Volume 10 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.779459 This article is part of the Research TopicLandscape Evolution of the Tropical Regions: Dates, Rates and BeyondView all 7 articles Meteoric waters move along pathways in the subsurface that differ as a function of lithology because of the effects of chemical and physical weathering To explore how this affects stream chemistry we investigated watersheds around an igneous intrusion in the Luquillo Mountains (Puerto Rico) We analyzed streams on 1) unmetamorphosed country rock (volcaniclastic sedimentary strata and 3) the metamorphosed aureole rock (hornfels-facies volcaniclastics These lithologies differ physically and chemically but weather under the same tropical rain forest conditions The sedimentary VC lithology is pervasively fractured while the massive QD and HF lithologies are relatively unfractured the QD fractures during weathering to produce spheroidally-weathered corestones surrounded by cm-thick rindlets of increasingly weathered rock Meteoric waters flow pervasively through the network of already-fractured VC rock and the spheroidally weathered rindlets on the QD but only access a limited fraction of the HF explaining why streams draining HF are the most dilute in the mountains This results in various thicknesses of regolith from thick (VC) to moderate (QD) to thin or nonexistent (HF) The pervasive fractures allow groundwater to flow deeply through the VC and then return to the mainstem river (Río Mameyes) at lower elevations These “rock waters” drive concentrations of rock-derived solutes (silica phosphate) higher in the lower reaches of the stream Water also flows through weathering-induced fractures on the QD at high elevations where rindletted corestones are present in stacks and this water flux dissolves plagioclase and hornblende and oxidizes biotite This “QD rock water” is not generated at lower elevations in the Río Icacos watershed and contributions to stream solutes derive from weathering of feldspar- and hornblende-depleted saprolite The stream chemistry in the QD-dominated watershed (Río Icacos) thus varies from concentrated QD-rock water at channel heads below steep ridgelines toward more diluted “saprolite water” downstream These observations emphasize the importance of lithology and fracture patterns in dictating water flowpaths and regolith development in headwater catchments we compare watersheds on three lithologies in the Luquillo Experimental Forest (LEF) of the Luquillo Mountains in eastern Puerto Rico to explore relationships between lithology and hydrogeochemistry our intent is to emphasize physical and chemical attributes rather than ecological aspects of the system recognizing that more work is needed to integrate physical and ecological understanding of the critical zone in this location The major knickzone is shown with hachured lines The inset map shows sites in the Icacos catchment We use new geochemical data from streams and groundwater to elucidate subsurface flowpaths and weathering reactions. We also summarize new data for the Sr isotopic composition of waters and for atmospheric tracers (CFCs, SF6, 3H, noble gases) in groundwater (see Supplementary Material) to infer dominant weathering reactions and estimate residence time for a subset of groundwater samples The Luquillo Mountains lie in tropical latitudes under strong marine influence, resulting in a warm, wet climate (McDowell et al., 2021). Temperature and rainfall (Table 1) are correlated with elevation and aspect because of the predominantly northeasterly winds, which cause orographic effects resulting in higher precipitation rates in the LEF than coastal areas (Murphy et al., 2017) Location and watershed characteristics of stream study sites The Mameyes watershed is thus a deeply incised VC-dominated watershed with very thick regolith the floodplain of the Río Icacos bottom is broad and characterized by thick and highly weathered soils and saprolite with few exposures of QD corestones saprolite is defined as regolith formed isovolumetrically in place that often retains evidence of the original structure of parent material weathering in the deep fracture zones results in stacks of corestones one on top of each other while weathering between the vertical fracture zones (in the interfluves) is characterized by a single corestone layer separated by rindlets from the underlying massive QD Regardless of whether a single corestone is observed or a stack of multiple corestones quartz-rich saprolite uniformly overlies corestones throughout the watershed In the LEF, no major watershed is entirely underlain by the ridge-forming HF. To focus on a watershed largely on HF, we sampled a steep high-elevation tributary, the Quebrada Sonadora, which is underlain by 100% HF in its upper reaches; these upper sites also have the highest MAP (Table 1) Quebrada Sonadora is a sub-catchment of the Río Espiritu Santo watershed that drains the northwestern slopes of the Luquillo Mountains; the lower reaches of the Río Espiritu Santo predominantly drain VC Very little is known about weathering and erosion rates on HF the ridges and peaks comprised of HF erode at 4 m/Ma (unpub. at least an order of magnitude slower than either the QD or the VC The VC is comprised of the Hato Puerco and Tabonuco Formations. These marine strata are clinopyroxene-bearing volcanic sandstones of basaltic to andesitic composition with mudstone, volcanic breccia or conglomerate interbeds (Seiders, 1971) The Tabonuco contains calcareous mudstones that are pyrite-bearing Microcrystalline quartz is also locally abundant along fractures and bedding planes the borehole traversed through the entire HF regolith into the underlying QD pluton Several additional sets of stream samples were taken for targeted geochemical measurements including a few for Sr isotopic analysis baseflows from the three drainages were sampled between March 10 and 28 Select locations within the Río Icacos watershed and at Río Mameyes Puente Roto (MPR) were also sampled beginning 29 March 2013 during a strong storm from the northwest which lasted ∼48 h synoptic sampling of stream solutes in Río Icacos at near-median discharge values was paired with discharge measurements made by acoustic Doppler velocimeter (Sontek Flowtracker) Groundwater (including seeps and wells) and surface water samples from 2012 to 2014 were filtered with 0.45 µm nylon syringe filters in the field into two 30 ml acid washed polyethylene bottles and stored refrigerated until analysis at the Laboratory for Isotopes and Metals in the Environment (LIME) One bottle was acidified in the field with several drops of ultrapure HNO3 and dissolved silica by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) The other bottle was used for analysis of anions by ion chromatography the analytical error is on the order of a few percent A subset of water samples was analyzed for Sr isotopic composition using a Thermo-Finnigan Neptune Plus ICP-MS at the University of Utah using published methods (Chesson et al., 2012) Reported 87Sr/86Sr ratios were corrected for mass bias using an exponential law During the course of analysis the 87Sr/86Sr ratio of SRM 987 was measured as 0.71030 ± 0.00002 (2σ SD A small subset of waters were also measured for groundwater tracer concentrations and interpreted with respect to residence times in the subsurface as described in the Supplementary Material with data in Table 5 and in Supplementary Material (Supplementary Table S5) FIGURE 2. Stream chemistry plotted as a function of upstream watershed drainage area for each of the three watersheds shows different patterns depending upon lithology. Average values for dissolved Si and the sum of the seasalt-corrected base cations (Σbc*) are shown for sites in each watershed that are >95% within LEF. Groundwater chemistry from wells in the watersheds (see Table 3 and Supplementary Data) are shown within the appropriate watershed with reference to approximate sampling depth in meters below the land surface (mbls) Wells near drainage divides are indicated for both watersheds weathering derived solutes either stay constant (HF) or decrease (QD) downstream on the study rivers Table 3 shows that the Si concentrations in groundwater vary with depth, and Figure 2 shows that these concentrations generally bracket the stream solute data. The concentrations of Si, Σbc*, and specific conductance in groundwater were observed to be highest on the VC in the USFS wells, located at low elevations within the Mameyes watershed (Figure 1, 3) These groundwaters were also the deepest waters sampled and were likely to have therefore followed the longest flowpaths FIGURE 3. Summary of groundwater chemistry in the Luquillo Mountains (see Table 3 and Supplementary Data): (A) Wide ranges of pH values are observed at sample sites with generally minor differences in specific conductance Strong differences exist between LGW2 wells B and C The deepest groundwater (USFS wells) show notably higher specific conductance (B) Dissolved Si generally increases with the sum of base cations corrected for seasalt inputs (Σbc*) as expected for weathering-derived solutes Waters were sampled from the shallow depths near the rindlets (see description below) The deepest oxidized fracture was located just below the rindlet zone Groundwaters were measured for dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and specific conductance in LGW2B on three separate days over 3 years by depth-profiling (Figure 4). Strikingly large differences in all three of these parameters were observed both as a function of depth and over time. On one day, very little variation was observed with depth; however, on two other days the DO decreased downward while the specific conductance increased downward (Figure 4) 87Sr/86Sr ratios in baseflow in the Mameyes (on VC) are similar to the bedrock The VC has approximately twice the Sr content of HF whole rock Strontium isotope data for surface and groundwater samples and an endmember value slightly higher than Sr in hornblende or in LGW2B (symbol E) that is observed in storm waters Tritium concentration and weathering-derived solutes for surface and groundwater in the Luquillo Mountains (see Supplementary Material) (A) The measured concentration in tritium units (TU = 1 tritium atom per 1018 hydrogen atoms) presented on the y-axis is used to estimate mean residence time of the water (x-axis) using the radioactive decay equation (half-life = 12.43 years) assuming piston flow The age models are predicated on the assumptions that variability in precipitation is approximately equal to the analytical precision that residence times are sufficient to attenuate differences in precipitation inputs and that this input has been constant since the 1990s Two different assumptions for the tritium content of precipitation in the Luquillo Mountains are shown as model 1 and model 2 (B) A comparison of the residence time of water to its weathering derived solutes (the sum of sea-salt corrected base cations + dissolved silicon) based on model 1 (1.1 TU) Waters were sampled on quartz diorite (QD) or on highly weathered QD (QD soil/sap) and on hornfels (HF) or highly weathered HF (HF soil/sap) Residence times were probably longer in some of the other wells, especially those drilled into deep fracture zones in QD such as the LGW2 wells high in the Icacos watershed. However, inconsistencies were observed among the model ages calculated from different tracers in those wells. For example, the tracers at first yielded conflicting residence times for water in the LGW2B well at the top of the Rio Icacos watershed (see Supplementary Material) By applying a correction with the noble-gas-derived value for excess air in LGW2B (32 cm3/L) the SF6 age (31 years) and the CFC derived ages (25–33 years) were brought into agreement Likewise with reasonable assumptions about 1980s tritium concentrations in precipitation in the Luquillo Mountains the tritium data for this well also yield an age >30 years the data are all consistent with water from 15 to 17 m depth in LGW2B that was recharged more than 30 years ago This long residence time emphasizes that even at high elevations in the watershed flow paths that start very high on the ridge may require decades of flow time before emerging at the land surface To understand the differences in stream chemistry from river to river, we partitioned water chemistries to specific mineral weathering reactions. Figure 7A,B shows analyte concentrations in the rivers delineated by the different rock types that emphasize the controls on