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estaurants, some delightful little shops, some musty antique stores, but mostly touristtrade. We explored the formidable El Morro on foot.We rented a jeep and went exploring. Driving follows the principle of 'Honk and Go' a littlelike Miami. First on the agenda was El Yunque, a rainforest of some 28,000 acres in thesouthwest of the island. It is a federally maintained national park with innumerable hikingtrails, waterfalls and gorgeous flora and fauna. Getting there is a bit adventuresomebecause of the small, circuitous streets cutting through clusters of very poorneighborhoods, but once one gets off the major highway it is well worth it.The scale is not to be compared to rainforests in the South Americas, but the colors andtextures are wonderful to behold. And it is really the small things that enchant you: theintricate delicacy of a tiny red orchid bloom, the scramble up a path ofslippery rocks to a hidden waterfall, or the many sweetflowering shrubs and trees, including an ubiquitous whiteginger. The waterfalls are often near the street; theyprovide a gentle mist of cooling water on the hotsummer days. Its very simplicity is soothing, 'a walkinto the clouds'.Another great coolant was the watering holes inthe stream, which runs through the forest. To getto the very bottom, one walks an initially easy pathamong picnic huts that becomes more demandingas one descends. But that does not seem todetract anyone; families with small children,grandparents with dogs lug their coolers and fooddown river to find a swimming hole. That is wherethey spend entire summer days, submerged in coolriver water racing over round boulders. We did thesame, minus the coolers, dogs and grandparents.Just splashing and climbing and having a great time.On another day, we drove west to the city of Arecibo, then turnedsouth to visit the Arecibo Radio Observatory, site of many scenes from themovie "Contact". The observatory is the largest of its kind in the world, and itintrigued us how it came to be plopped in the middle of the only Karst region outside ofYugoslavia. The Karst mountains, or really hillocks, were formed millions of years agowhen, during prolonged rains, the naturally porous grounds collapsed into sinkholes and leftstanding only these hillocks. One after another after another, as though a child had takenscoopfuls of sand and made an orderly pattern of hills on the beach. Only that the Karst isprofoundly green, almost like heavy velvet folds. The green reminded us of Ireland.The observatory appears out of nowhere, three giant spiders legs in the hills. (Rememberold Japanese alien films?) It feels alien. Once there, one has to walk up a serious hill, noone with limited mobility could negotiate it, into a museum of sorts, where one is treated toa horrible film about a day at the observatory. You can take part in hands-on space sciencelearning and gasp at the scale of the main dish when standing on the balcony.Unfortunately, that is all, but still worth it. Leaving, we stopped at the Observatory Café, alittle restaurant, which is lovingly run and serves simple, delicious local fare.Refreshed, we wanted to drive home via a southern route, taking us through the Cordilleras,the central mountains. To save time, I decided on a shortcut. Alas, the tiny roads on themap really are tiny, virtually so non-existent that we got very lost and after an hour of carsize potholes, precipitous curves and steep declines we ended up in someone's backyard,right next to a mare and her foal. It was too late by then to head for the mountains, so webacktracked and took the expressway back into San Juan. No Cordilleras for us.Our last adventure was due to the electrician, who divulged his partnership in a deliverycompany running helicopters and jets in the island. We ended up with an hour and a half50 www.oystermarine.com