Since this trip was so last minute, I didn't have any real expectations for Puerto Rico other than the fact that I thought Old San Juan looked like a lot of photos of Lisbon. You can imagine my excitement when I found out about the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. within a short drive from San Juan.
La Mina falls in the El Yunque rainforest of Puerto Rico! Insanely gorgeous. We hiked/ran (yes, in my converse) for miles! This place is insane and I highly recommend checking it out. Just a few tips if you do: 1.) it's 45 mins from San Juan so you'll need to rent a car or get a guide out there. The roads are intense (really curvy and narrow) so if you are a nervous driver at all, renting a car definitely isn't a good choice. If you do choose to - make sure you have full insurance coverage on your rental and drive carefully! 2.) wear a suit under your hiking clothes and sturdy shoes to wear in the waterfall (NO SANDALS) that you don't care will not be coming home with you! 3.) bring along a healthy lunch for the hike! 4.) a common mistake is to not put in the proper address into a gps if you are driving there on your own. DO NOT search the rainforest in google maps to get there. This will add on an extra hour since it leads you to an area that isn't hikeable and you will have to circle around to get to the hiking trails and waterfalls trails entrance. Google the place you want to go directly and look up the address for the hiking trails to find a parking lot.
