Puerto Rico: An Affordable Adventure Destination
Island Exploration and Hiking, Cave Exploring, Water and ATV Adventures
Hiking and Cave Exploring in Puerto Rico
About a half mile into the trip your first reward is an amazing limestone cave you get to explore while harmless bats swirl overhead keeping you company. The ground inside the cave is cushy and soft, like a fine powder. Then you learn you're walking on years' worth of crumbled limestone and bat poop. Luckily it doesn't smell and the guides are quick to tell you that getting bat poop on you is supposed to be lucky. You're also warned to keep your mouth shut if you're looking up in the caves for obvious reasons.
After the cave exploration you spend the next 45 minutes hiking to an area where you can cool off and swim in the river. After a brief break the real adventure begins. You spend the next half hour trekking along the riverbed, often walking in the river, negotiating slick boulders and trying to keep your balance.
At one point you cross the river and depending on the time of year the water can be up past your waist so you have to carry your gear over your head. Dripping wet you then hike up another steep hillside to a narrow cave opening. For the first few feet it can feel claustrophobic but then the cave quickly opens up so you can easily walk through to the other side.
After another brief hike through the forest you reach the tour's halfway point where you're served a homemade organically grown lunch at the Perez family home that's almost hidden by overgrown foliage. Refueled and ready to go you then follow your guides down another steep hillside until you end up at a platform.
This is where the real fun begins! You spend the next hour zip-lining across the treetops, dangling over a deep river ravine. After wrapping up the zip-lining you hike back to the van exhausted but exhilarated. This all-day adventure tour, including transportation and lunch runs about $150 per person.
Another new adventure option in Puerto Rico is a wild ATV trip at the El Yungque Tropical Rain forest. For this trip you head an hour inland from San Juan and arrive at Hacienda Carabali . After handing out helmets and water the guides then point you toward an ATV and give you a quick lesson on how to brake before you race off on a two-hour guided tour of the rain forest.
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