One of the things I like best about Puerto Rico is that it so varied. We usually hike in the El Yunque rain forest in the north-east of Puerto Rico, but you can find great forest hikes all over the island.

One place we found to explore is the Guajataca Forest (pronounced gua-ha-TA-ca) in Isabela. It is in the karst region of Puerto Rico, so the landscape and plant life is totally different than what we are used to seeing. And in my opinion, the best part about this forest is the cave you get to explore. But a trip to this forest and cave cannot be done on a whim — you definitely need to plan this trip.

The Guajataca Forest (Bosque de Guajataca in Spanish) is not huge — it only covers about 2,350 acres. It is said to have loads of trails (like 46 trails measuring over 25 miles!), though they don’t appear to be well used at all. As a first-time visitor to the forest, you will probably just do 2 trails: Cueva del Viento (Cave of the Wind) or the Interpreative Trail. We did them both in the same afternoon. In this article I’ll describe Trail #1 and the