Escape From Your Urban Jungle to Our El Yunque Jungle

Laurie and I often talk about this blog and what we can say here and what we can’t. We know that most of our readers are innkeepers. We also know that our many loyal readers are family members who find it entertaining to read about our tribulations in far-off tropical Puerto Rico. And we especially love it when nature enthusiasts find our blog because they want to read about what it is like to live in the rainforest. But we also realize that some of our readers are potential guests so we try not to whine and complain to much about our life as innkeepers even though doing so in this forum could prove cathartic. And we especially avoid, at all costs, the mention of any rainforest occurrences that might make potential guests (our customers, the bread and butter of the rainforest inn) a little uneasy and therefor less likely to confirm a reservation.

So you will find no mention in this blog about the time Laurie screamed and woke me up when she was in the kitchen getting a midnight snack and instead she got a midnight snake (an endangered Puerto Rican boa had snuck in the open door). We will also not bring up the decidedly funny story of another midnight wakening when a land crab was visiting with many little scrabble noises of its hard feet on the wooden floor of the yoga room (where we used to have our bedroom). I knew it was a crab but didn’t want to get up, catch it, and scoot it back into the jungle as its visit wasn’t bothering me (Laurie did insist though and I had to get up that night).

Laurie and I have been living in the rainforest for many years. It has been more than five years right here in our El Yunque guest house the Rainforest Inn, Laurie moved to the island in 1991 and I moved here more than thirty years ago in 1987. There are many differences between the temperate forests of Europe and the northern temperate forests of America and Puerto Rico’s El Yunque rainforest. Living anywhere for long enough you grow accustomed to your environment and you tend to overlook the things that someone new might find strange and incredible (and which you’ve grown passe about). We are very lucky to be running a guest house in the rainforest because we are constantly reminded about the incredible, wonderful things in the rainforest through new eyes. Thanks to the fresh view points of our guests we can continually be amazed by the jungle environment.

Sometimes we have to explain to guests that the termites swarm on their own schedule

one or two times a year. Our inn is by appoint only except the rainforest termites never make an appointment. and there’s nothing you can do to stop them. It is mainly because of the occasional termite swarm that we have the chalet and the villa (where the guests stay) screened. There are nearly no mosquitoes here. Most of the rainforest insects are nocturnal, including the termites. When the termites swarm we have a drill where we close up the houses and turn off the lights.

But sometimes they swarm when we’re not here which happened recently when we got a panicky phone call from a guest asking, “what can we do about flying insects inside the house”?

So we rushed home to deal with this new jungle menace. Termite swarms are so rare that we didn’t realize that that was all it was until we got there and saw the discarded termite wings on the floor. We had grown passe and didn’t consider a termite swarm anything frightening. Not everyone can be expected to know that if you see a few termites heading for the lights you better shut the front door quickly before the rest come in.

We love the night sounds. Every evening we relax and sip tea or sometimes a glass of red wine to the serenade of the coquis and the katydids. The symphony starts at dusk when the coquis drop down from the tree tops. Later on in the evening we sometimes we hear the call of the lizard cuckoo or feel really lucky to hear the Tarzan-movie-soundtrack like call of the Puerto Rican screech owl. Just the other day I was talking to one of our guests from France. She mentioned that she was a little frightened the first night here when she heard a spooky sound like an angry monkey or maybe a crying child in the distance. She was relieved to learn that it was a beloved rainforest denizen and that she had been lucky to hear the incredible monkey-call of the Puerto Rican Screech Owl.

If you have read this far you may have figured out that Laurie and I decided that our potential guests (and we know this because of the many fun experiences we have had with many guests so far) want an adventure with nature. So you will be reading some more stories here that might make your average urban jungle resident choose to stay in a pristine, air conditioned, resort but which will only serve to titillate the guests that we attract (and appreciate, and often count as new friends) here at the Puerto Rico El Yunque rainforest inn.

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Comments

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Jungle

All photos shot by and copyrighted by me, Rex Cauldwell. Enjoy but do not copy without permission.

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El Yunque has 28,000 acres of rainforest that one can literally get lost in.

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I've never had such adventure in my life. I find the jungle scary and dangerous. However, I think I will be able to appreciate the beauty of wildlife as well as the flora and fauna more than watching them on TV when I get to see jungle for myself.