Connecticut Flower State

90 acres of botanical gardens await discerning Puerto Rican tourists, many of whom visit the expansive Montoso Gardens in Puerto Rico to unearth a colorful inventory of over 600 species of flowers, plants, fruits, nuts, and spices. The garden, an elusive jewel poised along the staggering Pico Montoso Mountain, overlooking the turquoise Caribbean Sea, has elicited eco-tourists and horticulturists alike from even the world's most remote crevices.

The allure of the Montoso Gardens, aside from its fascinating location (wedged between soaring mountains at an altitude of 1500 feet), boils down to the garden's multifaceted landscape: Montoso houses not only a colorful botanical garden, but also a comprehensive nursery and tropical and flower fruit farm. As such, Montoso Gardens is a sanctuary for those in pursuit of the tropic's diverse assemblage of flora.

Adjacent to the 5,000-acre Maricao State Forest, this former coffee plantation was created in 1987 by Bryan Brunner, a devout tropical horticulturalist who, after coming to Puerto Rico to teach graduate horticulture courses, decided to remain permanently and commit himself to conservation and tropical ecotourism.

Visiting Montoso Gardens entails a world of tropical opportunity, and for $5 donation, Montoso guests can absorb the garden's natural beauty through breathtaking hikes and scenic mountain vistas which provide a canvas for photographers of all skill levels. Visitors will admire the orange birds of paradise and fluorescent pink gingers that blanket the garden's surface- sample cinnamon, pili nuts, or several others in its whopping 258 fruit, nut, and spice collection- and wander among delicate flowers as they linger gracefully among the mountainous terrain.

Enid Glasgow is a travel writer who enjoys traveling in the Americas and Caribbean. When visiting Puerto Rico, she stays at luxury like Gran Melia.