Puerto Rico is a mountainous island, rising to 4,390 feet at its highest peak, Cerro de Punta. Once planted extensively in coffee, much of this mountainous region has reverted back to forest. Numerous streams tumble down the mountainsides, and several resevoirs extended between ridges lush with vegetation. In the low-lying hills to the north, visitors find outstanding examples of tropical karst, a bizarre network of mounded hills, crater like holes and vast caves.
The Caribbean National Forest (El Yunque)
is the
most-visited rain forest in the Caribbean and the only tropical forest in
the U.S. National Forest system. Its trails are the best maintained on the
island. There is also a series of lovely Commonwealth forests along the
Cordillera Central.
Within one of the largest river cave systems in the hemisphere. Cave
enthusiasts may arrange with tour groups to explore the depths of a few of
the local caves.