"Puerto Rico, A Beautiful Land " a Puerto Rico Travel Page by no1birdlady

Although Puerto Rico is only 100 miles long and 35 miles wide, it has high rugged mountains in the middle of it that are quite surprising. Around the edges are sunny beaches to swim or sunbathe. There are areas with good waves for surfing and there are reefs to snorkel. Up in the mountains there are lush rain forests. Hiking is fun here as well as birdwatching. On the sw coast there are desert areas. There are super highways, crammed urban highways and narrow one land country roads. It's hot in the lowlands, humid in the rain forests, dry in the desert and cold up in the higher mountains. Coffee and bananas grow in the highlands and sugar cane and pineapple on the coast. Flowers grow everywhere.

Puerto Rico has a lot of natural areas to explore. We saw beautiful birds, butterflies, plants and animals in many areas around the island--even on some of the hotel grounds. But one thing that detracts from the natural beauty is that there was trash everywhere. It was all along the roads, and was especially bad in towns and villages. It's on the beaches. But even in natural areas there was trash. It's such a shame that the people who live here don't realize what a beautiful island they live on and keep it clean. We have the same problem in America and I just don't understand it. It's such a shame.

My husband and I took a 3 week trip to Puerto Rico in July 1994. I planned the trip myself. We rented a car and drove around the island in a clockwise direction beginning in San Juan. We stayed in lodgings around the island which are in the parador program. These inns and motels are known for being hospitable and picturesque but still offering modern conveniences and excellent service. We did not find this to be true at all of them and the quality varied greatly. The major highways were good but most of the small roads were dangerous, especially in the mountains. As for the pictures, I did not take many photos but did make a large number of sketches especially of the wildlife that we saw so some of the write ups of areas are illustrated with these sketches rather than photos.