Writing and Wayfaring: Rainforest Bouquet

Flor de campana, aka Brugmansia, a flower with narcotic effects, in the central highlands of Puerto Rico

This is a post for the picture people, the flower people, the rainforest people, and the people who love all things wild and green. These are pictures I took while staying at a beautiful place in the central highlands of Puerto Rico, near the town of Utuado. The place is called Casa Grande Mountain Retreat, a remote hotel and restaurant tucked away in some mountains and rainforest. The owner is an American man from New York who bought and renovated the property, a former coffee plantation, some 20 years ago. It's a little hard to get to, even if you've rented a car--it's about 20 minutes drive from Utuado and takes some driving up some winding, narrow, switchbacked mountain roads. But it's well worth the trip. I spent 4 nights there, with my own cabin with a little balcony and hammock overlooking the freshwater pool and a few coconut trees. It rained often, off and on, and it was sunny often too. Sometimes the sun shone and the skies rained at the same time. Sometimes the rain was heavy, most often it was like the misty rains in Ireland. The sun, however, was always heavy. It was hot during the day, cooler at night. At night, I was serenaded by crickets, frogs, birds. One evening I was momentarily alarmed by the sound of a coconut falling from the tree right outside my window, hitting the ground, then rolling into some bushes (it sounded like a splash and then a crash to me at first--I thought it was a prowler who had jumped into the pool and then superfast jumped into the foliage). One morning I woke to the "gobble" song of a male screech owl right below the window by my bed (I thought it was a turkey...before you judge, remember I'm from Chicago, people).

Misty early evening in the mountains around Casa Grande

View from restaurant at Casa Grande. My cabin was the one right off the pool at left of pic.

Stepping out my cabin door at Casa Grande.

I didn't do much at Casa Grande. It's not a place for to-do lists. Internet service is nearly non-existent, and cell phone service is very limited as well. There are no TVs, radios, or phones in the cabins. No air-conditioners. No alcohol or smoking allowed on the grounds or in the cabins (though the restaurant has bar service during dinner). The menu in the restaurant is vegetarian and vegan friendly and the chefs and cooks endeavor to use locally grown, in-season products in their creations. Everything I had there was delicious. Casa Grande also doubles as a facility for yoga retreats--there was even one going on while I was there, a group from Boston. There's a space for yoga classes every morning, along with opportunities for massage treatments and guided hikes. I admit I didn't take advantage of these opportunities. Massages tend to give me migraines believe it or not, and my daily exercise at Casa Grande was self-limited to swimming laps in the pool, walking up and down the road while looking for flowers and little lizards, reading profusely, writing not so profusely, listening to the aforementioned evening creatures at night, watching clouds during the day, and swaying in my hammock at all hours. I've posted pics from this rigorous routine below, and describe (when I can) the plants and flowers and such to be found in this gorgeous part of Puerto Rico.