water chemistry by the felsic (QD) versus mafic (HF The rivers on the more mafic lithologies are characterized by higher concentrations of Ca and Mg compared to felsic lithologies Consistent with lithological control of chemistry some of the samples from the upper Mameyes where the Río La Mina tributary flows on QD plot near the data for the Río Icacos on QD (A) (B) Stream water draining different lithologies define geochemical groups The quartz diorite field includes only samples on >98% QD The hornfels field is delineated by samples draining 100% HF Several water samples draining some portion of volcaniclastic rocks plot in the HF field The volcaniclastic field is delineated by the three lowest samples in the Río Mameyes where VC is the dominant lithology Silicate weathering on HF and VC produces relatively more Ca and Mg than weathering of QD Silicate weathering of HF produces the lowest proportion of Na and K (C) (D) Theoretical lines showing the effects of dissolution of different phases (as labelled) Icacos waters are largely dominated by plagioclase dissolution while other phases (augite epidote) contribute to waters on VC and HF again emphasizing the control of feldspar dissolution with only a minor contribution of those elements from hornblende and biotite The chlorite line on Figure 7D is consistent with the conclusion that chlorite is the dominant source of Mg across the Sonadora and Espiritu Santo drainages. This conclusion is similar to the conclusion made by other workers that baseflow δ26Mg values at the Río Mameyes Puente Roto (MPR) site on VC reflects dissolution of Mg-rich chlorite (Chapela Lara et al., 2017) Some Mg is also derived from weathering of augitic pyroxene in the Quebrada Sonadora and Espiritu Santo The data for QD baseflow during the same sampling campaign form a mixing line with a shallower slope than observed for VC/HF (i.e. they are less dominated by precipitation inputs) and yield a predicted high concentration endmember value of 87Sr/86Sr ≈ 0.704 (Figure 5D) This high concentration endmember which contributes to baseflow is probably a mixture of solutes derived from plagioclase and hornblende waters from the QD landscape (from Guaba and the nearby LGW1 well) show SO4 concentrations and S isotopic compositions that are similar to those of precipitation EP1 and LGW2C samples also have a higher component of alkaline earth cations as expected since both boreholes are thought to intersect QD rock with plagioclase and hornblende This QD-specific rock water chemistry is labelled generically as “rock water” The rock endmember was estimated by projecting a linear fit from the saprolite water through the Icacos water samples (r2 = 0.77) to the 99:1 plagioclase:hornblende line Atmospheric tracer data for surface and groundwater samples This downstream increase near the gauge is attributed to rock water draining the high ridges and reaching the stream along deeper flowpaths that may follow the upper interface of unweathered massive QD: at the Río Icacos stream gauge these flow paths may account for 30–50% of baseflow discharge and the majority of weathering-derived solutes We can also pair the average observed stream chemistry with median discharge values derived from decades of streamflow data to explore watershed scale solute fluxes (Supplementary Table S7, Figure 9). This simple approach to calculate fluxes agrees well with previous approaches based on more in-depth estimates (e.g., Murphy and Stallard, 2012) but also has the additional benefit of allowing direct comparisons among the three lithologies Quebrada Sonadora has the lowest proportion of groundwater of any gauged stream in the Luquillo Mountains Quebrada Sonadora shares this characteristic with other streams draining significant portions of HF; conversely watersheds underlain by nearly 100% QD have the highest BFI followed by Río Mameyes at Puente Roto and the other VC-dominated watersheds Summary schematic of the impact of lithology on stream chemistry Top row of panels shows the relative landscape surface area as a function of elevation for each lithology This documents how HF dominates the ridges The bottom row of colored panels shows conceptual models of regolith structure and hydrology on the three study lithologies The shaded inset on each regolith profile represents the feldspar weathering front the % of feldspar left at each depth from land surface to unweathered parent Regolith depth decreases from VC to QD to HF and corestones that form are angular (VC The bottom summary shows how primary porosity (porosity of unweathered bedrock) secondary porosity (porosity of weathered bedrock) and drainable porosity (connected porosity) differs for the three lithologies The picture that emerges from this work is that the differences in longitudinal profiles of stream chemistry are largely caused by differences in mineralogy and the related impacts on groundwater flowpaths within the watersheds hornfels facies rocks are generally very hard rocks with crystals fitting closely together that do not easily allow the rock to fracture Thus the river on HF (Sonadora) reflects little influx of groundwater but also toward the outlet at the knickzone: this suggests that groundwater with high solute concentrations from deep long-residence time flowpaths is discharging to the stream channel in the reaches just above the knickzone In contrast to the QD and HF, the VC bedrock has a relatively high density of pre-existing fractures due to its sedimentary layering. Weathering-induced fracturing generally does not occur in the VC and the corestones that form are angular instead of spheroidal (Buss et al., 2013) Significant meteoric fluid infiltrates into the fractured rock and weathering continues beneath the water table explaining the increasing Si concentration in increasingly deeper water on the VC Thick regolith on VC and increasing solute concentrations downstream on the Mameyes are all consistent with solute transport during weathering by deeply infiltrating water and the regolith thickness that develops is thin fractures are more prevalent and regolith is correspondingly thicker little to no meteoric fluid passes through the unweathered HF and QD bedrock because of the lack of fractures at depth the hornfels depletes infiltrating porewaters of oxygen so that when the waters reach the QD at depth weathering-induced fracturing is not promoted Only when the HF is removed–for example in the bowl carved by the Río Icacos -- or when most of the iron-containing minerals in the overlying HF are oxidized–such as observed beneath about 7 m depth in borehole EP1 -- do oxygenated waters reach the underlying QD where they can promote oxidation and accelerate spheroidal weathering Surface water chemistry was investigated in tandem with groundwater chemistry and regolith architecture in the Luquillo Mountains Puerto Rico to understand how lithology affects stream chemistry and subsurface water flowpaths weathering has exhumed a metamorphic aureole permitting study of how weathering and erosion are affected by lithology were observed to exhibit different longitudinal patterns of stream chemistry The hornfels facies contact metamorphic aureole defines the rocky Where the ridges on hornfels have weathered through to the underlying QD meters of QD- and HF-based saprolite have developed but the land surface is nonetheless littered with blocky unweathered hornfels rocks of tens of centimeters in dimension consistent with weathering of a rock that is mostly unfractured (massive) and thus resistant to chemical weathering and physical erosion and unlikely to act as a permeable porous medium that can support significant through-flow of meteoric water the watershed in the Luquillo Mountains that has developed on the highest proportion of HF exhibits the lowest solute concentrations (when compared to waters on QD or VC) The solute concentrations also remain relatively constant downstream as the watershed area increases because little groundwater enters the Sonadora: the hornfels lithology does not host significant groundwater storage or flow is characterized by solute concentrations that increase downstream with watershed area This pattern reflects the highly fractured nature of the VC The fracture network allows deep infiltration of groundwater that moves beneath the surface of the upper tributaries only joining the mainstem of the Mameyes downstream The topography of the LEF is highly affected by its subsurface architecture If all three lithologies were able to attain a geomorphological steady state such that the total denudation rates for each lithology were equal one would predict steep slopes on the HF to allow denudation of the rock in the face of its high fracture toughness and lowered weathering extent one might predict lower slopes on the more easily fractured because so much of the precipitation that falls on VC infiltrates the rock and enters groundwater moderately steep slopes must develop so that insoluble minerals that remain after weathering can be eroded away one might predict that denudation of the QD is both chemically fast and physically easy because of its soluble minerals and the rock’s high tendency to fracture and erode These characteristics explain the relatively shallow slopes observed on the QD landscape The lithology thus helps explain the relative relief of the Luquillo Mountains namely very steep HF hillslopes at the highest elevations and relatively gentle average hillslopes on the QD as well as the stream chemistries in the forest The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author MB and JO completed field and laboratory work This material is based on work supported by the U.S National Science Foundation (NSF) Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (NSF-LCZO Grant EAR 1331841 to WM; University of New Hampshire) the Luquillo LTER program supported by NSF (DEB 1239764 and the USGS Global Change and National Research Programs (NRP) The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher We thank Heather Buss (University of Bristol) Miguel Leon and Rafael Jiménez (University of Pennsylvania); Michelle Daly and Josh Brown (University of New Hampshire); Carole Johnson Dissolved and Noble Gas Lab); and Suelos Inc Chemical analyses made at Penn State were completed at the Laboratory for Isotopes and Metals in the Environment (LIME) We also thank (and miss) Fred Scatena (1954–2013) whose support and encouragement in the LCZO made this work possible or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.779459/full#supplementary-material Excess Air in Groundwater as a Potential Indicator of Past Environmental Changes Study of Environmental Change Using Isotope Techniques Google Scholar Modeling Excess Air and Degassing by Equilibrium Partitioning with a Gas Phase CrossRef Full 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Accepted: 28 February 2022;Published: 12 May 2022 Copyright © 2022 Hynek, McDowell, Bhatt, Orlando and Brantley. