrance), another at Yokahu tower, another for lunch. Mustn't forget to eat! Brent laughingly tells us of his Chinese family in BC: everything revolves around meals. Discussion at breakfast consists of figuring out where to have lunch. Lunch starts with discussing the food, then progresses to where to have dinner. I could live like that.

After lunch, a short hike down to La Mina Falls. "Short" is relative: Zora timed it at 30 minutes. The hike back up, on the other hand, took only ten. Different paces.

We bathed, splashed, and hung out in the pool at the bottom of the falls. The water was c-c-c-cold even by my standards, but the Oregon crowd just soaked it up. The girls are water freaks: they can't get enough swimming. Mention "la playa" and their eyes get big.

After a couple of hours we raced or plodded back up, then headed to Luquillo for bacalaitos and -- of course -- more swimming for the girls. We used to do it the other way around: beach first, then river to wash away the salt. The girls didn't complain.