El Yunque National Forest
El Yunque in Puerto Rico is the only tropical rainforest in North America. This archipelago is located in the North Eastern Caribbean Sea. When we visit a new terrain, we always look for the unique fauna and flora attraction of the place. There were many colorful birds in Puerto Rico, but the main attraction for us was the Frog called ‘Coqui’. This frog makes the sound coqui from which it gets it’s name. We were intrigued by the concept that a frog voice can be as sweet as the voice of a bird and we decided to go and listen to it ourselves.
The view from top of a watch tower representing the El Yunque rainforest. The vast sea of green is so dense that unless there are trails maintained by the officials it is literally impossible to walk through it.
After a missed flight and several wrong turns , El Yunque National forest welcomed us with rain. We were elated because “where is the fun if there is no rain in a rainforest ?After the little rain, the forest looked even more attractive. Coca falls and Yokahu tower are few tourist attractions we ticked off but not before seeing the Puerto rican Tody and the Bahamas Oriole. There was another falls where people were taking bath which we reached after a short trek but rather than bathing , our eye went to the rocks near the falls. Rocks are ideal places for orchids or impatiens. We found an unique flower but not the orchid we were looking for.
Unlike in India the waterfalls of US do not have people bathing. We believe it is mostly due to the fact that water is cold. But since this place is tropical , people were queuing up to beat the sun.
There were many well laid short trails and few roads to the telecommunication center at the top of El Yunque. These trails were covered with trees and the trees themselves with epiphytes. Epiphytes are plants that grow attached to the trees and have a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. Since they derive water from the moisture laden air they are present in places where there is constant mist or regular rainfall i.e places like rainforest.
The dense growth of plants and trees is what one will see in a rain forest. Since the plants are competing for light , they literally grow on one another.
Colorful Show Of Caribbean endemic birds
In other trails there were not many people so it was almost silent for us to hear the Coqui sound clearly. We went near the plants from where we heard the sound but we couldn’t spot any frog. This frog is not a very colorful one to enable us to easily spot it. Rather it was a frog with sweet voice. We were not yet accustomed to Coqui sound, so we confused it for bird call sometimes. When we entered the El Yunque we were very confident that the first thing we were going to spot was to the Coqui as it was the common frog in that area. By mid-day we spotted so many colorful birds and wildflowers but no sign of Coqui. Most of the birds and wildflowers in this park is endemic to this island. So almost all the flowers and birds we saw were lifer to us. The Puerto Rican Tody and Bananaquit were our favorite colorful birds in the forest who gave us company many times in the forest and in the place we stayed.
The Bananaquit is the representative bird voice of the forest. They were fondly singing away at all instances.
We were lucky to see these colorful Caribbean endemic birds Red Legged Thrush,Caribbean Oriole, Puertorican Spindalis, Puertorican Bullfinch etc. Birding in rainforest is usually tough as the birds tend to hide in the dense foliage, but we were fortunate enough to see these colorful birds. In the forest openings that came once in a while we were also greeted by beautiful butterflies. One of the butterflies that caught our attention was the Antilean Cresent. After the rains there were several of them basking in the sun.
Antillean Crescent – The smallest member of the Nymphalidae family found in Puerto Rico
On the other hand Marcgravia sintenisii , Puertorican lobelia were few of the uniquely shaped flowers in the trail. Sphatoglottis plicata orchids, were in full bloom on the sides of the trail. We were so happy to see this attractive pink orchid though we later found that to be an invasive plant in that island.
Sphatoglottis plicata is an example of how plants from one region of the earth can colonise and threaten other plants from a totally different region. Originally native of South east Asia it has ended up in the Caribbean islands.
In rainforest most of the plants were with large leaves, so the color of the forest is different shades of green. Even when the blooms were very colorful, only when we searched for the wildflowers we spotted them otherwise it was all just green. The exception would be the bromeliads hanging on the trees which stood out in the middle of the sea of gree. They added additional charm to this rainforest. The importance of the flora in this region is high as most of them are endemic.
The most famous bromeliad plant is the pineapple, so we were very happy to see Guzmania berteroniana in Elyunque
The fern trees that can grow up to 30ft were everywhere and the spreading fern leaves gave a magnificent look to the forest. Every leaf or plant we look had a snail or a lizard or a small insect on them, there were so much activities going on all over the forest. The entire forest was alive with the sounds of insects,birds,waterfalls and coqui. The forest gave us quite a colorful show and the hikes were not tiring but the only thing we missed to see was the coqui frog. The side roads meant for telecommunication towers maintenance turned out to be the ideal places for birding.
Inside El yunque there are a series of little roads where no tourists venture as they were basically roads for the maintenance of telephone towers situated on top of the peak. These roads proved to be excellent birding areas.
Since they were creating openings inside the continuous cover of green foliage , birds were coming out in the open to bask in the sun. We found all our humming birds of the trip in this trail alone. The Puertorican Emerald was hovering all over the place and gave a beautiful display of a humming bird’s flight capabilities. They were really a treat to watch.
Puertorican emerald humming bird seemed to be the most active and common of the lot.
In Search Of Coqui
After roaming around the forest for the entire day there was still no luck with the Coqui. With all the colorful distractions maybe we were too distracted but the frog’s sweet voice was now in our head. We decided to headback to the place we stayed which was itself inside the forest. We planned do herping in the night near the homestay where we stayed and look for Coqui. If a common frog could not be spotted at night, then there was some problem with us. When night fell, the trees were vibrating with Coqui calls. We took our torches and set out in search of Coqui.
The same place which looked enchanting in day light looked a bit scary to me especially with continuous rustling sounds coming from the ground.
I jumped on seeing a giant spider running under the fallen leaves. Suddenly I felt like someone watching us from the tree and when i turned my torch on the tree, an owl was sitting there who screeched and flew away. I felt dreadful for disturbing the owl who was having a peaceful night.
After turning few leaves in search of Coqui, suddenly there was a football sized thing moved infront of me. I was so caught at the moment and back stepped pointing the torch at the thing only to see two big antennas with eyes. It was a giant land crab. We have never seen one this big in our life. It was confused with the commotions we made and ran towards me. I backpedaled and ran back to the room only to see a Coqui sitting infront of the room.
When we finally found coqui it was late in the night. Though not one the colorful frogs it stood out by the sweet voice. I curse myself now that i didn’t record that voice but I could still remember that sweet bird like chirp.
What a fine turn of the events! It was like the frog finally lost it’s patience in the peek-a-boo game and exposed itself to us. After few minutes of posing, it silently jumped into the dark bushes making Coqui sound.
The rainforest is a place where one can spend a lifetime and still have new experiences everyday and this one is no different. There was so much to take in for just a day that it all started to sink in only late in the night. By this time the rain had started pouring down and we decided to call it a day and go to sleep listening to the falling rain and the sweet voice of Coqui.