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: S. A. Hynek, c2NvdHQuaHluZWtAZ21haWwuY29t Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Cover Page Legal History Sports SearchParked vehicle belonging to LUMA subcontractor hit by gunfire in LuquilloThe San Juan Daily StarAug 23 20242 min readA vehicle belonging to a LUMA Energy subcontractor was struck by gunfire on Thursday in Luquillo “at a work site where company employees and support contractors were present,” the grid operator said No injuries were reported.By The Star Staff Luquillo District agents from the Puerto Rico Police Bureau were investigating on Thursday an incident in which a vehicle belonging to a company subcontracted by private grid operator LUMA Energy was hit by several bullets on Thursday on highway PR-983 in the Las Viudas sector of the northeastern coastal town was damaged in circumstances that are still under investigation agents from the Fajardo Region Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC) were continuing with the investigation of the incident which manages the island’s electric power transmission and distribution system issued a statement emphasizing that the safety of its customers and employees is its top priority dedicated to serving the people of Puerto Rico to be very serious,” the company said in the statement a security incident was reported in Luquillo in which a gun was fired that hit a LUMA vehicle at a work site where company employees and support contractors were present We want to emphasize that our more than 4,000 employees work day and night and any type of threat is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.” LUMA added that it will continue to collaborate with the authorities in the investigation of the incident the company said it continues to be committed to reestablishing electrical service for the 1% of the remaining clients affected by Tropical Storm Ernesto “This includes the PREPA [Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority] installations,” LUMA said in a written statement “Our brigades have made constant progress in replacing the interruptor damaged at the Cambalache substation that serves the Arecibo Superaqueduct.” The substation has been put into service and has reestablished service to all its clients “Our personnel continue working to complete the installation of the new equipment,” LUMA added we are coordinating with PRASA [the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority] to finalize the repairs to improve water service for more than 40,000 clients throughout Puerto Rico.” PRASA Executive President Doriel Pagán Crespo confirmed that LUMA did not have significant contact with the public corporation’s management during the passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto That is what Pagán Crespo told at-large Sen Keren Riquelme Cabrera during an accountability meeting on the actions of first-response agencies with regard to the storm that grazed Puerto Rico last week but apparently communication during the Tropical Storm Ernesto emergency between LUMA Energy management and PRASA was almost non-existent,” Riquelme said LUMA has the responsibility to attend to the needs of PRASA as a priority; it cannot be relegated to not calling or not communicating with the executive [president] of PRASA or her staff I could not believe it when we were informed that communication was poor It is incredible and absolutely unacceptable.” © 2025 The San Juan Daily Star - Puerto Rico 03:52 Hurricane Ernesto brings flooding power outages to Puerto Rico Heavy rain and strong winds are continuing to lash Puerto Rico as Hurricane Ernesto begins to pull away from the U.S FOX Weather Correspondent Nicole Valdes is in Luquillo where cleanup efforts have already started number one hits and chart-topping music videos Daddy Yankee is one of the most recognized Latin music superstars of all time As a pioneer of the “reggaetón” movement he cemented his place in music history by creating hit after hit and used his undeniable talent to build a community for people all over the world. But one thing he’s never done is invite his fans to see his home that inspired his success and where he’s simply known as “Ramón Ayala.” This fall Daddy Yankee is becoming an Airbnb Host and inviting a few guests to stay in his personal home in Luquillo The mountain retreat is where he goes to get away from it all and ground himself in family and the beauty of his country’s history and traditions “A love for music and for Puerto Rico runs in my blood,” said Daddy Yankee our pride and our flavor – and demonstrate how easy it can be to invite others into your world staying true to his Latin roots and the heritage that thrives on hospitality is opening up his Puerto Rico home for three individual one-night stays for up to two guests December 15 and December 17 for only $85* a night – commemorating his more than 85 chart-topping singles Daddy Yankee will virtually greet guests upon arrival; and during their stay guests will get to experience all the things that he loves about his home in Luquillo Guests wishing to book should note that the stay’s rules are in strict adherence with local COVID-19 guidelines According to Executive Order OE-2021-062 issued by the Governor of Puerto Rico short-term rental guests must provide to the hosts before having access to the accommodations a document proving COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result performed within the 72 hours prior to check-in all guests will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of the arrival for the stay upon check-in Onsite staff will follow the Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines as well as Airbnb’s COVID-19 Safety Practices and abiding by our five-step enhanced cleaning process Guests are responsible for their own travel to and from Puerto Rico and are also responsible for complying with the local protocols required to enter Puerto Rico.*** Airbnb will make a one-time donation to PRoTechos which rebuilds roofs and provides carpentry training in underserved Puerto Rican communities that are still undergoing infrastructure work as a result of the damage caused by Hurricane Irma Daddy Yankee fans and Reggaetón lovers looking to get a taste of Puerto Rican estilo de vida can request to book this stay beginning December 6 at 1:00PM EST at airbnb.com/daddyyankee. Interested in becoming a host like Daddy Yankee? Learn more at airbnb.com/host/homes **The one-night stays are not a contest ***Those who request to book must currently live in the United States, South America, Mexico, Central America or the islands of the Caribbean Airbnb is closely monitoring Puerto Rico COVID-19 infection rates and government policies, and will offer the booking guest a $1,000 USD Airbnb coupon if it becomes necessary to cancel the stays. A True Taste of Puerto Rico at This Collection of Roadside Food Stalls Professor María Uriarte assesses damage to the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Photo courtesy UriarteLab is a historian and ecologist and a professor of environmental studies at Williams College in Massachusetts. She is the author of Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration (2022). Edited bySam Haselby SaveREPUBLISHING NOT PERMITTEDEmailSavePostShareWhen Hurricane Fiona flooded regions of Puerto Rico with up to 30 inches of rain in September last year the island was still recovering from hurricanes Irma and Maria two catastrophic storms in 2017 during which nearly 3,000 people died Fiona left close to 200,000 residents without drinkable water and 1.3 million without power highlighting the fragility of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure and the paucity of United States federal aid to its citizens Puerto Rico has experienced intense tropical storms for centuries but anthropogenic climate change is altering their frequency the island has suffered both monstrous hurricanes and deep droughts: an unusual combination a professor at Columbia University in New York has studied this unusual combination at Luquillo for 20 years Uriarte began her work on hurricanes in order to understand their destructive force but without the anticipation that hurricanes themselves would change over the course of her career insect outbreaks and other events shape communities of plants and animals Disturbance ecologists like her seek to understand how certain species persist in the face of stressors and even catastrophes Anyone who has heard of pinecones that require fire to open or battled with the bindweed and dandelions that first colonise turned-over soil has encountered disturbance ecology A meteorological station in the Elfin Forest of the Luquillo Mountains Cities around the world are developing climate resilience plans as governments try to anticipate the ecological future Disturbance ecology’s influence on global environmental management is what makes it so important to understand its strange Cold War history at some of the same sites where Uriarte works today scientists have gathered at the Luquillo Experimental Forest in the mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico to study ecological trauma: deforestation Luquillo is a place where scientists try to make sense of life’s resilience in a damaged world when the ecologist Howard T Odum and his collaborators irradiated two hectares of Luquillo’s rainforests with 10,000 curies of caesium-137 the concept we now know as environmental resilience didn’t yet exist ‘They managed to fry a hole in the forest,’ I’m told by Jess Zimmerman current head of the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research programme and the course of that recovery caught the attention of both ecologists and the US military The Luquillo rainforest irradiation project was one of hundreds of Cold War efforts in the US to imagine nuclear doomsday the US detonated approximately 300 nuclear weapons These nuclear bombs transformed the physical and biological environments of the colonised Marshall Islands and the US southwest The detonations led scientists and the public to recognise radioactive fallout as a regional and perhaps global threat to human health Mounting concern over nuclear fallout came with the blunter fear of nuclear annihilation the US had 299 nuclear weapons in its stockpile through these simulations the government ‘sought to make mass death an intimate psychological experience while simultaneously claiming that thermonuclear war could be planned for alongside tornados and traffic accidents.’ The bombs used in these simulations were not imaginary and doomsday came for those whose homes the government deemed sacrifice zones the US detonated the equivalent of 7,000 Hiroshima bombs in the Marshall Islands refugees from Bikini and Rongelap atolls are still unable to return home safely the federal government established the Nevada Proving Grounds on Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute lands and subsequently conducted 100 atmospheric and 921 underground nuclear tests there The tests released approximately 12 billion curies of radiation the Chernobyl disaster released an estimated 81 million curies of radiation.) The US government tasked not just military planners, but also sociologists, and even science fiction writers the AEC) hired ecologists to study what happened to plants and animals at detonation sites scientists expected the vast ocean and atmosphere to quickly dilute radioactive fallout they found that organisms accumulated radioactive elements in their bodies and that organisms highest up the food chain were the most radioactive researchers realised that a wide range of chemicals also ‘biomagnified’ including pollutants like heavy metals and the insecticide DDT This underwater explosion sent a model fleet into the sky Together with the idea of biomagnification, doomsday experiments birthed disturbance ecology, the study of how perturbations or stressors shape the components and character of an ecosystem Government investment in the research began in 1961 when the RAND Corporation urged the Pentagon to further investigate the ‘post-war recovery of devastated biotic environments’ the AEC began to fund studies in which ecologists purposefully damaged ecosystems These were not fringe experiments: although it’s little remembered today the AEC was the main funder of ecological research from the opening of the Second World War until the mid-1970s when the National Science Foundation eclipsed it The first postwar ecological simulations happened at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island ecologists exposed a former agricultural field and an oak-pine forest to continuous gamma radiation from caesium-137 and cobalt-60 point-sources for five months The AEC Office of Civil Defense supported this project Its primary objective was to evaluate biotic recovery from radiation exposure at a scale that could result from nuclear war by arguing that it was important to anticipate the effects of nuclear war in eastern deciduous forests near urban centres because bombsites had been restricted to deserts and tropical atolls with limited floras An aerial photograph of the Brookhaven National Laboratory Irradiated Forest Experiment after six months of exposure to gamma radiation ‘Radiation and the Patterns of Nature’ by George M Woodwell The radioactive deer that today roam Long Island are not the only legacy of this experiment ecologists developed the idea of ‘comparative radiosensitivities’ Scientists at Brookhaven found that members of the daisy family survived high levels of radiation whereas pine species were the most ‘sensitive’ to radiation This was a new way of categorising species – not by taxonomy or by what-ate-what but by their ability to withstand disturbance Today many of us are familiar with thinking of species in this way: which species is most drought-tolerant But in a historical perspective this is a very new way of thinking about the qualities of a species Odum’s team ‘watched with keen interest’ as the leaves began to yellow and fall the proposed Project Plowshare Pan-Atomic Canal a plan to ‘improve’ the Panama Canal (so that it would not require locks to move ships) by detonating