First and Last and Certainly Lasting Impression of the Rain Forest: A Short and Packed Hike of El Yunque Nature Trail

Common Puerto Rican Ameiva (Siguana)

 

 

 

Date: March 31 and April 1, 2024

Place: El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico

Coordinates: 18.339302, -65.762654

Length: 1 mile

Level: easy

March 31

The visitor center was our first port of call when we came to El Yunque National Forest in the afternoon of the day we landed in Puerto Rico for My daughter's spring break trip. We didn't do much that day because we were too tired, but we did get information and wandered around a bit, impressed by intense greenery and the sheer number of lizards we saw all over the place.

 

Emerald Anole 

I didn't take my camera because I was too loopy with fatigue to focus on anything, but my chika did, and got some nice photos of the wildlife near the visitor center. I use some of her photos from that day to replace some of my less than perfect lizard photos from the next day's hike there. My chika was interested primarily in the birds there. Not very surprising, almost every bird we saw was a lifer to her.

Scaly-naped Pigeon

For some of these birds, I would never have guessed to have never seen them before. To me the thrasher looked like any other LBB (Little Brown Bird) in California.

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

 Some of the birds were indeed familiar to us from California. Even if not lifers, it was still nice to see them in the jungle surroundings. 

White-winged Dove

 

The lizards however, were a whole different ball game. Every lizard we saw there was absolutely unique and gorgeous. Even within a species there were different looking individuals. These cute reptiles were all lifers to us. 

Crested Anole

At least in some cases the difference in appearance within the same species was because of the age, as it was with this small siguana, most likely a young version of the very colorful adult (header photo).

Common Puerto Rican Ameiva (Siguana)

As tired as I was on our first day in Puerto Rico, I was still very impressed by the rich variety of plants and wildlife we glimpsed on our pre-visit to El Yunque National Forest.

Banded Anole

 

April 1

On the following morning we arrived early and refreshed to El Yunque National Forest. We drove directly up to the higher art of the mountain and hiked the Mount Britton Trail. After the hike drove back down to the visitor center. Our first port of call there was the cafeteria for lunch. This time I did bring my camera along and took photos of the cool looking sedge that I saw yesterday near the parking lot. 

Rhynchospora pura 

A short flight of stairs leads from the parking lot to the lower road that is level with the visitor center's entrance. Yesterday I also noticed an interesting fern growing near these stairs. I've never seen this kind of fern before. It isn't native to Puerto Rico, though. 

Fishtail Swordfern, Nephrolepis falcata

next to the stairs was a small patch of lawn growing on a steep slope. There were other little wildflowers growing through the lawn as well. 

Sarawak-Bean, Vigna-hosei 

Among those little flowers in the lawn was one I was very excited to see - it was a Spiranthes orchid. I saw it yesterday already, but I had left the camera in the car and I was too tired to go and get it, and also to get on the steep sloped lawn to get a closer look. Today I did bring the camera and I slid under the rail and sat carefully on the lawn beside the delicate inflorescence. This orchid was tiny! There were at least three individuals that I've seen there, but only one of them had fully opened flowers. At the visitor center I showed my photo to the naturalist on duty but he didn't know what species that was. Later, at home, I found out this orchid was southern lady's tresses, a pretty rare Caribbean orchid. 

Southern Lady's Tresses, Spiranthes torta 

Loud knocking from above drew my chika's attention, and she spotted a local woodpecker - the only native woodpecker species in Puerto Rico, and a lifer for her, naturally. 

Puerto Rican Woodpecker

A local dove that looked very similar to the mainland's turtle dove except for the iridescent pink spot on its neck turned out to be yet another lifer a zenaida dove. 

Zenaida Dove

There were a couple of hummingbirds hovering up the trees. They were much harder for my chika to photograph, and hard to identify as well. After much debate with her father after we were back from the trip, they decided it was a ruby-throated hummingbird. Not a lifer for her for she'd seen in in Arizona n our lates trip there,  but still very nice to see. I used here one of the photos she took on the day before because it's better. 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird, March 31

The biggest jackpot for my chika during in the vicinity of the visitor center was the Puerto Rican Parrot. This nearly extinct parrot is now protected and is making a comeback. There are a few parrots caged in the visitor center open area, but we were lucky to have seen a couple of wild birds flying over our heads just as we left the cafeteria. They were screaming loudly as parrots do, and my chika got her photos before they disappeared in the canopy. 

Puerto Rican Parrot

The nature trail near the visitor center is an easy 1 mile loop that features some of the lovely plants and wildlife of El Yunque National Forest. The trailhead is by the parking lot next to the skywalk that leads to the visitor center's entrance. 

Our hike as captured by my GPS

We stopped right by the trailhead and took a while to actually begin the hike- there was so much to see right at that spot. Impressive tropical wildflowers were present there as well as along the entire trail. Many of them, such as the red ginger, which are now common in landscaping and decorative greenhouses around the world, are also non-native in Puerto Rico as well. 

Red Ginger, Alpinia purpurata 

One of the things that kept us in place for a few long minutes was my chika's attempts to capture a small, gay flycatcher that was singing in a nearby tree. 

Flycatcher

After my chika was as satisfied as she could with the flycatcher, she turned her attention to another gray bird - a gray kingbird. At least this one was larger.

Gray Kingbird

Meanwhile I photographed another lizard but my photo came out less than satisfactory so I'm using my chika's photo from the day before of the same species, at about the same place.

Crested Anole, March 31

Eventually we started walking don the trail. The first part of the trail was paved with cement. Lovely wildflowers bloomed near the trail. 

Trailing Daisy, Sphagneticola trilobata 

There were more than wildflowers there, though. A large fruit bearing bough of what looked like a banana tree hanged right over the trail. A young child hiking with his mother near us was captivated by the large bunch of green fruit, and he pointed at them and shouted with excitement. I thought these were bananas too but I later changed my mind - these were probably plantains.

