About La Piedra Escrita
La Piedra Escrita (“the written rock”) on its own probably marginally counts as a waterfall attraction.
However, I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt because it does feature a long and deep swimming hole with a short cascade feeding it on the Río Saliente (or Saliente River).
That said, this is an important Taino (indigenous) heritage site with petroglyphs on the large namesake boulder adjacent to this cascade and swimming hole.
Accessing this place was at the end of an easy boardwalk descending from a parking lot down to the rocky slabs fringing the plunge pool next to the written rock (which can take as little as a couple of minutes).
By the way, that parking lot appeared to be for a restaurant that didn’t seem to be operational during our April 2022 visit.
I also noticed some traces of Taino petroglyphs on the slab that I stood on at the end of the trail in addition to the large boulder that had most of the petroglyphs on it.
The boardwalk had at least three “shelters” that also acted as lookouts in addition to shielding from the rain as well as the sun.
I definitely took advantage of these shelters because it rained pretty heavily during our visit as we had to wait out the squall before proceeding.
Under such conditions, it definitely made the footing slippery (especially on the rock slabs sloping down towards La Piedra Escrita) though that didn’t stop one person from swimming here right after the storm calmed down.
What’s Up With The Petroglyphs?
As for my impressions of this place, the petroglyphs were definitely the main draw as far as I was concerned, but I was kind of left to figure this place out on my own.
That was because from what we could tell, there was no explicit road signage indicating we were in the right place, and there was no interpretive signage explaining these petroglyphs.
In fact, there’s not a whole lot of authoritative literature about these petroglyphs other than a research paper that I chanced upon here.
I really do think that the municipality of Jayuya should consider having that cafe serve a dual purpose as both a visitor center as well as a place to eat and drink.
That way, even if no one really knows what’s going on with the petroglyphs, at least the latest interpretations and theories could be put out there to get visitors to ponder their importance and meaning.
If anything, it would at least get people to better appreciate their association to the Puerto Rican heritage.
Authorities
La Piedra Escrita resides in the municipality of Jayuya, Puerto Rico. As far as I know, it is administered by the local government in Jayuya. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try to visit their website (in Spanish).
La Piedra Escrita is right off the PR-144 Road roughly 3km (about 2 miles) east of the center of Jayuya and a little over 10km (6.4 miles) west of the PR-149 junction just north of the Chorro de Doña Juana Waterfall.
You’d think that this should be a pretty straightforward place to spot, but during our April 2022, there was a surprising lack of roadside signage indicating La Piedra Escrita.
The key is to look for a large orange building with a car park in front of it (there’s even a slab of rock in the middle of this lot).
The boardwalk leading down to the actual “written rock” itself is on the far side of the parking area (i.e. the side closer to the Río Saliente).
For geographical context, Jayuya was 25km (about an hour drive) northwest of Villalba, about 36km (over an hour drive) north of Juana Díaz about 39km (about an hour drive) north of Ponce, 32km (over an hour drive) southwest of Ciales, about 25km (an hour drive) east of Utuado, 41km (over an hour drive) west of Orocovis, about 49km (about 90 minutes drive) west of Barranquitas, and about 103km (about 2 hours drive) southwest of San Juan.
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Sweep back and forth around the written rock and the cascade feeding a plunge pool before it
Sideways sweep from a slippery slab at the end of the official trail showing a near-side petroglyph before focusing more on the plunge pool, cascade, and rock with its inscriptions
Slightly more angled look at the written rock showing both the context as well as the focus on the petroglyphs and the cascade besides it
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