a series of H-bombs through Panama The US Department of Defense also tested Agent Orange and other ‘tactical herbicides’ for use in the Vietnam War at Luquillo Puerto Rican forests were destroyed in an attempt to plan for the protection of mainland Americans Odum and his collaborators – eventually numbering in the hundreds – irradiated the Luquillo tropical forest site They studied its recovery over the next six years They compared the irradiated plot to two ‘control’ plots: one denuded of all vegetation After irradiating the rainforest for three months most of the trees within 30 metres of the radiation source died One of the most common plants in the Luquillo Experimental Forest Other species proved resilient to radiation A giant red-trunked Cyrilla tree exposed to a staggering 100,000 roentgen of radiation survived another 33 years before it died in a major rainstorm in 1998 Scientists installing the base for the caesium radiation source in the Luquillo Experimental Forest Image from the book A Tropical Rain Forest: A Study of Irradiation and Ecology at El Verde Courtesy the National Technical Information Service the forest ecosystem was an agent: faced with the stress of irradiation it ‘actively resisted loss of its complexity’ by sprouting new seedlings on bare soil He imagined early successional species as ‘wound healers in small damaged spots’ the irradiated zone looked ‘like the scrubby growth in the Appalachian Mountains’ the irradiated forest’s ‘healing system’ and ‘repair mechanisms’ were similar to those of a human body following the RAND Corporation’s recommendation that ‘studies of comparative radiosensitivity be enormously increased’ ecologists had placed radiation sources in a tropical rainforest at Luquillo and in agricultural fields and deciduous forests in New York ecologists’ Third World War simulations were always oriented towards developing generalised transposable strategies for the survival of US citizens – except those living in Puerto Rico ecologists believed that doomsday experiments would shed light on how the biotic world was naturally structured In his book Ecological Effects of Nuclear War (1963) the ecologist George Woodwell explained that doomsday experiments were meant simultaneously to anticipate ‘the complex ecological problems involved in a nuclear holocaust’ and to define the ‘normal patterns of structure and development characteristic of natural ecosystems’ Ecologists wanted to know how the world put itself back together again after disaster Simberloff and Wilson noted the precedent for their experiment in ecologists’ studies of field sites subjected to various ‘perturbations’ Their project was partially funded by the Department of Defense Ecology’s involvement with doomsday planning not only made this experiment possible – it made it conceivable in the first place the ecologist Edward Graham noted that nature easily recovered from intensive cropping hunting and logging when people desisted from the damaging action had the ‘re-creative power’ to ‘reconstitute themselves when the cause of disturbance disappears’ Ecosystem theory emerged when the US perceived itself to be under perpetual threat Doomsday experiments, however, shook ecologists’ faith in a perpetually self-healing nature. Through experiments designed to damage ecosystems, it became conceivable that ecological recovery was not inevitable, and that ecosystems might cease to function entirely if sufficiently harmed by humans. As Woodwell wrote in 1965: disturbance ecology supplanted ecology’s earlier framework: succession theory Ecological succession is the process of change in the composition of an ecological community over time Succession theorists tended to see groups of plants and animals as developing increasing complexity over time until becoming an orderly and stable ‘climax community’ It is no coincidence that ecological succession theory emerged alongside the idea of ‘manifest destiny’ the settler colonial belief that a succession from Native American to white ownership was natural and inevitable Politics shape the questions that scientists ask and the metaphors they reach for emerged when the US perceived itself to be under perpetual threat Ecologists began to ask how ecosystems maintained themselves when constantly barraged with stressors In the context of planning for doomsday, ecologists began to ask whether there was a threshold of damage at which ecosystems would lose their ability to restore themselves. A 1965 Department of Defense report noted that doomsday ecologists had discovered that ecosystems may be so damaged ‘that restoration can never be more than partial and incomplete’ Once the ‘ecological balance is seriously disturbed,’ the report continued no longer controlled by their natural enemies deprived of their normal sources of food or otherwise affected by the total change in the system may disappear.’ Different species would thrive in a damaged world than those that came before an Office of Technology Assessment study for the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations concluded that it would be difficult or impossible to restore an ecosystem to its pre-attack condition because of ‘the possibility of irreversible ecological changes’ What continued to haunt the discipline of ecology even after the end of the Cold War was not the blunt possibility of global annihilation but the more subtle spectre of irreversible ecological change Successive generations of ecologists have studied different versions of ecological doomsday but the concepts and methods of disturbance ecology have remained the same Luquillo has remained a centre of disturbance ecology but today it is hurricanes and climate change that ecologists strive to simulate scientists created three types of hurricane simulation plots at Luquillo they cut down and removed tree limbs to open up the canopy they kept the tall trees intact but added downed limbs and detritus to the forest floor they both opened the canopy and added detritus They compared these plots to control plots that they left untreated They found that increased canopy openness was the dominant factor affecting forest regeneration Increased sunlight and heat promoted seedling growth more than a lack of detritus Research at Luquillo countered the prevailing view that tropical forests are fragile they seemed well adapted to major disturbances a hurricane regime that prevailed in the region for millions of years two very real and devastating hurricanes ripped through the hurricane simulation plots passed close to the main island of Puerto Rico on 7 September leading to widespread power outages and water service disruptions A category-4 hurricane with peak wind speeds of 155 miles per hour it was the most intense hurricane to make landfall in Puerto Rico since 1928 While researchers at George Washington University developed statistical models showing between 2,658 and 3,290 excess deaths for the period September 2017 to February 2018 the then-president Donald Trump called the response to Maria an ‘unsung success’ One of the worst natural disasters in US history Hurricane Maria is now used as a case study for mainland disaster preparedness Hurricane Maria immediately killed twice as many trees as previous storms Uriarte’s work combines long-term observations – comparing the species described in Odum’s surveys with surveys after hurricanes Hugo (1989) Georges (1998) and Maria (2017) – and simulations that build enormous tents and trenches to exclude rainfall and simulate drought or cutting down trees to simulate hurricane-force wind Her lab’s major questions are: will more severe storms have fundamentally different impacts on forest recovery than less severe storms And how do droughts and hurricanes interact María Uriarte and students revisit a forest plot at Luquillo after Hurricane Maria Climate change models for the Caribbean predict longer dry periods as well as hurricanes of greater strength and frequency Uriarte and her colleagues found that Hurricane Maria immediately killed twice as many trees as previous storms and broke more than three times as many trunks with breakage rates up to 12 times those of previous hurricanes valuable hardwoods that were previously considered to be the most resilient to big storms which will guide US Forest Service climate adaptation plans suggest that species that survive hurricanes are vulnerable to drought Puerto Rico’s forests might not be as disaster-resilient as scientists once believed This means that scientists are far from being able to design tropical forests that are resilient to the climate crisis: climate models predict that annual precipitation amounts in Puerto Rico will decline by up to 1.3 metres even as the Caribbean experiences hurricanes of greater strength and frequency When I ask Uriarte whether it will be possible to design and plant forests that are resilient to climate change The tree species that are resistant to high winds are not always the same species that are resistant to drought I think we’d still have to deal with these trade-offs,’ she says and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.’ But touting resilience as a value or an asset can be toxic As the Miami poet and Dominican immigrant Mario Alejandro Ariza writes in Disposable City (2020) the climate change resilience movement’s ‘suggestion of rugged self-reliance lies at the heart of North American neoliberalism and its correspondingly brutal moral order.’ When governments put the onus of resilience on communities they ask communities to accept the status quo Planting drought-resilient trees may prepare for climate change but passing legislation to reduce fossil fuel use would strike at the root of the problem To celebrate resilience is to imagine a future of perpetual harm This Essay is drawn from the book Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration (2022) by Laura J Martin EmailSavePostShareREPUBLISHING NOT PERMITTEDSaveessay The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East Like today’s large language models, 16th-century humanists had techniques to automate writing – to the detriment of novelty Saveessay After a murderous kidnapping in Nigeria, I launched a campaign to put a stop to the abductions. Why did no one listen? The weird paradox of Schrödinger’s cat has found a lasting popularity. What does it mean for the future of quantum physics? Saveessay When we see the Earth as ‘a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam’ what do we learn about human significance When AI takes over the practice of science we will likely find the results strange and incomprehensible Life in Puerto Rico: Good things are happening Luquillo is about to open its first jazz club with an iconic name: The C-Note Construction began months ago on an existing three-story building located on Calle Fernández García The façade is adorned with a mural painted by Puerto Rican artist Frank Andujar Located on a prominent corner just off the town square the colorful club stands out among its neighbors The C-Note is a concept devised by Charlie Sepulveda Puerto Rico’s Latin Grammy winning trumpeter part owner of Wicked Lilly in Condado and longtime real-estate developer an award-winning Puerto Rican chef and former executive chef of Wicked Lilly and El Conquistador A true jazz club has long been a goal for Charlie “Having my own jazz club is a dream for me,” Charlie said After hearing Charlie’s music with his band Bluett sought out Charlie to play the grand opening night of Wicked Lilly and its bar Tryst two years ago Bluett and Charlie shared their dream of having a jazz venue on the island Since Lori and Charlie both live in Luquillo they decided their town was the right location “Luquillo needed some musical energy,” she said Lori sought an ideal building for a jazz club on the beach She also has more real-estate projects in the works in Luquillo and around the island Her father was a jazz musician and was trained on the clarinet He gave up being a professional musician to support his family and he became an engineer on a full scholarship at the University of California Lori’s son shares the same musical passion and he wrote an essay on jazz that he shared with Charlie to seal the deal of opening a jazz club with his mother Lori’s father’s 1940’s era clarinet will be a permanent part of the C-Note It will hang on the third floor behind Andujar’s painting of a clarinetist Charlie was awed at the sight of the family treasure when Lori unveiled it during a promotional event was a sold-out three-night run at the famed Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center in New York where one reviewer foretold the need for a jazz club in Puerto Rico “The performance was historic for several reasons It dispelled the misconception that Puerto Rico lacks a robust jazz scene the sold-out performances demonstrated there is a demand for Puerto Rican Jazz that is not being filled (club owners The C-Note will offer live music throughout the week Charlie has commitments from local jazz greats Nestor Torres cello and drum set are permanent features of the second floor Fridays and Saturdays will feature two shows with different bands Charlie is considering jamming with students from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music They plan on offering fresh oysters on Sundays The first floor will serve tapas and will include a wine and cigar store The second floor is devoted to the live music and will have a seating area with a commanding view of the undulating waves of Luquillo beach will be a cigar smoking area with a whisky Charlie gave a free jazz concert in the street in front of the C-Note and Chef Suárez cooked a delicious New Orleans style gumbo The C-Note will be a complement to the existing live music venues in Puerto Rico including the piano bar at the Cannon Club and Carli’s Bistro and Piano Bar Charlie and Lori are targeting November for their first opening gig. Plenty of parking exists in the large free parking lot off the town square. More information about the club can be found at C-Note’s website at www.cnotepr.com, where tickets can be purchased. Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Cpl. Samuel Wanjiru was the subject of an active search effort over the course of several days beginning Wednesday, when he “came into distress after going into the water,” according to the Coast Guard. The search was suspended Sunday. Wanjiru was in the beach area of La Pared in Luquillo, Puerto Rico, when he disappeared amid high surf and life-threatening rip currents on Puerto Rican beaches. Since search efforts began Wednesday, Coast Guard air and surface units conducted 14 searches by air and one surface search, covering 264 square nautical miles. Coast Guard crews worked alongside the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau who served as the lead agency for search effort coordination, multiple Municipal Offices of Emergency Management, Puerto Rico Police, Puerto Rico Police Joint Forces of Rapid Action and other local agency responders. Assets involved in the search included MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters from Air Station Borinquen, an HC-144 Ocean Sentry fixed-wing aircraft, a 33-foot Special Purpose Craft from Station San Juan and Coast Guard Sector San Juan watchstanders. Puerto Rico private mountain retreat available for rent for just $85 per night Ayah A.•Nov 22 For a limited time, Daddy Yankee is partnering with Airbnb to make his Luquillo, Puerto Rico private mountain retreat available for rent Located on Puerto Rico‘s northeastern coast, Luquillo is home to some of the island’s most beautiful beaches, allowing it to live up to its nickname, la Capital del Sol (the Capital of the Sun.) Only a short half-hour drive from Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the town borders the United States’ only tropical rainforest, El Yunque. Desiring to share his vibrant culture and the hospitality of Puerto Rico, the “King of Reggaetón” is making his home available for three one-night stays, each to accommodate a maximum of two guests. The available dates will be December 13, 15, and 17, with the price per stay being a mere $85 in honor of the rapper’s 85+ chart-topping singles. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daddy Yankee (@daddyyankee) “A love for music and for Puerto Rico runs in my blood,” said Daddy Yankee in an Airbnb statement the stay includes special Daddy Yankee-approved details These include a guide with the superstar’s personal recommendations for local bars and restaurants and access to his private collection of memorabilia and awards Guests will also receive a special virtual greeting from Daddy Yankee himself View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daddy Yankee (@daddyyankee) The home will be available for booking beginning at 1 p.m. EST on December 6 at www.airbnb.com/daddyyankee Related: Outkast’s Big Boi Is Now An Airbnb Host And You Can Book The Iconic Dungeon House a free daily newsletter that features the best of travel and guides to the cities you love from a new point of view — yours you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy Queen Elizabeth Once Stepped In To Prevent Snoop Dogg From Being Banned From The UK United Airlines Flight Attendant's Armrest Announcement Sparks Social Media Frenzy ‘Basketball Wives’ Star Mehgan James Speaks Out About Popular Bahamas Island With Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Friend Loses Leg Chaos Erupts After Ethiopian Airlines Passenger Forced To Give Up Seat For Minister Check out these filming sites that have added to this harrowing story of creative survival in two popular cities Paramount+'s 'MobLand' has rapidly garnered a wide audience thanks to its fascinating characters and gorgeous scenic backdrops A 27-year-old Chinese student living in Japan was rescued twice from Mount Fuji within days – the second time after reascending for his phone The Haifeng is Taiwan’s first luxury dessert-themed train It redefines the afternoon tea experience with some Michelin-starred desserts is taking a step towards opening its doors to international travelers you can spend one night in Daddy Yankee's home in Luquillo The Puerto Rican reggaetón artist said he listed his home on Airbnb so guests could experience the heritage and activities the island has to offer "During your stay, I encourage you to explore the rich heritage and history of the area, where the culture and weather are equally hot," Daddy Yankee's Airbnb listing read But the home will only be available for three nights – Dec It will be open to only two guests per night and they'll have access to one bedroom and bathroom along with various dining Guests will be virtually greeted by Daddy Yankee offered a playlist of his favorite songs and escorted inside by a concierge. Stay in Carrie Bradshaw's apartment: 'Sex and the City' fans could book a stay at Carrie Bradshaw's apartment through Airbnb Airbnb's consumer communications lead for Latin America and the U.S. told USA TODAY she was part of the team that traveled to Puerto Rico to prepare Daddy Yankee's home for guests His Luquillo home is located near the island's National Rainforest What Daddy Yankee called the perfect spot for "jangueo," or hanging out is also where he often travels to disconnect from daily life Pecoraro said he bought the secluded home over 15 years ago "He wanted to share his retreat with others and although it's open for only a few nights he hopes to make it open long term for guests through Airbnb'," Pecoraro said Stay in the horror house: Love the horror classic 'Scream'? Come stay in the house from the film Each room pays homage to Daddy Yankee's biggest hits such as "Gasolina," "Dura" and "Despacito." Local designer Fernando Rodriguez helped decorate the home and other Puerto Rican graffiti artists and photographers were brought in The top of the pool house has the number 21 painted over it to honor Puerto Rican baseball player Roberto Clemente and Daddy Yankee's love for the sport And one living room has "The Big Boss" painted on a wall in reference to Daddy Yankee's common nickname Daddy Yankee and Airbnb's partnership marks the company's first project with a Latino artist and Pecoraro said it was an exciting milestone for the company's Latino workers. Airbnb will make a one-time donation to PRoTechos a local nonprofit organization that rebuilds roofs in underserved Puerto Rican communities that are in need of infrastructure work following natural disasters such as hurricanes Irma and Maria. "Everything we put out for promotion and content was in Spanish and we used all Puerto Rican workers and artists for the home We hope guests see that and his culture reflected in the home," Pecoraro said Follow Gabriela Miranda on Twitter: @itsgabbymiranda Eos High up on the northeastern edge of Puerto Rico are the Luquillo Mountains Because the island is sandwiched between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates it periodically experiences tectonic uplift Get the most fascinating science news stories of the week in your inbox every Friday Some rivers in the Luquillo Mountains run on top of an igneous rock called quartz diorite, on which they developed prominent knickpoints—places where the slope of the river increases significantly meandering streams into tumbling torrents and mighty waterfalls These knickpoints represent the front of aggressive waves of erosion that sweep through the landscape A new study by Brocard et al. investigates how these knickpoints made their way upstream through the tropical montane forest The authors first measured the concentrations of two isotopes—beryllium-10 and aluminum-26—in quartz sediments deposited in caves close to sea level before the mountains were uplifted The isotopes can only form when the rock surface is exposed to air From this age—about 4 million years ago—they tracked back to determine when uplift initiated and when the river knickpoints formed The authors then calculated that the knickpoints have moved very slowly farther upstream since then They also measured the amount of beryllium-10 in the forest soils The concentrations of beryllium-10 indicate the rate of erosion in areas close to the riverbed They show that the knickpoints are still actively retreating today at a speed rate that matches the speed at which they have been traveling since the island was uplifted Yan, W. (2016), How do tropical forests slow knickpoints in rivers?, Eos, 97, https://doi.org/10.1029/2016EO054953 Police reported that two Canadians had drowned after being dragged by the strong sea currents at La Boca beach in Luquillo a municipality on the Northeast Coast of Puerto Rico The deceased were identified by the authorities as Tudor Daniel Mitroi a telephone call on Thursday at 17.45 local time (21.45 GMT) to the 911 emergency system alerted the authorities about two people who had been dragged by the currents in the back of the Sandy Hill condominium World March 17 Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Economy North Coast Local Sports Health DominicanToday.com - The Dominican Republic News Source in English territory pairs an international feel with domestic convenience warmed by the sun and lulled by the whoosh of incoming waves — just as I'd done here before Puerto Rico was 80 degrees warmer than blizzarding Minnesota Between the winter and spring breaks of last year spent nearly as much time out of school as in it (COVID closure That made the work/child-care juggle especially stressful I vowed that this winter would be different: We'd build in a break by taking our first real vacation as a family of four food-stall meals — seemed more kid-friendly than big-city art museums and elegant bistros the "Rich Port" of some 3 million inhabitants sits a bit off American tourists' radar free-roaming horses and primacy of the Spanish language Yet it offers the ease and familiarity of a domestic destination And with Delta and Sun Country offering nonstop flights America's oldest European-established city followed by Spanish settlers.) My husband gamely slipped on his flip-flops and sloshed up to the counter of Charlie Car Rental's flooded office a modest inconvenience for saving a couple hundred bucks we arrived in the coastal town of Luquillo where we'd rented a condo for the week We found a restaurant and flagged down a waiter serving the patio just as a car blasting salsa music rolled past The place was about to close, so the waiter directed us to a late-night beachside bar, called Boardriders There we found Latin/Caribbean beats blaring from the karaoke machine — but no American pop hits at all It was one of many reminders of how Puerto Rico's culture has remained distinct from the mainland's a slightly larger city about 15 minutes away crescent-shaped Playa Azul was just a few blocks from our condo weren't officially open the days we visited But we simply followed the stream of beachgoers slipping through the fence The only variations were in sand texture (crushed-shell bits to silky powder) and waves (mild to moderate) The only thing to complain about was the frequently overflowing garbage cans my