Jungle

If I ever run away to Puerto Rico, this is where you should try looking for me first: the central highlands, somewhere in the vicinity of the still-very-traditional town of Jayuya. I don't have a picture of the pot-bellied guy sitting in a plastic chair at the roadside in the middle of nowhere who held up a single head of lettuce in a plastic bag and yelled (with a wide grin), "Lechuga!!!" in hopes of making a sale. Nor do I have a picture of the rural highway intersection where one had to swerve to avoid the coconut stand in the middle of the road(s) and then swerve in the other direction to avoid the horse tied to a tree along the edge of the highway. Or of the way the power lines that follow the roadways catch all of the falling leaves, branches, and stray bamboo that would otherwise have fallen across the road, creating a magical tunnel of vegetation (and high potential for power outage/disaster) over the winding road in so many places.

But I do have these pictures of steep mountains of jungle (not totally unlike the pictures I'd have taken of Rwanda if I'd had a camera in Rwanda), the view from the top of the highest peak on the island (Cerra de Punto), lake valleys, and the idyllic guesthouse/retreat that served as accommodations for the last night in Puerto Rico. Sigh. What a trip. Who knew?