Mountain Biking in Puerto Rico: Monte Brujo

The day after we went to Tortuguero, Emma and I went on a bigger road trip to Monte Brujo in Guayama, PR.

This was another one of Alef's recommendations – seriously, you gotta check this guy out.

Emma and I drove up and over La Cordillera Central, about an hour and a half from San Juan. I always try to find an excuse to drive the mountain highway because it's gorgeous.

You can see the cordillera central from the Monte Brujo parking lot

We got to Monte Brujo at around 10:30AM, which many people here would disapprove of. Cycling culture in Puerto Rico starts very early in the morning – like 5:30-6AM. That's because the sun gets punishingly hot closer to midday. It was Saturday though, and we decided to sleep in a little bit.

Monte Brujo is a huge mountain bike trail system, and worth a visit. We barely covered it, and stayed mostly to the covered brush trails at the bottom.

Trail signage, note the different route on weekdays

Riding into town

The trails have fun names and are well maintained. You can make it as technical as you want it to be, some fun features like seesaws along the routes. Note that trails are ridden in different directions on Weekdays. So if you see an arrow that says "Lunes", that's the weekday direction. I initially thought it was the name of a different trail and was quickly and embarrassingly corrected.

Whereas Tortuguero was an insect-repellant kind of day, Monte Brujo is sunscreen all day. We were riding in 95º F heat, and we eventually went into the Guayama town center for a smoothie and some a/c.

Smoothie stop at Púrpura

Oh, and watch out for horses and iguanas. This is their land so if you have to shoo them, be respectful.

Con permiso, mister