30 Nov 2024
We booked the El Yunque Rainforest and Zipline Combo Tour through Viator. Originally we scheduled for a Tuesday, but the weekend before we got a call from Bespoke saying that there's not enough people (min. 4), we can reschedule to Wednesday where there's enough people and so we did. The day before the tour we got a detailed message confirming pickup time and location as well as what to bring and wear. We got the message through SMS, WhatsApp and Viator inbox which is very considerate. But I wish they mention that we should not apply bug spray to avoid damaging the environment. The first part of the tour is the El Yunque hiking tour. Our tour guide/driver Adrianna was super friendly and knowledgeable, telling us about the itinerary and stuff about the forest and Puerto Rico. Right before hiking we made a stop at a store where you can optionally buy food and water shoes (you will be asked to buy water shoes if you did not wear closed toe shoes) and use the bathroom. After arriving at entrance, you'll walk through some muddy trails. We left all our belongings in the van including our phone. Adrianna helped us take pictures with her phone along the way and promptly sent them back to us the same day through icloud link sharing. There are two water pools, first one is where you do rope swing or cliff jump or just chill near the water. Second pool is the one higher up and you need to climb some rocks to get there, it's slippery but someone will help you up. Second pool is where you do natural water slide and also another cliff jump. Those who don't want to do water slide will wait at the first pool. The natural water slide is super fun, it kinda feels like a short water slide at typical water parks but of course rocky and refreshing. I didn't do cliff jumps nor rope swing but my girlfriend did it she said it was really fun! Adrianna also showed us how to rub the rocks to extract the mud and do a mud mask, our skin felt great afterwards! After the hike, we went to a place to wash our feet and go to the bathroom before boarding the van to our lunch spot which serves amazing seafood!! Adrianna then left and there was another driver picking us up for the zipline portion. The driver wasn't very communicative and we were kind of left at the zipline park on our own without clear instructions. I guess he was only expected to drive us to the zipline park and picked us up after we finished? Thankfully the zipline park staff were very helpful, they led us through the afternoon zipline portion. They helped us put on safety equipment and ziplining gear and taught us the correct postures. There are 8 ziplines in the park with increasing difficulty. The first two are warm ups. For some lines you'll need to climb a tower and the stairs are really narrow. I like lines 3,4,7,8 since you actually zipline through the rainforest canopy in those. It's fun to ride the mountain pickup trucks between different zipline spots as well. The staff were professional and I had no problem trusting them. It was my first time ziplining and I had a great experience. I am scared of free falling but ziplining involves no free falling at all. We put all the bodyweight in the harness before releasing our legs from the zipline tower so it's more like a cable car without the car. Afterwards we were picked up by the driver and arrived at the hotel near T mobile district at around 5 ot 6pm. Overall I think it's a must to visit El Yunque, and it's great to do both hiking and ziplining, allowing us to see El Yunque in two different perspectives!!!