Rainforest trip on Legend

[Jett456]

Hi,
Has anyone taken this tour. How far is the rainforest from the port in San Juan? Thanks

[moai]

here is:[url="http://www.iit.edu/~PR/elyunque.html"]El Yunque Rain Forest[/url]

Adventure of the Seas 7/18/04
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;07;18;22;00;00&timezone=GMT-0400[/img]
[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?m=4603068577&a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&ORIGINAL_REFERRER_URL=http%3A%2F%2Fmessages.cruisecritic.com%2F2%2FOpenTopic%3Fs%3D927093444"]Roll Call AOS 7/18/04 click here[/url]

[Jett456]

This link didn't work. I did a google search and found a site that said it was 30 minutes for San Juan. Is this correct?

[moai]

From the link,

The Caribbean National Forest, know to most as El Yunque, is the only tropical forest in the National Forest system. This forest resides on the slopes of the Sierra de Luquillo. The highest mountain in the forest, Pico del Toro, rises 3523ft (1070meters) above sea level and makes it's own weather creating different ecosystems as one climbs higher up the mountain. Expect rain nearly everday at some point. Only the northern entrance allows access to the summit area. The southern route, which has a deep "jungle" feel as you approach road's end, was closed by a landslide at the 13.8km marker.
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Turn south from highway 3 on route 191 into the sleepy town of Palmer 45 minutes east of San Juan. From the town, the mountain is often shrouded in fog. The area around Palmer is dry in stark contrast with the higher areas. The road follows a small river up the mountain with places to pull over to enjoy the views of Luquillo Beach which become ever better as you wind your way up the mountain.
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Adventure of the Seas 7/18/04
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;07;18;22;00;00&timezone=GMT-0400[/img]
[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?m=4603068577&a=tpc&s=927093444&f=1683059817&ORIGINAL_REFERRER_URL=http%3A%2F%2Fmessages.cruisecritic.com%2F2%2FOpenTopic%3Fs%3D927093444"]Roll Call AOS 7/18/04 click here[/url]

[sunbunny~]

Jett456, we hired a private driver to get to the rainforest. It takes 45 minutes to one hour to get there - depending on traffic. We also stopped at Luquillo beach for a couple of hours - that was nice.

If you are hikers like us, you will not be happy with an organized tour. It seemed to be very busy in areas that would accomodate large groups. You cannot do things at your own pace.

We asked our driver to take us to the Mt. Britton trail (the end of the road) and hiked from there to the cloud forest at Mt. Britton - it was spectacular!!!!! It rained (poured actually!) but what do you expect in a rainforest [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] This is considered a difficult trail and not for anyone with walking difficulties. We loved walking in the clouds - something we will never forget!

There are different trails (very well maintained) you can look up the national park el yunque rainforest website, it has information. There are many beautiful areas there, I would like to go back again [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[JuJuBe500]

Did you hire the driver off the street, or was there a company you contacted and set up a driver through? Also, did you already have a map of the trails you went on or did the Mt. Britton trail clearly mark where to go from there to the cloud forest? Does that trail just naturally go there? Was it a loop trail? Sorry so many questions, just sounds so neat.:D Also, about how long were you hiking? Thanks for any info!

Julie