Puerto Rico,1st Port of Call: Millennium Series 7

Puerto Rico (rich port) was claimed for Spain. by Christopher Columbus in 1493. The first European settlement in this region was west of present day San Juan. It was started under the direction of Ponce de Leone in 1508. In 1521, it was abandoned and moved to where San Juan now stands. At the time Taino indigenous people inhabited the region.

The United States of America gained control of the island in and in 1952 it became the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The inhabitants are US citizens, but they cannot vote in a presidential election. The languages spoken here are Spanish and English.

This sunny Caribbean Island lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, It is bordered on the west by the Mona Passage, a main shipping lane to the Panama Canal. This waterway separates Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic. On the East is Virgin Canal, and Virgin Islands.

It is a clear sunny day as we dock at the port of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. We disembark at 8 o'clock and board our tour bus for the El Yunque National Forest, a mountainous, semi tropical rainforest in Eastern Puerto Rico. Originally set aside in 1876 by the Spanish, it is one of the oldest reserves in the Western Hemisphere.

We drive through the old town, past many prosperous, middle class, housing developments, some commercial areas and in the distance, views of high rise towers and the blue sea. As we continue on our way, we pass small farms, poor dwellings and many local and tourist roadside stands. We then begin our climb up the mountainside and enter the park,

"The El Yunque Rainforest" is the result of very heavy rainfall, (3,400mm annually). and the warm tropical climate, It is a dense evergreen forest containing 240 native tree species, twenty-six found nowhere else. Ferns, vines moss, orchids, bromeliads and other epiphytic plants are in abundance. We view some of the many spectacular waterfalls as they cascade down the mountainside.

El Yunque is also home to a number of unique animal species, including the endangered Puerto Rican Parrot and the Coqui, a small tree frog, which can be found in abundance throughout the rainforest. There are approximately 50 bird species and there are many species of lizards, crabs and frogs on the island.

The largest snake is the Puerto Rico Boa which grows up to 90 inches in length, The good news is snakes are rarely seen in the forest and there are no poisonous snakes on the island

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