All in the family...

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Jody's cousin Reed and Reed's wife Kalia. They were both born and raised in Puerto Rico and were extraordinarily helpful and hospitable to us. (L-R) Me, Jody, Reed, and Kalia.

This is Jody with Julia, Reed's mother. Julia has a PhD in plant pathology and the most gorgeous tropical backyard I've ever seen:

Here's Reed at work on his organic mushroom "farm," which is actually entirely contained within two semi trailers. He inoculates the spores, grows the cultures, provides the substrate, oversees the production and harvests the mushrooms himself. The white and brown oyster mushrooms he produces are delicious. We even visited one of his clients, a locally famous chef who uses the mushrooms in a specialty dish with quail in a phyllo basket. Yum!

We also hiked with Reed and Kalia through the "Bosque Seca" -- the "dry forest," basically a desert bordering on the ocean. We saw all sorts of cool cacti...

...even some whose berries were edible!