Rio Abajo Forest is one of the Caribbean’s top birding hotspots due to the Puerto Rican Parrots.  It’s a huge forest with many hiking trails and if you had the time and energy you could spend a day or two here.  But I was not only limited by time, I was exhausted and running on empty due to lack of sleep, so all I wanted to so was find the parrots.  I had been in contact with Ricardo Valentin prior to our visit and he was going to show us around the aviary and breeding project but when we arrived at the gate, we couldn’t find anyone around.

Road leading to Rio Abajo.

First gate, we just went through as we had an appointment.  There was no one around anyway.

This is the 2nd gate which is outside the breeding project.  We parked here and waited for someone to approach us.  We were early so thought maybe they didn’t show up until 9am which was when our appointment was.

I tried the call box but no one answered.

Signage about the aviary.

A jogger did eventually show up and said his brother worked there.  He called out to his brother but no one answered so he left.  We waited while the trees cam alive around us.

They blend in quite well but this time (as opposed to other islands we had visited) we were close enough to see the parrots frolicking in the trees.

We actually had a good quality visit with the parrots as they hung around the area for awhile foraging in the branches.  They took off around 10am.  No humans ever showed up so at that point, we were starving and left to go forage for ourselves.  I later found out via email that Mr Valentin had taken ill and didn’t work that day.