The El Yunque National Forest is one of Puerto Rico’s biggest drawcards for both birders and normal tourists alike.  At one time, it was the only place to find the Puerto Rican Amazon but they have now been expanded to Rio Abajo Forest as well.  It’s an easy 45 minute drive from the Intercontinental Hotel where we stayed the night and also to the airport.  This would be our last excursion before flying to Orlando.

A few scenes on the way

Beautiful Puerto Rican Parrot statue!

Wait, what’s that?

A beautiful parrot mural!  That sign is very ill-placed though.

So now we have entered the park and trying to decide where to go first.  Another tourist we passed said there was a nice lookout just up the road so decided to take their advice.

Still heading towards the lookout, there were some shops I thought we would check out on the way back.

Now we are parked at the lookout and almost immediately I was hearing birdsong.

And found this cute little Puerto Rican Tody!

After the tody flew off, we wandered around looking for more birds.

Another tourist called my attention to the banged up hubcap and ding above it.

This was NOT good!  I started freaking out, even though we had paid for the full CDW insurance.  I have no idea when and where that happened.

I was worried there might be dramas so we decided to leave El Yunque early and head back to return the car.  I showed it to the returns officer and also showed my rental agreement with the CDW included.  Thankfully, he said it was OK and covered by he insurance!  So lesson learned – always make sure your rental car is insured!

Sadly this meant our trip to El Yunque was cut short…………..maybe a reason to go back someday?