Magic Dragon Blog

Vessel Name: Magic Dragon
Vessel Make/Model: Tayana V42
Hailing Port: Deltaville, Va
Crew: Herb & Frank
Recent Blog Posts
12 May 2010

Fajardo, Puerto Rico to Beaufort, NC 1170 Nautical Miles

We had planned on leaving Tuesday around noon for the US, but the last minute errands on Monday took longer than anticipated (as usual), and the trip up the mast Frank put off until Tuesday morning revealed a couple of things that needed fixing. By the time we got everything finished we were both pretty [...]

09 May 2010

El Yunque

We were pleasantly surprised when we woke up to clear skies at the marina. The peaks of El Yunque, the only rain forest in the US National Forest system, were mostly clear, with a few clouds around; a big improvement over yesterdays monsoon.

08 May 2010

Costco Day

We went into Carolina, a suburb of San Juan to go to Costco to stock up on stuff for the trip home. We were warned about the traffic, but figured on a Saturday afternoon, how bad could it be?

07 May 2010

Bacardi Rum Factory

We slept in, checked out of the hotel, ate an early lunch in Condado, and then drove over to the Bacardi Rum Factory for the tour and free drinks. The scale of the factory is huge, producing 100,000 gallons of run a day. The our isn't really a tour, it's more of a film/multimedia thing. How they make [...]

06 May 2010

Camuy Caves and Areciba Observatory

We got up, ate breakfast, and hit the road westward, bound for the Camuy Caverns Park. It's about 40 miles from San Juan. The caverns and caves were formed long ago by the Camuy River, part of which flows underground through the limestone rock. The caverns were spectacular, with huge stalactites, stalagmites, [...]

05 May 2010

Old San Juan

We went into San Juan about 930am, timing our arrival to avoid rush hour. The traffic wasn't that bad, and we found the parking lot in Old San Juan easily.

El Yunque

09 May 2010
We were pleasantly surprised when we woke up to clear skies at the marina. The peaks of El Yunque, the only rain forest in the US National Forest system, were mostly clear, with a few clouds around; a big improvement over yesterdays monsoon.

We drove up to the rain forest, stopping at the very nice information center. The guy there gave us a trail map and some advice about what trails to go on and in what order. We told him that we wanted to hike up to the top of El Yunque. His response was "Are you sure you want to do that?" We said yes, but couldn't help but wonder why he would say that.

Doubts aside, we drove on up to the parking area at the trail head and started the climb. The trail up to the top is about 3 miles, with about a 1500 ft of elevation chage. It literally goes into the forest under the canopy. We got about 1/3 of the way in when it started raining... HARD!. I guess we should have expected it; it is a rainforest after all. Of course, as usual, we had ONE rain coat the we ended up having to use to wrap Herb's cell phone in to keep it drive (not even sure why we brought it). We were getting SOAKED fast, but we decided to press on to the top; always saying.. when will we ever be here again?

One you get near the top, there is a side trail that goes over to another peak called, Los Picachos. We took that to it's end; It was just barely over the tops of the clouds. The rain had kind of let up and the cloulds were whipping by. Every once in a while you could get a glimpse of the tops of the tress from the rain forest just below. You can sense the imensity of the forest around you and only imagine how breathtaking the veiw must be on the rare occasion when there are no clouds.

We backtracked back from the side trail back to the El Yunque trail and continued our hike up. Every time we thought the rain was going to let up, the bottom would drop out again and it would pour. We were literally soaked to our underwear. At this elevation most of the foliage consists of small, dwarf palm trees, just like the bigger ones down low, but barely 4 feet tall. The trail ended at a service road near the top and we took the road to a 'tower' structure the rest of the way up to the peak. The clouds were so thick, you could barely see 100 feet away; but we made it!

