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Caribbean Travel RoundupNewsletter - Paul Graveline, Editor |
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This posting is a journal account of the trip my wife and I made to
Puerto Rico recently. We visited Luquillo, Vieques Island, Coamo,
Boqueron, Rincon and San Juan. We rented a car from a local outfit
called L&M car rental. We do not speak Spanish, and were not part of
an organized tour group. We reserved 3 nights accommodations in
Luquillo, and another 3 nights in Esperanza, on Vieques Island. Our
itinerary, apart from that dictated by our reservations, was pretty
loose. Since we were going to have a car, we figured we could pretty
much follow our noses anywhere we wanted. We brought our snorkeling
equipment, intending to Scuba dive if possible. We also wanted to
visit the Camuy caves, and the Phosphorescent bay on Vieques Island.
As with my previous postings, it will become obvious as you read that
I am not a professional writer, so forgive any spelling/grammar
mistakes. I have done my best to adhere to the use of politically
correct terminology where needed.
We took no special medical precautions, prior to leaving.
US currency is used in Puerto Rico, so all prices are given in US
Dollars.
Some meal prices include a 15% service charge added by the
restaurant. Temperatures are given in Fahrenheit degrees. Distances
are give in Feet/Miles. Times are given in hours.
We had great difficulty finding detailed travel books on Puerto Rico.
We brought Fodors Pocket guide, and photocopied some sections of "The
Caribbean Islands Handbook", and "Affordable Caribbean". I would have
very much liked to find a Lonely Planet Guide, or at least a full-
sized volume, but could not. We also brought a travelers Spanish
dictionary, which was useless since almost everyone spoke a degree of
English, and at least half the people spoke it fluently. We brought a
Canon AE-1 with a 25-200mm Zoom/Macro, and some disposable cameras to
use in our Ikelite underwater camera housing.
Note: Paradores are a set of Hotels which are heavily promoted by the
Puerto Rico tourist board. We stayed at two of them and found them to
be distinguished only by their high prices.
My wife's name is Linda, and my name is Chris.
Wednesday June 5 We got off to a rough start leaving Cleveland for
Puerto Rico. While grabbing a quick cup of coffee at the airport, I
asked Linda where the travelers checks were. You can imagine the
horrified look that accompanied the response: "In my purse...on the
dining room table". I immediately went over to the airport ATM
machine and grabbed another $200 cash. I hoped our VISA and AMEX
cards, along with $350 cash, would get us through 13 days in Puerto
Rico. Our American Airlines flight left about an hour late, due to a
radio problem that needed some mechanics to come on board. Since our
layover in Miami was only 30 minutes to begin with, making the
connection to San Juan was going to be a problem. So far, my
experience with American Airlines was consistent; never less than 45
minutes late leaving Cleveland. About an hour into the flight, they
told us we would definitely not make the 10:30 connection, but that
there was an 11:30 flight to San Juan. I got on the in-flight phone
and called the American Airlines reservation number to make sure we
could get 2 confirmed seats on the 11:30. I was nervous about getting
seats, since they told us that 29 people on this flight were
connecting to San Juan. Anyway, when we got to Miami, American had
automatically re-booked everyone on the next flight.
On the Cleveland flight, there was an obnoxious lady a few rows ahead
of us who spent 2 of the 2.5 hours of the flight talking over the
back of the seat to some poor guy who was doing everything he could
to get away from her - reading books, writing letters etc. She just
would not shut up. The annoyance of having to listen to her was
almost made up for by the enjoyment I got from watching him try to
ignore her.
In Miami, we split a $3.50 piece of pizza (admittedly it was big
piece of pizza, but $3.50!), and bought a newspaper. The newsstand
charged sales tax for the paper, a first in my experience. Apparently
it had taken others by surprise, too, since there was a sign that
said "Florida law requires us to charge sales tax on all printed
material."