Plantain

More tropical landscaping jewels awaited us as we continued the walk. I remember seeing the lobsterclaw in Hawaii as well, but it might have been introduced there as well. 

Lobsterclaw, Helioconia caribaea 

My chika found yet another threesome of snails on a nearby tree trunk. Unlike the three we saw near the car yesterday at the Mount Britton parking area, this trio of snails seemed all quietly enclosed in their shells. 

Puerto Rican Tree Snail

The trail descended mildly, and the cement pavement changed into tight gravel. Yesterday we made it only a short distance past that point, but we did get to see this art exhibit hanged from the trees right by the nature trail. A sign post explained that this was an art in nature exhibit. I love art, but I'n not sure I like seeing it where I expect to see pure nature. We saw a few other exhibits along the trail and I did photograph them but I chose to not post most of them them here.  

Art

The unusual looking plants with the huge leaves and the finger-like inflorescences I've seen yesterday as well. They look so unique that I even took their photos with my phone, since I didn't carry my camera at the time. Today however, I came prepared. This plant turned out to be a species of pepper, though not the spice used in kitchens world wide. 

Pariparoba, Piper peltatum

The solanum I saw next I recognized right away as such, though not the common black nightshade I'm used to seeing around California. It des look just like it, though. 

Turkey Berry, Solanum torvum

My chika and me strolled slowly down the easy path of the nature trail. Other hikers passed us by, most chatting among themselves rather than looking at the majestic nature around them. We did meet a couple of Indian tourists who were very much interested in what we were seeing and asked many questions. We told them what we knew but our knowledge was pretty limited, being tourists there ourselves. 

Ravenia urbani 

After some descent the trail leveled. We could hear bird calls all around us, but it was not easy to see them in the canopy. My chika did better photographing lizards and I focused on the flowers.  

Parrot's Beak, Helioconia psittacorum

We reached a small clearing where we found and old shelter that was falling apart and was overgrown with vines. There was no sign explaining the presence of this structure. I speculated that it might have been a wildlife observation blind that fell out of use.  

My chika didn't give much attention to the old shack. She spotted a pair of bananaquits that were busy courting across the trail. One of them, presuming the male, kept hovering in front of the other one, presuming the female, in a funny sort of air dance. 

Bananaquit

A rope with huge beads stringed wast hanged between trees near the falling shack. I didn't see any sign next to it but it looked like another art in nature display. It looked like a neckless scaled up to fit a giant. 

I looked at the clearing behind the shack. It was a clearing of trees but the ground was completely covered with lush vegetation. I fugue it won't be long before trees would grow there too, closing the forest gap. 

We resumed our walk. Slowly the trail started ascending again, mildly. As slow as we walked, it looked that we would complete out time in El Yunque National Forest with daylight to spare, so we started discussing other options to pass the rest of the afternoon.

Spanish Shawl, Heterotis rotundifolia

It would be too late to go on another hike in El Yunque, but we did get some suggestions from the local ranger about where we could go birding near Fajardo, the city northeast of El Yunque. 

Altea, Nepsera aquatica 

 

We got excited with the prospect of seeing more birds today. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the multitude of lizards that posed nearly every turn of the way.

Banded Anole

Some of the wildflowers we've seen up on the mountain on the Mount Britton hike earlier that day. Still, I was glad to see more of them. 

White Beggarticks, Bidens alba

The trail steepened and we ascended a couple of switchbacks. There were plenty of other visitors there, so it wasn't easy to get a people-free view of the trail.

Trail

It did drizzle on occasions, but not enough to prompt us to wear the rain poncho again. The drizzle would start, intensify briefly, then cease within the span of a few minutes.

Bejuco de Puerco, Ipomoea tiliacea

 

 By the time we were nearing the end of the loop I had seen all the wildflowers that were blooming along the trail at the time. That didn't stop me from taking multiple photos of the same species.

Tropical Kudzu, Neustanthus pheseoloides

I also looked for other interesting jungle sights, such as long vines wrapping a large tree trunk. Many of my wide forest shots didn't come out very well, though.

I've been in a few tropical greenhouses in botanical gardens around the country, but the only real rainforest I've been at before was 20 years ago in Kauai, and I remember very little of it. Now I was feasting my eyes with this gorgeous all around, old jungle. 

Trail

Many of the large tropical wildflowers we've seen there were introduced to Puerto Rico. I half expected all of the decorative-looking ones to be so, and I was happy to find out that many of these lovely large blossoms were native plants. 

Puerto Rican Rain Tree, Brunfelsia portoricensis

The loop part of the trail was short, yet full of cool sights. We completed the loop and went back on the cement pavement. There was a spur of the paved trail that twists up to the upper level of the visitor center. We continued our walk on that spur trail. 

Sedge

The sides of the paved spur trail looked landscaped. I assume the landscaping was done with native Puerto Rican plants. I loved the bush ferns. 

Other than the ferns, the dominant plant along the spur trail was the pepper bush. I got some really nice photos of this interesting plant, especially of the huge, plate-size leaves. 

Pariparoba, Piper peltatum

Up at the higher platform was a landscaped patch with lovely looking blossoms that at first glance looked like irises, but when I checked their ID they turned out to be yellow ginger. 

Yellow Ginger, Hedychium flavescens

As soon as we stepped on the platform of the visitor center's high level we heard the hoarse calls of the Puerto Rican Parrots. My chika immediately went to the edge to photograph them, along with other visitors who where excited to see this green beauty. 

Puerto Rican Parrot

This hike concluded our day at El Yunque National Forest. Assuming it won't take me another 30 years to go back to Puerto Rico, I will visit this lovely forest again, for sure.