Sunday, February 24, 2019

Casa Cubuy Puerto Rico

I took a week off from Haiti to attend a BirdsCaribbean shorebird workshop in Puerto Rico, and ended up staying an extra 4 days as political protests in Haiti grew and shut down the country. The stay included 2 nights at a really cool lodge called Casa Cubuy on the south side of the El Yunque National Forest. I didn’t have much time to research my extra stay in PR, and am glad I ended up here. The owners were kind enough to email and call me with directions. The narrow windy road up to the lodge is scenic. Follow the directions on the website, and look for the last yellow building on the right. There is parking on the downhill side of the lodge, but no sign with the name. When I arrived a bit frazzled from deciding to head back to the US instead of Haiti, the owner Michael invited me into the kitchen and offered me a glass of wine and sliced up a mango for me.

My room was spacious, with 3 beds, 2 little desks, a ceiling fan, and a bathroom with hot water. The balcony overlooked the forest and cascade that sits below the lodge, and had a little table and chairs. It was very relaxing to hear the coqui frogs and cascade at night. I brought food for my lunch and dinner as the closest place for meals was 20 minutes away (the town of Naguabo off Hwy 53 has gas, grocery store, and restaurants). The kitchen has a large refrigerator for guests to use. They will make lunches for guests for $10, either to take on a hike or eat at the hotel.

Breakfast isn't served until 9am, so I missed it the first morning as I hired a guide for birding. The 2nd morning I got to see what I missed out on – a family-style breakfast with the other guests, with lots of fruit, juice, and coffee, and wonderful oatmeal, eggs, and hash browns made by the owner.

Casa Cubuy is in the national forest and has a short path to the cascade below that has pools deep enough for swimming. The road past the lodge gave me a chance to do some birding, and I heard that at the end of the road are paths into the forest. Unfortunately my stay wasn’t long enough to explore those.

The only drawback to Casa Cubuy was the 40 minute drive back to the area that had beaches and more parks and tourist attractions (around Fajardo). A longer stay at the casa would have been ideal, with a couple day-trips to other attractions. Also I am an early morning person so waiting until 9am for breakfast was inconvenient, so worth a longer stay to have mornings to enjoy that.

Here are the birds I saw just from the road, with links to eBird. Also, I was told the guesthouse downhill has hummingbirds.






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