The flight from Miami to San Juan was uneventful. Most of the people
on the plane were Puerto Rican, with a few gringos who looked like
they were headed for cruise ships. We got our baggage and saw a lot
of guys hanging around holding signs for resorts and ships. We had a
reservation with L&M car rental. We were the only people at any of
the car rental desks. The woman at L&M was very friendly, and told us
about some of the local foods, and to make sure we had seafood in
Fajardo. She said Puerto Rican food would make us fat.
We took the L&M shuttle bus, a converted trolley car (pretty weird).
On the bus was a young American who lived in Puerto Rico. He told us
the Northwest coast was very nice. He seemed like a rich kid. He gave
us his business card, which described him as a "Sculptor and Bronze
Founder". One of the nice things about being rich is that you can
indulge your children's offbeat career choices.
We found our way out of San Juan and got on a congested Route 3,
headed east to Luquillo. After about 45 minutes, we got to the town,
and spent a further 30 minutes trying to find the Parador Martorell
in a 10 square block area along the ocean. The beach was magnificent,
and this was just the town beach, not the public beach we had seen a
couple miles back up the road. The beach was several miles long, with
some decent waves, in places. We noticed a complete lack of gringos
other than us.
We finally found the poorly marked Parador Martorell. As we checked
in we got another surprise: my VISA card was rejected by the card
reader. Luckily Linda had hers. Our room was quite basic, especially
considering the $60/night rate. It was very small, but clean, and had
TV, A/C and a bathroom.
We knew from the guidebooks that accommodations here were going to
be more expensive than we had experienced in Mexico, Belize and
Ecuador. Parador Martorell would be a $20 hotel (if that) in Ecuador.
We sat for a while in the lobby, which was loaded with tropical
plants and open all around. Except for the iron security bars that
encased it (and every other structure in Puerto Rico, as we were to
find). We watched a heavy rain fall for about 30 minutes, followed by
the emergence of a very bright sun. We asked the lady at the hotel
desk for a good restaurant in town, and she recommended Victors, next
to the church on the main plaza. Driving around in the old town of
Luquillo was ridiculous - lots of one-way streets. We drove down the
same narrow streets so many times people started really staring at
us. It was at this point that I started to notice what I perceived as
menacing looks from some of the local people. This was contrary to
the very friendly behavior of the people we had actually dealt with.
Victors was a nice place, probably the nicest in town, and
undoubtedly the most expensive. I had conch stew, Linda had conch
vinaigrette, both with side dishes of rice and beans (kidney). The
beans were served in a little bowl, with a plate of rice. The waiter
saw me eating the beans out of the bowl, and came over to show us how
to eat them. First, spread the rice out on the plate, then dump the
beans and all their liquid onto the rice. Then eat it. They were
delicious, and the lesson was useful for the rest of the trip. Both
conch dishes were excellent, but everything was expensive - $8.50 for
the entrees, and we had the cheapest items on the menu. We definitely
could not afford to eat like this for the entire trip. The food was a
decent value for the money, by Ohio standards at least, but we just
didn't want to spend that much. We saw some cheaper looking places to
try the next day. We got back to the room about 7:30, and that was
pretty much it for the night.
Thursday June 6 Got up and had the breakfast provided by the Parador -
scrambled eggs and fruit. You don't really appreciate how good a
banana can taste until you eat one that hasn't sat in a shipping
container for week. About 10:00 we drove a few miles back west to the
balneario (public beach). They charged $2.00 to park, and there were
showers, changing facilities, beach chair rental, and souvenir
stands. One thing we had learned from the guidebooks was that this
was the most popular beach in Puerto Rico, with half of San Juan
coming out here every weekend. The parking lot and concession stands
looked set to handle thousands. Thursday was a good day to visit,
though, as there were only a few dozen people scattered along the
beach. Luquillo beach just goes forever. We walked to the limits of
the lifeguard area and saw that the beach continued all the way into
town, and several miles beyond. We rented a couple of beach chairs
for $3.00 each and started working on our sunburns. There was a
musical group of about 15 young people, who spent several hours
tuning their instruments. Occasionally they would break into a great
Salsa riff for a few minutes, but they were mostly screwing around.
