Day 11 Fajardo

Today we spent the morning in the rain forest at El Yunque National Park. It’s the only rain forest that’s part of the U. S. National Forest system. It goes from just about sea level to 3,700 feet. We spent a couple of hours walking the trails and found it a totally different environment in which to spend time. The variety of trees and bushes is amazing. It was well worth the trip, but after climbing the mountains for a few hours we thought a half a day was plenty. I could easily go back and spend time there.

After El Yunque we stopped at the food quioscos at Luquillo Beach (mile marker 34 on route 3). It has 80 or so food stands that serve mostly Puerto Rican food, but more recently several others have opened that serve different foods such as Peruvian, Italian, American, and Thai. We stopped at a little joint called El Jefe Burger Shack. I had a half pound burger stuffed with braised short rib meat. It was absolutely incredible. They grind their own burgers and pat them out only after they are ordered. The burger was accompanied by hand cut fries. Not only that, they had two dollar Heinekens. Sylvia had a small burger with delicious fried onion rings. I could spend a week there just sampling the foods. It’s a must stop for anyone visiting the northeastern part of Puerto Rico. The rest of the day was spent back at to hotel feeling stuffed. Tomorrow back to Old San Juan for two nights.