PUERTO RICO

Old San Juan....

...is a place that treats strollers to the compound charms of a dramatic natural setting, historic architecture, fine cultural institutions and a spirited community.

In Old San Juan, 500 years of spanish colonial history blend almost seamlessy with cntemporary Puerto Rican culture as you wlk lamplit cobblestone streets. Colorful town houses, rich with iron balconies and potted plants, line your way. Historic forts, churches and museums open their doors to you for exploration. 

Culture Festival

El Yunque

The Caribbian National Forest in the bright-green Sierra de Luquillo mountais is populary called El Yunquefor its distinctive peak, which rinse about 3500 feet above sea level.

Here you will find the only tropical rain forest in the US national forest. It covers approximately 43 sq miles and includes three quarters of the island's remaining virgin forest. Some trees date back 1000 years.

Bosque Estatal de Guanica

Perhaps the best example of subtropical dry forest vegetation in the world.

Bahia de la Ballena...

...is one of the most unusual coastal features on this island - a tropical fjord poised between rugged hills coverd with dry forest.

You can parc anywhere along the road to picnic and sunbathe. 

If the sea are calm, you can also find good snorkeling among the rocks.

Observatorio de Arecibo

Your arrival at Observatorio de Arecibo has a touch of drama and science fiction to it  as the road  crests a steep mogote. Ahead you see the immense telescope support towers gleaming in the sun above the hills, while the road in front of you descends toward a line of high fences and a guarded gatehouse that look like something out of the X-Files.

After entering and parking, you follow a walkway down to a space-age glass-and-concrete building set on the steep side of a mogote. From here you can see the 20-acre 'dish' set in a sinkhole between a cluster of hills. This radio telescope's silver dish is a fixed receiver for radio waves and does not rotate to improve reception.  the actual receiving and transmitting instruments are suspended by cables 50 stories above the dish. They  weigh more then 600 tons and look to some people like the Federation starship USS Enterprise.

Since its completion in 1963, the Arecibo telescope has been used by thousands of scientists - some who have made Nobel Prize-winning discoveries. The great dish has also captured the imagination of visitors of all ages and interests, including Hollywood producers who featured the Arecibo telescope in the James Bond film, Golden Eye, and the more recent science fiction film, Contact, starring Jodie Foster.

Parque de las Cavernas del Rio Camuy

This park is home to one of the largest cave systems in the world. The Caves are definitely worth a stop.

Your visit begins with a film about the caves at the visitors center. Then you take the trolleybus that follows a spiraling roa down through the jungle into 200-foot-deep sinkhole to Cueva Clara de Empalme, where you take a 45-minute guided walk through the cave. Here you walk past enormous stalagmites and stalactites and into rooms littered with boulders. At one point, the ceiling of the cavern reaches a height of 170 feet; at another, you can see the Rio Camuy rushing through a tunnel.

After leaving the cave, you take a tram to the Tres Pueblos sinkhole, which measures 650 feet across and drops 400 feet.