The man at the info center had told us to take the service road back down to the Mt. Britton observation tower, so we started our trek down the roat. All of the rain overflowed the gutters on the sides of the raod, so most of the water just flowed down the asphalt and collected at the dips in the road forming ankle deep ponds that we had to cross.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Mt. Britton. We climbed the tower there and peered through the clouds. The rain had subsided a little by this time and the visibility was about 1/2 mile. Standing up there with the clouds flowing past you was pretty surreal though.

We continued down the service road and picked up a side trial that led back to the original El Yunque trail that we came up on. The trip back, however, was very different. All of the rain had swollen all of the streams and waterfalls, and in a lot of places, the trail itself became a stream for water to flow down the mountain. Maintaining these trails in these conditions must be a huge job, but the forest service must do a pretty good job of staying on top of things. There was some evidence of washouts and slides presumably from yesterdays very heavy rain and flooding, but all the trails were passable.

After we got back to the car park, it had completely stopped raining and the skies began to clear up a bit. We hiked down to the La Mina waterfalls, about 7/10ths of a mile down from the road. The trail is mostly concrete, like a very narrow sidewalk with LOTS of steps. There are picnic shelters near the first part - they were all being used by Puerto Rican families out celebrating Mother's Day, we guessed. The food all smelled so good, and we had not had lunch yet and it was about 3pm, we debated trying to crash one or two of them.

The falls were pretty impressive. The trail follows the rapids all the way down to the main falls. Because of the rain, water levels were up, and there was a lot of sediment in the river. It was still pretty. Supposedly you can swim in the pool at the bottom of the falls, but with the water moving as fast as it was, it would have been life threatening to have attempted it. There were some people in smaller pools off to the side of the main fall and some in the calmer sections up from the falls. We walked out to where the pool started and the wind (and spray) from the water falling would literally take your breath away.

We hiked back up the steps and steep hill, hurrying a bit to get out before the park closed or it started raining again. On the way out, we stopped for a snack, and made another stop at the La Coca waterfalls right by the road. We ended up walking about 10 miles in total over very difficult terrain!

We were still pretty damp, so we drove back to the marina to the boat to take a quick shower and get on dry clothes before heading out for dinner. We had been looking forward to those ribs and cold beers from El Jefe Burger all day!!!.

When we got to the exit with all of the Kioskos, the parking lot was PACKED!; cars were even double parked in places. We managed to find a spot near the end and walked over to the El Jefe Burger Kiosko.. When we walked in, the waitress from the other night saw us and came up to us and told us that the kitchen was closed because they had run out of hamburger meat!! I told her we wanted the ribs, and she said that she knew that, but they had to close the kitchen, because after all , they are really just a hamburger joint. We were so bummed! We decided to that were just going to have a couple of beers here (the bar was still open) and then go to one of the other 50 kiosks and get something to eat. While Herb walked away to go to the restroom, the owner Tim, sees Frank and tells him that he was so glad we came in, that he had actually kept the grill on for US, and had hoarded 2 racks of ribs, just for US, because we had told him the other night that we were coming in that night for the rib special!!!! Unbelievable! He had given his cooks the day off for mother's day, so he was cooking , ans his wife Sherry was tending bar. We were so amazed that he remembered us, and even more amazed that he delayed closing and going home just for us.

As expected, the ribs were incredible. He seasons them with a dry rub of Jamaican Jerk seasoning, then cooks them slowly a day ahead. When they are ordered, he finishes them on the grill. We stayed for one more drink after eating and talked to Sherry about Puerto Rico, the restaurant, and lots of other stuff. She is an artist, and also rescues stray cats and dogs and finds homes for them. She had a carrier with 4 tiny kittens at the restaurant when we were there, because she is bottle feeding the kittens until they can be weaned (they are already all adopted); the mother was hit by a car last week.

Anyway they are both super nice and amazing people who run a great restaurant. We wish them luck for future success, but we don't think they'll need too much of it.
Comments

About & Links

SailBlogs Friends
Safari Tu