Puerto Rico in 7 days - Day 6

When I woke up in the morning this is where I found myself:


The rainforest was just few feet from our cottage and Chris decided to go for a walk while I was showering. When he got back he brought some passionfruit that he had found. I was so excited because I hadn't had a fresh passionfruit since I served my mission. I immediately made some juice for Chris and I and it was so good it is making my mouth water even now just thinking about it.

There was a river that ran to the side and below the cottage and we were able to see some amazing birds while we were here.

We had decided to go to the Camuy Cave Park which has some of the most amazing underground caves and rivers. When we got there however they had already let in the allotted number of visitors for the day. So we weren't able to see it. We then headed to the Arecibo Observatory. If you've seen the movie contact then you have seen the Arecibo Observatory. It is the largest telescope in the world and is run by Cornell University. When we arrived there we found ourselves in the hugest downpour of rain.

It seemed to let up a little bit so we decided to run for it. The problem with making a run for it is that we had to climb 500 steps up to the observatory. Fortunately there were two little outposts on the way up that we were able to stop at and take shelter. By the time I got to the top I could use my hand as a squeegee and just see the water pour off of my arm. I was drenched. I went to the bathroom to find some paper towels but of course they didn't have any so I just rung out my hair in the sink and went on out to enjoy the exhibit.

After the observatory we went to the Taino ruins.

These ruins are dated back to 1200 yet were discovered quite recently. I believe they were discovered in the 1970's. It is the most complete ceremonial ruins that have been found in Puerto Rico. This place had a very peaceful feeling to it. It was beautiful and I would have loved to have seen some of the presentations that they do here. But because of the rain they had postponed them until the next day. Although our last full day in Puerto Rico was a very rainy one we had a lot of fun exploring all of the winding roads and seeing some very beautiful areas. By the time we got back to Utuado we were starving. We had just been going and going all day and were hungry but never really had a chance to stop. But now it was about 5 p.m. and we were determined to find some food. We drove through the actual downtown of Utuado in hopes of finding something but everything was closed. In Puerto Rico it is easy to find food in a local Cafeteria for lunch. These Cafeterias are little lunch spots where you can get the assortment of fried foods that Puerto Rico is known for. But the problem is that they all close by 3:00 p.m. So if you want anything after that you are stuck with the more "american" foods like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Chinese food. We opted for Chinese food since we couldn't find anything open that had some beans and rice (yes, we like beans and rice). We ordered sweet and sour chicken with fried rice. When I opened the container there was the chicken and the rice but what was that on top of everything? A big pile of french fries? We laughed at that but apparently that is how they serve it up there. The funny thing is, that sweet and sour chicken was some of the best I've ever had.