3:00 snapshot #879
Three O'Clock on the 28th found us relaxing in the Casa Cubuy Restaurant after the day's activities.
I started the day watching our breakfast grapefruit being picked by one of the lodge staff.
Then shared a shower with a resident coqui frog!
We decided to take the hike least likely to kill us or strand us in the rainforest with crippling injuries. Up the road past the ruins of a small gauge railroad.
Of course I found myself looking at all the roadside weeds. This one looks very much like yellow hawkweed, except for the obvious color difference.
Some morning glories took advantage of the low traffic situation to spread toward the road.
A half-mile past where anyone is likely to encounter it is this sign announcing the National Forest.
On a concrete wall, erected presumably to keep the road from falling off the mountain, there were more snails, including this big and little pair. My dad said "I bet on the back of that wall there are more of them, in the dark." So I looked.
I only found one, but it was an active one!
From up there we got glimpses of the valley below--you can even see the ocean!
Roadside lantana.
A skipper on a nightshade.
The further we went, the more the forest closed around us.
Some newly growing ferns unfurled red.
The road petered out and was entirely swallowed by the forest. In the 70's a landslide took the road away, and the forest filled in on the rubble.
A dayflower (a relative of a common urban weed, the asiatic dayflower).
The anoles are never very far away.
Back at the lodge we rest again, as a downpour soaks the forest.
The restaurant served us delicious fried food--here's some chicken with rice and beans.
My dad opted for the MOFONGO.