husband got directions to Playa Escondida a "Hidden Beach" accessed by an easy 30-minute hike we followed the path through a tunnel of thick mangroves to find another spectacular Our favorite restaurant was Fajardo's La Estación A couple of New York City restaurant veterans serve what they call Nuyorican BBQ bringing Caribbean flavors to the Southern U.S The grilled swordfish was white-tablecloth caliber a blocks-long strip of open-air restaurants and food stalls I'd also recommend Terruño and La Parrilla for a more formal meal Puerto Rican cuisine includes a lot of fried starches including green plantains served mashed as mofongo or as chip-like tostones We liked Puerto Rico's version of the empanada even out of a beach hawker's insulated bag Our kids loved pairing the fish tacos at La Fonda in Luquillo with a flight of tropical juices: mango My husband and I availed ourselves of Puerto Rico's famous rums Enormous mojitos were a common and refreshing beach sipper Even with cocktail prices in the single digits we didn't encounter the rowdy drinkers that often descend on beach towns the liveliest thing we saw in downtown Luquillo was three young men who arrived on horses and hitched them up outside a bar The friendly riders welcomed my kids' request to pet the horses and even hoisted them up to sit on their backs We took a break from beachcombing and drove 20 minutes to the El Yunque rainforest my friends and I ziplined through the treetops of this U.S My family opted to drive its most popular route which required an online reservation 24 hours in advance We made pit stops to take in the view at an observation tower marvel at a shuttered CCC-built swimming pool scramble up a steep hiking path and douse ourselves under a waterfall We also made a day trip to the small island of Culebra, the sleepier sister to the better-known Vieques. The kids initially loved the upper-deck view and ocean spray of the ferry (tickets cost a mere $4.50 for adults, $2 for kids; book in advance). But the waves' jostle became less fun once my 7-year-old lost his breakfast. (We picked up Dramamine for the return.) We caught a van ride to Culebra's Playa Flamenco, often named among the best beaches in the world for its crystalline waters and white sand. A decade ago, when my friends and I relaxed under one of its palm trees, I was approached by some of the island's roaming horses — one boldly licked the ocean salt off my arm. The islands' lack of development, due to Culebra's and Vieques' long occupation by the U.S. Navy, helped sustain the free-range herds. But the isles' legacy as a training range means contaminants abound. Even after an alarming 40,000-plus bombs, grenades and rockets have been removed, an unknown number remain. (A posted flier warns of the munitions: "They are not souvenirs.") Though the risks to visitors are minimal, a massive, decades-long environmental cleanup remains underway. Wood-and-concrete showers, bathrooms and kiosks are under construction at Flamenco, a welcome upgrade to the Hurricane Irma- and Maria-battered beach's minimal amenities. My kids were captivated by their novel surroundings, content to search for geckos, build forts out of palm fronds, or watch a guy shimmy up tree trunks to harvest coconuts (he kindly opened one with a machete so they could drink the juice). As they age into more island activities — from snorkeling to surfing to scuba diving — I can't wait to bring them back. Rachel Hutton writes lifestyle and human-interest stories for the Minnesota Star Tribune. No Section Peek inside homes for sale in the Twin Cities area After falling behind 17-0 at halftime and being dominated most of the game the Bulldogs may have locked up a spot in the College Football Playoff both from members of the public and from the volunteers who help to make the festival happen The Northeast Ecological Corridor is an incredibly biodiverse tract of land covering nearly 3,000 acres of lowland tropical forest The Corridor stretches over five miles of undeveloped beach and not only serves as a beloved “backyard” for thousands of locals but also is one of only two sites in the Caribbean where endangered leatherback sea turtles come on land to nest leatherbacks lay their eggs on the Corridor’s beaches from March until July the babies hatch and crawl back to the sea the Northeast Ecological Corridor’s status as one of the last remaining tracts of undeveloped coastline in Puerto Rico was under threat Resort developers wanted to buy up the land and build hotels a plan that would have both social and environmental consequences Festivals are extremely popular in Puerto Rico with almost every municipality hosting its own suite of celebrations So when the Northeast Corridor Coalition and the Sierra Club needed to rally public support for protecting the Northeast Corridor they came up with the Leatherback Festival as a solution making them a perfect symbol of the Northeast Corridor’s ecology Starting as a focus for petitioning and campaigning for the protection of the Corridor the early Festival del Tinglar centered around the people who lived in surrounding communities It often culminated with attendees taking petitions to legislative offices the governor of Puerto Rico signed a law that protected the Northeast Ecological Corridor from future development the Leatherback Festival has exploded in popularity this year drawing celebrants from all over the island and plenty of turtle-themed crafts for the kids Over 190 volunteers manned the booths and crafts and monitored the festival’s recycling stations volunteers led some participants down into the reserve itself for an easy half-hour walk emerging onto the beach to look for turtle tracks Using a festival as a tool to connect local people with their natural treasures has paid off enormously for the Puerto Rico Sierra Club as well as for the sea turtles of the Northeast Ecological Corridor work remains to be done to find out how to best manage and care for the new reserve making sure it stays open and accessible to locals and to tourists without harming the ecosystem the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources and the Northeast Corridor Coalition signed an agreement to work cooperatively to manage the Corridor We are facing monumental threats to our planet’s future We are fighting back with every tool at our disposal – but to face these challenges *Providing your email OR phone number allows us to follow up at a later time to ask for your help in preserving our precious wildlife With this action you affirm you want to receive Sierra Club communications and may vote on policy designated by the Sierra Club Board Msg & Data Rates May Apply.Text STOP to opt out. No purchase necessary. You'll also receive Sierra Club mobile action alerts (expect 4 msgs/mo). Terms and Conditions Sierra Club® and "Explore, enjoy and protect the planet"® are registered trademarks of the Sierra Club. © Sierra Club 2025.The Sierra Club Seal is a registered copyright, service mark, and trademark of the Sierra Club. But the process of scientific knowledge-gathering can be messy, and scientists with Luquillo’s Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Program—which furnished much of the data underpinning Lister and Garcia’s conclusions—now believe many of those conclusions are false Lister and Garcia are standing by their conclusions: Even with imperfect data Read: Is the insect apocalypse really upon us? And so he returned to the same spot where he had studied insects in 1976 and 1977 to see if the forest had changed Lister and Garcia placed sticky traps on the ground and in the canopy and used sweep nets to collect insects and estimate their total abundance Their findings were alarming: Compared with the 1970s the surveys from 2011 to 2013 turned up 98 percent less insect biomass in ground traps The scientists also found close to 60 percent less anoles a diverse family of lizards that eat insects To put this worrying data in a broader context Lister and Garcia looked at the abundance of other animal populations—canopy arthropods seemed to confirm the researchers’ fears: Everything was declining After showing that rising temperatures correlated with declining abundances and eliminating other factors such as pesticides the researchers concluded that climate change was the most likely culprit a co–principal investigator for the Luquillo LTER says his first reaction was: How did we miss this It wasn’t until the LTER researchers assembled to try to answer that question that they began to notice some problems One of the first things that looked off to them was Lister and Garcia’s report of a 2 degree rise in maximum temperatures at the LTER’s El Verde field station When the LTER scientists examined the data underlying that figure they found that Lister and Garcia had combined two temperature records one from 1975 to 1992 and another from 1992 to the present The first came from a station damaged by 1989’s Hurricane Hugo; the second a replacement station installed in 1992 As soon as the second station was installed it began recording temperatures about 2 degrees Celsius higher than the original station which corresponds with most of the animal-abundance data Lister and Garcia examined there’s actually a long-term cooling trend the LTER team thinks: The forest floor became shadier as the canopy regrew following Hurricanes Hugo and Georges Any correlations between animal populations and temperatures that are based on the combined record should be treated as suspect Lister and Garcia had relied on the LTER’s long-term data sets without fully considering the data’s limitations when they analyzed trends in canopy arthropods from 1990 to 2010 they combined data Schowalter had collected across various tree species in his survey plots But Schowalter had not sampled trees randomly; each year he had sampled one tree of select species to represent early and late successional trees Each tree type is home to a unique collection of arthropods and combining all the data will overrepresent the arthropods on rarer trees and underrepresent those on more common trees The LTER researchers also had caveats about the analysis of the bird-netting surveys in which Lister and Garcia found a 90 percent decline in insect-eating Puerto Rican tody birds from 1990 to 2005 But the LTER wasn’t able to put the same amount of effort into those surveys each year scientists spent more time in the field trying to net birds (and therefore caught more) while in other years they expended less energy (and caught fewer) variation in effort needs to be corrected for their interpretation of the underlying cause differed Both found that walking-stick insects had declined over time but the LTER researchers didn’t see a connection between that trend and rising temperatures can be explained by hurricane impacts and subsequent ecological succession as food availability and conditions in the forest’s understory change “Our point isn’t that temperature has no effect,” Willig says because of the way data sets were analyzed and interpreted we felt it was totally premature to say it’s a temperature effect and to avoid any disturbance discussion.” The scientists laid out all of their issues in a detailed rebuttal letter, which PNAS published in late May alongside a response by Lister and Garcia after learning that trees were not sampled randomly that Schowalter’s data on canopy arthropods shouldn’t be extrapolated to the entire rain forest He also agreed that the bird data would need to be revisited as he had assumed that the researchers had conducted similar sampling efforts each year based on the information he could find online that hurricanes can influence population dynamics But he sees them as shorter-duration influences “superimposed on these long-term and ongoing declines.” Lister emphasized that the arthropod and lizard declines he saw in his own field data—from the 1970s to the 2010s—were very stark “It’s a limited conclusion in a spatially complex forest,” he said That’s a point on which insect researchers are likely to agree. Elsa Youngsteadt an insect ecologist at North Carolina State University thinks that the rebuttal raises serious questions but that the original paper’s findings should not be dismissed outright particularly given the authors’ field observations Read: Insects are in serious trouble The entomologist Jessica Ware of Rutgers University voiced a similar sentiment “I think it’s inevitable to have data reanalyzed—that’s what we do in science,” Ware says the most important takeaway from the hullabaloo is that “we’re missing a ton of information.” And even the best insect data are inherently noisy “Insect populations bounce up and down like crazy,” says Christie Bahlai an insect ecologist at Kent State University “You can have orders-of-magnitude differences between years and that’s just normal population cycling.” None of this is to say that evidence of declines shouldn’t be worrying such evidence should mobilize scientists to try to repeat the studies or to reinvestigate old data they’ve been sitting on And Ware credits Lister and Garcia’s paper with doing just that—regardless of how many of their conclusions hold up to further scrutiny “The ultimate result of the paper was a call to arms for all of us to reexamine our data and field sites,” she says I’m glad that that fire may have been lit under some people.” Former Puerto Rican surfing champion Brian Ramos was murdered yesterday afternoon on La Pared beach in Luquillo, Puerto Rico, according to reports. Various local media in Puerto Rico Brian was giving a surfing class at his school when he saw that some of his competitor's clients were in danger he went to rescue them and then he approached him asking him to take care of his clients the owner of the board rental shop returned to the beach with a baseball bat Brian refused to fight and walked towards the beach Witnesses on the beach alerted the authorities who took him to the hospital where he was declared dead Some videos and photos on his social media show him tubing with style and doing very high and modern aerials expressed their sorrow for the loss of the surfer Scientist Brad Lister returned to Puerto Rican rainforest after 35 years to find 98% of ground insects had vanished “We knew that something was amiss in the first couple days,” said Brad Lister “We were driving into the forest and at the same time both Andres and I said: ‘Where are all the birds?’ There was nothing.” His return to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years was to reveal an appalling discovery The insect population that once provided plentiful food for birds throughout the mountainous national park had collapsed The most likely culprit by far is global warming both the sticky ground plates and canopy plates would be covered with insects You’d be there for hours picking them off the plates at night But now the plates would come down after 12 hours in the tropical forest with a couple of lonely insects trapped or none at all.” “It was a true collapse of the insect populations in that rainforest,” he said “We began to realise this is terrible – a very Lister and his colleague Andrés García also found that insect numbers in a dry forest in Mexico had fallen 80% since the 1980s “We are essentially destroying the very life support systems that allow us to sustain our existence on the planet along with all the other life on the planet,” Lister said “It is just horrifying to watch us decimate the natural world like this.” It was not insects that drew Lister to the Luquillo rainforest for the first time in the mid-1970s “I was interested in competition among the anoles lizards,” he said “They’re the most diverse group of vertebrates in the world and even by that time had become a paradigm for ecology and evolutionary studies.” La Mina river in El Yunque national forest Photograph: Raul Touzon/NG/Getty ImagesThe forest immediately captivated Lister a lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic University in the US “It was and still is the most beautiful forest I have ever been in There’s the lush verdant forest and cascading waterfalls and along the roadsides there are carpets of multicoloured flowers It was important to measure insect numbers but at the time he thought nothing more of it Returning to the national park decades later “One of the things I noticed in the forest was a lack of butterflies,” he said other scientists had predicted that tropical insects would be much more sensitive to climate warming “If you go a little bit past the thermal optimum for tropical insects the predictions were confirmed in startling fashion “It went from zero in the 1970s up to something like 44% of the days.” Factors important elsewhere in the world such as destruction of habitat and pesticide use could not explain the plummeting insect populations in Luquillo Data on other animals that feed on bugs backed up the findings “The frogs and birds had also declined simultaneously by about 50% to 65%,” Lister said The population of one dazzling green bird that eats almost nothing but insects A Puerto Rican tody Photograph: W arissen/Getty ImagesLister calls these impacts a “bottom-up trophic cascade” in which the knock-on effects of the insect collapse surge up through the food chain “I don’t think most people have a systems view of the natural world,” he said “But it’s all connected and when the invertebrates are declining the entire food web is going to suffer and degrade To understand the global scale of an insect collapse that has so far only been glimpsed there is an urgent need for much more research in many more habitats The problem is that there were very few studies of insect numbers in past decades to serve as a baseline but Lister is undeterred: “There’s no time like the present to start asking what’s going on.” While temperatures in the tropical forests of northeastern Puerto Rico have climbed two degrees Celsius since the mid-1970s the biomass of arthropods – invertebrate animals such as insects and sowbugs – has declined by as much as 60-fold according to new findings published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences The finding supports the recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warnings of severe environmental threats given a 2.0 degree Celsius elevation in global temperature the study area in the Luquillo rainforest has already reached or exceeded a 2.0 degree Celsius rise in average temperature and the study finds that the consequences are potentially catastrophic “Our results suggest that the effects of climate warming in tropical forests may be even greater than anticipated,” said Brad Lister lead author of the study and a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute “The insect populations in the Luquillo forest are crashing the animals that eat the insects have insufficient food which results in decreased reproduction and survivorship and consequent declines in abundance.” “Climate Driven Declines in Arthropod Abundance Restructure a Rainforest Food Web” is based on data collected between 1976 and 2013 by the authors and the Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research program at three mid-elevation habitats in Puerto Rico’s protected Luquillo rainforest mean maximum temperatures have risen by 2.0 degrees Celsius Cold-blooded animals living in tropical climates are particularly vulnerable to climate warming since they are adapted to relatively stable year-round temperatures which included new techniques to assess causality the authors conclude that climate warming is the major driver of reductions in arthropod abundance in the Luquillo forest These reductions have precipitated a major bottom-up trophic cascade and consequent collapse of the forest food web Given that tropical forests harbor two thirds of the Earth’s species these results have profound implications for the future stability and biodiversity of rainforest ecosystems as well as conservation efforts aimed at mitigating the effects of climate forcing of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México which was funded by the National Science Foundation Research into the effects of climate change is an exciting aspect of The New Polytechnic The foundation for this vision is the recognition that global challenges and opportunities are so great they cannot be adequately addressed by even the most talented person working alone The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research and in the lives of students at Rensselaer known as the “King of Reggaeton” by fans and industry professionals thanks to his catalog of dancefloor hits like “Gasolina” Now, the rapper can add Airbnb host to his resume as he will be opening up his Puerto Rican home that inspired his chart-topping music Offering three different one-night stays for up to two guests each six fans will have the chance to stay in the private home in Luquillo Bookings open on Dec. 6 and fans will be able to choose to reserve one of three dates—Dec The price is a way to commemorate the more than 85 singles that Daddy Yankee has released over his impressive career “This place inspires me constantly,” said Daddy Yankee in a video posted to Instagram earlier this week the energy—and I want you to experience and enjoy my Puerto Rico here in my home Daddy Yankee has also curated a playlist of his all-time favorite songs for guests to listen to (and dance to) during your stay The home features vibrant and contemporary decor designed by Stewart Rodriguez taking inspiration from classic Puerto Rican style The living room features psychedelic black-and-white striped designs on the ceiling and walls and layered accessories for a comfortable finish you’ll find bold acrylic and blow up furniture a bright mural wall graffitied with the words “Big Boss” and plenty of greenery as a nod to the island’s vast natural beauty which rebuilds roofs and provides carpentry training to help repair damages caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 Read the commentsFiled in:News The home you love starts here The home you love starts here Apartment TherapyThe wordmark for the Apartment Therapy brand.More From Us By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Waking up to the gentle caress of a warm Caribbean breeze and the vibrant hues of a sunrise stretching across the sky doesn’t have to be just fantasy This type of idyllic scene is reality on the enchanting island of Puerto Rico home to a bevy of cultural attractions and breathtaking natural beauty Although approximately 1,000 miles from Miami the Spanish-speaking territory has been nominally under American governance since the 19th century which means passport-free travel between the two Given this connection and ease of mobility the destination has become something of a haven for affluent home buyers Luring them is not simply a lower cost of living and a pleasant year-round climate but also favorable laws including a provision that exempts new residents from having to pay property taxes for five years (as well as certain closing costs) when acquiring a primary residence “Purchasing a house in Puerto Rico is very similar to buying on the mainland,” says Monica Alvarez, a leading broker with Puerto Rico Sotheby’s International Realty there are also variations best handled by legal counsel The main difference “is that the transaction is completed and handled by a notary “The Puerto Rican culture is quite known for celebrating life” The tradition is not altogether surprising given that the island was colonized by the Spanish who built elaborate Baroque structures that still dot the landscape Many of these centuries-old landmarks grace the capital city of San Juan and its surrounding regions such as Dorado and Rio Grande—both of which have seen an increased interest from U.S.