While I was scuba diving in Puerto Rico, my wife lost her AirPod on a tour with friends in El Yunque National Forest. So, being the nature nut I am, I was happy to go looking for it. El Yunque is special because it’s the only rainforest in the U.S. National Forest System.

Transcript

Tidewater Teddy: Right now, I’m in El Yunque National Forest. I think it’s Yunque. Yunque, I think? I apologize. I’ll give you all the proper pronunciation later.

I’m looking for my wife’s Beats headphone out here somewhere. It’s near a stream.

[For context, the previous day my wife went on a tour of El Yunque with some friends while I was scuba diving off the coast. She put her AirPod on a rock by a stream and forgot about it. She didn’t remember the location’s name, so we were just looking for any sight near a stream or waterfall.]

Um, there’s not a whole lot of wildlife out here. Just little frogs called coquí. Coquí, I think. And uh little anole lizards and stuff and small little mammals.

[Coquí sound]

But is that a coquí?

[Coquí sound]

It’s a bird.

Okay. Anyways, yeah, this is the uh apparently I think this is the only tropical rainforest in the national park system if I remember correctly.

Sorry, I’m just trying to look where I’m stepping cuz, you know, there’s a lot of rocks down here. It’s pretty steep. I’m just going downhill. Oh, look, a butterfly! I’m carrying. Look at this little baby bag that my wife got today. It still has the tag on it.

Oh my gosh. I never thought I’d be in this situation. This is This is definitely interesting. I’ve never never done anything like this. I do like the jungle though. I do like the rainforest. It’s fun.

Also, Rebecca, I love you. To my wife, I love you very much.

Oh, yeah. Today’s my birthday, by the way. I forgot I turned 36. Closer to 40 than I am to 30. But you know what? I’m still getting around. Look at me. I’m hiking. hiking down these trails, stepping.

Look at this.

I feel like a dang pirate looking for some kind of lost treasure out in the uh Caribbean Isles. And technically, I’m looking for treasure. I’m looking for my wife’s uh airpod. They’re both looking for it. Uh we’ll see where it’s at. I don’t hear any water. Don’t hear any rushing water. It just goes down, down, down, down.

Really got to watch your step here. A lot of little rocks and stuff.

And then if you go over the side. Now that’s quite a drop. I don’t want to find out what’s down there.

Whoa! [Almost falls of edge of trail.]

Holy crap. Okay, I’m all right. I’m all right. I’m okay. These rocks, these rocks are really slippery. A lot of slippery mud. This is dangerous, you know.

I think I might head back up. I got to make sure my wife is okay. This is not safe for her. This is dangerous. Look at this. I came down here. I walked down this stuff. Dang jungle. Oh Lord. Oh Lord. This is pretty sketchy.

What the heck was that? [Thought I saw an animal, but it was a plant.]

We didn’t find my wife’s airpod anywhere on the trail, so we continued our search. We stopped at this tower called Yokahú Tower, and I went upstairs to take a look at the scenery. My wife had already seen it, so she chilled in the car.

Yokahú Tower was built in 1963 and is named after a deity in Taíno mythology, who was believed to to live on El Yunque Peak. It’s similar to how the Greek god Zeus was said to live on Mount Olympus. The tower gives you a great view of the rainforest, so I definitely recommend it.

We left the tower and took a lunch break to eat some Puerto Rican food and drink some Piña Coladas. They had some Puerto Rican versions of tacos as well as some fried foods, such as alcapurrias, which are fried green bananas that are filled with beef. After eating lunch, we hit the road again and took a different road up into the rainforest.

This time, we finally found the stream, and it was gorgeous. The area is called Puente Roto, which means “broken bridge” in Spanish, and the “stream” is actually a river called Río Mameyes.

We searched around the rocks, but unfortunately the AirPod was long gone. But hey, we weren’t complaining. This was the perfect time to enjoy the stream and swim in the clear, refreshing waters.

Look at us.

It’s shallow. All right, ready, set.

It’s not bad. It’s not too bad.

You want to take the camera with you?

Yeah, I’ll take it. I’ll do the jump. Okay. I’m going to jump first.

[I jump into water.]

Try and hit like right here. Right. This is a little deeper. It’s a little shallower here. Try and hit this area. Three. Two. one.

[Wife jumps into water.]

It did it!

There were small fish darting in the stream, so I got some footage of them. Like I said earlier, there are not many animals in El Yunque. These little fish, called mountain mullet (Dajaus monticola), are the only creatures I managed to film.

If you’re a wildlife enthusiast, there is life here, but don’t expect the Amazon rainforest. On the plus side, you don’t have to worry about dangerous animals like anacondas or jaguars. You can enjoy El Yunque’s wonderful nature in peace!