On our last full day in Puerto Rico, Jim scheduled us for a "Jungle Tour." On a scale of 1-10, it was advertised as a "4." So I thought no problem, I can do this. Well, I was wrong. It was way over my head! Fortunately, the guides on the tour took their jobs seriously and really watched over me. I was definitely the weakest link in the group!
We started our day with breakfast on our porch at Casa Flor. It too had a breathtaking view.We'd stopped at the grocery store the day before so we would have breakfast cereal for our early morning departure for the tour. The kids picked "Fruit Loops" not really the breakfast of champions - but it did the trick for them.
We met our guides at the grocery store near our house and we followed them to their "base camp." We parked our car and were told to leave everything in the car that we didn't need or was of value. We could bring a change of clothes that we would leave at the base camp because they had showers for afterwards. Then we were loaded into and old army truck and taken to their base camp.
When we got to the base camp we were outfitted with helmets, lights, life vests, and zip line rigging. Then we set out on a mile walk to the start of the adventure. Normally they drive you in the army truck but they had had a lot of rain so we had to walk.
We explored 4 wet caves and 3 dry caves. To get there we had to walk through a rushing stream that led into the first cave which lead to a 15 feet drop to a pool of water below and then out the other side. Everyone did this but me. Fortunately, there was a way around it so I went with two of our guides down that path. Everything else on the tour I fully participated in.
They all had bats in them but we were told that they were harmless. One of the dry caves they called said was an old Spanish prison. It was very large in the opening, but as you walked back in further it got narrower and smaller. The guide pointed out a tarantula and found a huge spider that he picked up and held for us. At one point we had to crawl through an opening that was about 30 inches in diameter. Jim and I were bringing up the rear. FYI - the tall people had lights on their helmets. Since I am short, I did not have a light. This was our conversation:
SUSAN: "I am not crawling through there."
JIM: "Well hold onto something because when I go through it's going to get real dark in here."
SUSAN: "Well I sure as hell am not staying here by myself in the dark!"
So I did climb through. On the other side was the Spanish prison. There was a skull and there were chains that were fixed to the rocks. In essence they chained their prisoners to the rock and left them there to die. It was pretty awful to see. We also got to do a zip line which I had never done. I was hesitant to do it but was talked into it by everyone. Of course since I was the most hesitant, they made me go first. It was actually pretty fun! The whole jungle adventure was about 4 hours. I did enjoy seeing everything but I doubt I ever need to do it again. It was a pretty significant walk back trudging back through the mud but we made it. They had showers at the base camp and places for us to wash off our shoes. Jim ended up losing the heal on one of his shoes so we left them in Puerto Rico. Mine were caked with mud but did me well on this adventure.
Our guides helped us order ahead some pizzas for lunch so when we could eat right away. We were starving and we planned to go to a coffee plantation tour at 3 pm. So we only had about an hour. Those pizzas tasted great!
Café Gran Batey coffee farm
After sustenance it was off to the coffee plantation. We were told we could get a 3 pm tour but that we would need to ring the bell at the gate. When we arrived the gate was open so we thought that was a good sign. Unfortunately we were told the incorrect times and the tour finished at 3 pm. But the proprietor invited us in for coffee and allowed us to look around as she completed the tour with the other group.
When Jim brought her a strange looking large fruit and asked her what it was she gave us a very detailed explanation of it. It was a bread fruit and when her husband joined us he proceeded to tell us that he liked it fried, but she liked it boiled. As he explained the differences, she peeled it and cut it up for us to take home. So we tried the fried version
It was time to go back to Casa Flor. Katie and Matt had to leave around 11 pm to catch their red eye flight back to Boston so the rest of us played cards while they packed and tried to nap a little before their 1.5 hour drive to San Juan.