-based buyers since the pandemic One popular option for those looking in the area has become lavish residences at leading hotels such as the St Regis Bahia Beach Resort and the Ritz-Carlton Reserve’s Dorado Beach Another charming place for house hunters is undoubtedly Old San Juan a colonial-era neighborhood lined with cobblestone streets filled with the beguiling melodies of traditional folk music and the pulsating rhythms of salsa Cultural connoisseurs will delight in the marquee arts institutions including the city’s Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico as well as the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico which houses an impressive collection of over 1,000 works from the 17th century to the present day “The Puerto Rican culture is quite known for celebrating life,” says Alvarez A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Spring Issue under the headline “Island Life.” Subscribe to the magazine © 2023 Hudson One Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Puerto Rico's Luquillos Mountains appear in this photo taken from the International Space Station in 2007 (Note that north is down in the image.) Credit: NASA Scientific investigations sometimes take unexpected twists and turns. When Emma Harrison a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania began digging trenches in the mountains of Puerto Rico to study how the soil mantle responds to rapid changes in erosion she couldn’t help but notice the worms The thick Puerto Rican soils were chock-full of the wriggling creatures: endogeic worms which spend their lives burrowing through the soil and feeding on bits of decaying organic matter underground which in the Luquillos are typically 2 millimeters wide and as long as a human forearm Anecic earthworms live deeper in the soil profile but build long vertical burrows so they can feed on organic litter at the surface Harrison had gone to northeastern Puerto Rico’s Luquillo Mountains which rise steeply from sea level up to 1,075 meters in elevation to look into why erosion rates aren’t as high as it seems they should be Uplifted between about 37 million and 28 million years ago this range is the first barrier on the island encountered by the prevailing easterly winds which carry moisture from the Caribbean Sea The resulting orographic effect produces copious rainfall exceeding 5 meters per year at higher elevations “With the amount of precipitation [the area] gets you should be eroding the range at a much quicker rate,” Harrison explains Whereas erosion rates in the Luquillos range from about 0.05 to 0.18 millimeters per year depending on elevation rates are typically much higher in other high-precipitation tropical environments lose between 2.2 and 8.3 millimeters per year An experimental worm nest prior to noticeable burrowing by endogeic worms What were the earthworms doing to the soil to create such a difference Harrison constructed several clear earthworm nests that were thin enough to allow the team to observe worm tunneling in two dimensions After placing endogeic worms and soil native to the Luquillos in the nests the researchers stored them in a dark room pulling them out once per day to photograph the worms’ progress the researchers then quantified changes in the amounts of material excavated in the tunnels from day to day they also measured the nests’ bulk densities and their permeability to water On average, the soil in the experimental nests was compacted by 4.3 percent, the team reported last week during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Baltimore “It’s very rare to see [levels of] compaction like that,” Harrison says “It was really surprising; we had actually thought that there would be an increase in the volume of the soil,” she adds because worms are often observed to churn up and aerate soils Endogeic worm burrows are denoted with black coloration added with image processing software There could be several reasons for the compaction they push the dirt surrounding the tunnels together reducing pore space between soil particles when soil particles are ingested and later excreted by worms The soil is also compacted when earthworm tunnels collapse the researchers concluded that earthworms are significant biological agents that actively restructure the Luquillo soils and that the worms’ tunnel networks increase the rate at which precipitation filters through the soil This allows water to drain more rapidly from the clay-rich surface where landslides most frequently occur is fewer landslides and a slower rate of erosion in the Luquillo Mountains Harrison says she hopes the study will stimulate new ideas about erosional processes She also would like to expand the research to include the anecic earthworms straighter burrows could be even more effective conduits for draining precipitation “A landscape is a composite of all of its component parts including the life that lives within it,” Harrison says adding that studying the interactions among all these components is an exciting new direction in landscape geomorphology Published Aug 15, 2018 · Updated Aug 9, 2021 by Ginnie · 7 Comments Spend a day (or longer) in beautiful Luquillo From relaxing on one of the many Luquillo beaches to hiking in El Yunque you'll find so much to do in this picturesque beachside getaway .. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Are you dreaming of a tropical vacay with beautiful beaches and gorgeous sunsets This pretty little town on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico has it all .. Head there for a day or stick around a little longer If you're looking for fun Puerto Rico day trips Located on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico (just a short drive from San Juan and Fajardo) Luquillo is nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and El Yunque National Forest This charming seaside city was founded in 1787 and is home to about 20,000 people It was named after the Taíno leader Loquillo and it's known as La Capital del Sol or sun capital of Puerto Rico this small town has everything you could possibly want: multiple beaches worth visiting This charming oceanside town has something for everyone you won't have any problem finding things to do in Luquillo but I'd plan on spending a day (or more) if you want to see everything the main reason many people visit Luquillo is it's gorgeous beaches! Luquillo has miles of beaches and you can walk from one beach to the next Some are better for swimming and others are preferred by surfers and sea turtles we arrived at Balneario Monserrate in the late afternoon .. we parked behind the popular kiosks at Luquillo Beach instead Luquillo Beach and Balneario Monserrate are located right next door to each other and form a cresent shaped shoreline .. Balneario Monserrate is one of the most popular beaches in Luquillo and for good reason. It's clean and there are bathrooms and other public facilities to make your trip more pleasant Monserrate has also been designated a Blue Flag Beach an indication of high environmental and quality standards but it was mostly empty on our weekday visit apart from a few groups and families from popular Monserrate to the remote La Selva (scroll to the end for a description of the others) If you planning on spending more than a day There weren't a ton of shells on Luquillo Beach or Balneario Monserrate but you may find a find a few treasures if you keep your eyes peeled You'll usually have the best luck finding shells after a storm Ever since I found a heart-shaped rock at NYC's Rockaway Beach but I did find a piece of heart-shaped coral that had washed ashore shark teeth are not commonly found in Puerto Rico You can't visit Luquillo Beach without viewing at least one sunset It was the highlight of our day in Luquillo We timed our beach trip to coincide with the sunset After a rainy day (we got drenched in El Yunque) I was worried that it would be too cloudy to see the sun setting and the clouds over El Yunque provided the perfect backdrop to the setting sun the sun set over the crescent shaped beach The palm trees and other plants looked gorgeous as the sun set Don't leave this pretty little seaside town without enjoying at least one sunset It should be on every Luquillo bucket list I took way too many photos ... as per usual! It was just so stunning. You can find sunrise and sunset times in Luquillo here One of the coolest things you'll find in Luquillo are the kioskos This colorful strip is located just off the highway and has free parking for Luquillo Beach directly behind it with a few souvenir shops and many restaurants Each shop or restaurant sets its own hours Stop by the open air kiosks to pick up beach supplies or to enjoy a delicious meal ranging from Puerto Rican cuisine to pizza and everything in between and we even spotted one restaurant with a few casino machines Photo by iferneinez You can't visit this pretty oceanside town without stopping by El Yunque beautiful rainforest will take your breath away and it's possible to visit the beach and the forest in one day and taking in the jaw dropping views at El Yunque El Yunque National Forest sustained a lot of damage during Hurricane Maria, but it's open and definitely worth a trip! Check out my guide to El Yunque for lots of trip planning tips and hiking in El Yunque aren't the only things to Luquillo There are plenty of other outdoor activities in Luquillo and it's possible to rent everything from bikes to paddleboards ATV and zipline adventures also await you Take a break from the beach to visit Luquillo's town square and you'll find many local businesses nearby The San José Iglesia Catolica is also located just off the plaza and it's beautiful hand-carved altar is worth checking out Up for something more adventurous? Head to Las Paylas (or Pailas) to explore a river waterfall with four natural water slides Here you can slide over the rocks landing in natural pools It's popular with the locals and definitely on my bucket list for my next visit to Luquillo I hope you enjoyed reading about this beautiful beach town Here are some tips to help plan your trip: You can rent everything from bikes to paddleboards to jet skis at this beach but the food options are plenty when you visit the Luquillo Kiosks (or Kioskos in Spanish) You'll find about 60 kiosks right off the highway with everything from souvenir stands to bars and restaurants and you'll find a wide range of food here from traditional Puerto Rican meals to burgers and pizza to Peruvian You can't visit Luquillo without heading to nearby El Yunque Rainforest. Read my guide to El Yunque before you go for lots of tips Practicing my most basic b pose on the beach in Luquillo There are so many amazing things to do in Puerto Rico Here are some other ideas to keep you busy: Ginnie is the writer, photographer, and chief content creator behind Hello Little Home. She loves trying new things (whether that’s creating delicious vegetarian recipes, exploring a new city, trying a fun DIY project, or sharing a pretty makeup look), and she hopes to inspire you to do the same! Read more about Ginnie here This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Hope you have a great time in Puerto Rico 🙂 Hi, I'm Ginnie! Welcome to Hello Little Home, which is all about inspiring everyday creativity! I'm excited to share my favorite things with you ... vegetarian recipes, travel inspiration, DIY projects, decor ideas, beauty and fashion tips, and more! Read more about me here Keep up with all things Hello Little Home .. sign up below to receive my weekly newsletter You'll get all my posts delivered straight to your inbox plus exclusive content just for subscribers ↑ back to top Never miss a post ... Sign Up for our weekly newsletter The Fairfield by Marriott Luquillo Beach & El Tropical Casino is situated just in front of the Luquillo Beach Resort in Playa la Fortuna and this is the first Fairfield by Marriott property in the whole of Carribean and it is placed across 17.500 square feet of land The casino occupies 9,000 square feet of property and its gaming offering includes various gaming products and it provides approximately 185 people with jobs The meeting and event spaces in the hotel is available to the range of guests and they can be adapted to serve different types of events and market requirements The whole project was developed by the PRISA Group, and its CEO, Federico Stubbe Jr., is positive that this project will help expand the tourism industry in the area He commented: “This project is a great bet on the region and its potential to become a world-class tourist destination The people of Luquillo will provide the visitor with a unique experience and take this destination to a new and higher level of excellence This will attract all those looking to be close to the beach.” The Tropical Casino brand is very popular in Puerto Rico since it’s a domestic brand. Besides this one, there are three Tropical casinos in the area, and they’re situated in the municipalities of Bayamón, Ponce, and Mayagüez thinks that the whole eastern region of the country will benefit from the new hotel According to the source he said: “The Fairfield by Marriott Luquillo Beach & El Tropical Casino is a solid step forward in the efforts that have been made to revitalize the region’s tourism industry We are proud to see how the citizens of our municipality and of neighboring municipalities have seen in this project the opportunity to work and contribute to the growth of the tourism industry in the region.“ stating that it will promote tourism in the area He stated: “We have supported the tourism industry with a historic investment of $120 million in improvements to our natural and entertainment attractions thousands of jobs have been created in this industry to the point that today we have more people working in the tourism sector than ever before in our history.” Notify me via e-mail if anyone answers my comment.