A quick report on my activation of KP4/CE-001 El Yunque on 20th Jan 2025.
This was the closest SOTA summit on my return home from Belize and travelling with a radio through Belize required some coordination with regards licences and permits but on the plus side I managed to operate for a few hours with my new V31 call sign.
I had rented a car from San Juan airport, but there seem to be some excursion companies that serve the area which probably work out cheaper.
I parked at the small Palo Colorado parking lot (“Parking 2” on Google Maps) which was about half full at 0930 on MLK day. The Caimitillo Trail starts about 300 m back down the road at a sign post. The path is steep, and was once tarmac but has been eroded badly in many places and after a short time turns into a well defined rocky path and joins the El Yunque trail which I think is still closed at the start.
The El Yunque trail is also closed off at the top and there is a diversion along the Monte Britton trail and you have to follow the tarmac access road to the summit (the signs said access to the Los Pichachos viewpoint is still possible, but as the summit was in cloud I didn’t bother checking).
There had been a land slip further down the Caimitilo Trail which hadn’t affected the path, but another slip in the future is likely to cause this to be closed off.
The summit was wet and boggy due to the recent rain. I managed to find a spot next to the tower which was reasonably sheltered from the wind, had a rock to sit on and there was an old pipe in the ground which would support the travel pole.
11 contacts were made quickly on 10 m with 5W from the FT817 but after 10 minutes, a further 10 minutes of calling CQ yielded no more contacts. I switched to 15 m and called for 15 minutes without making any contacts, I heard a very weak chaser but he didn’t respond to my reply. I hunted around the band and tried to make contacts with other stations calling CQ while it was spotting with rain but without any success.
As the wind started picking up I cut my losses and started packing up although not fast enough as the heavy rain started again. The radio and batteries went in my bag and I tried hiding in the shelter, although this wasn’t much help as the wind was blowing the rain in though the window openings. I went back out and threw the rest of the kit through one of the other windows and ran back inside to pack up as best as I could, and when the rain eased a little I made my descent. Once off the summit, the wind and rain dropped off significantly.
After a detour to the tower at Monte Britton (with no views due to the cloud) I headed back down to the car, answering lots of “how far is it to the top”, “is there anywhere to get water”, “is the path this muddy all the way” questions from others on the way up, many turned back after not liking my honest answers!
By now it was lunchtime and the car parks were full and the roads choked with cars parked on both sides. I suspect this was because it was a public holiday and it’s normally quieter on a Monday.
I managed to dry most of my kit out somewhat on the beach before heading back to the airport for my flight back to Miami then home to the UK.