They didn't seem to be practicing, and we really couldn't figure out
why they were there. Around 1:00 PM, we figured we probably had
enough sun to be sunburned for the rest of the trip, so we headed on
out. Just then, the tour busses started rolling in (my friend in
Hawaii calls them "Tuna Boats") . Anyway, the tuna boats came in and
then the band started getting serious about playing. All the tunas
from the busses had cruise line tote bags, so apparently they make
Luquillo one of their day trips. The tunas got out and started
snapping up the T-shirts and lining up at the buffet tent. It started
to rain and we were ready to leave anyway.
After we left the beach, we drove east to Fajardo, about 20 minutes,
to see where the ferry to Vieques Island leaves from. There are signs
pointing to the dock area, and there were a couple of parking lots
nearby. We didn't stop to check on tickets, which we should have.
Outside of Fajardo we bought some food at a grocery store (Amigos).
Groceries were pretty expensive, bananas 49 cents per lb., apples
$1.50 per lb. Puerto Rico is just not a place for a cheap vacation,
from what we had seen so far. We were able to use a credit card to
pay for the groceries, though. We also stopped at a WalMart and
bought some cheap beach towels. Having just been to a WalMart in
Cleveland, I could tell that prices were about 25% higher in Puerto
Rico. They did have quite a selection of beach towels and beach
chairs, though...
Back at the hotel we tried to take a nap. Three hours in the tropical
sun in June really takes it out of you. No luck on the nap, though.
Some guy with a power saw was raising hell right outside our room.
(This guy has followed me all over the world with that power saw. He
also has an electric sander, and I believe he may live near me in
Ohio). Then the maid came walking into our room without knocking. I
bitched about the noise, to no effect. We decided to take a walk on
the beach, from the end of our street down past town. We walked about
1.5 miles along the truly beautiful Luquillo beach. Past town, the
beach continued for several more miles, as far as you could see. Some
kids were surfing in one section - it is really a great beach. We
were both feeling the effects of the sun. My stomach and legs were
fried. Luckily we had been careful to sunscreen our noses and ears.
We were getting hungry in the late afternoon, so we went out looking
for a cheaper place than last night. We checked the menu at "Joey's
Ribs", which was very expensive ($9-$25 per entre). Other places were
even worse. Finally we found a Chinese take-out place. I had Chicken
with Broccoli, with fried rice and French fries for $4.50, and Linda
had 3 pieces of fried chicken with fried rice for $3.50. The food was
pretty good, and we had enough left over to save the most of the
fried chicken for tomorrow. Went to bed relatively late - about 9:30
this time.
Friday June 7 I woke up early, 6:00 am, and went out to find some
coffee. Fat chance. There were a lot of people driving around, going
to work etc., but no place open. I even drove down to Fajardo, but
even the McDonalds was closed until 7:30 am. We were going to El
Yunque rainforest park today, and I wanted to get an early start. I
spent so much time driving around that the Parador was serving
breakfast by the time I got back. They had pancakes and pineapple
today, and their coffee was very good. We left for El Yunque about
8:00. We got a little rain on the beautiful ride up to the park. It
is extremely lush, and the landscape here, and in a lot of Puerto
Rico, reminded me of the central highlands of Costa Rica. They even
have the same kind of "living fenceposts" here. These are fresh tree
branches cut and used as fenceposts. After a while they start
growing, so eventually you end up with a line of trees connected by
barbed wire.
The new El Yunque visitor center, "El Portal" was closed, but we saw
a sign that said "El Yunque Trail .5 mile". We figured we'd take this
1/2 mile trail and come back to the visitor center. We started up a
really well-maintained trail through some extremely lush palm forest.
After about twenty minutes, we came to a sign that said "El Yunque
Peak - 2.8 miles". So apparently the first sign meant 1/2 mile to the
El Yunque trailhead. We decided to continue on to the peak, and turn
around if we got tired. We both had good hiking boots and raincoats
(as well as the camera, food, Swiss Army Knife etc. etc.). The trail
was pretty easy in most places, and well maintained. Some of the
potentially slippery spots had roughened concrete. It rained off and
on and there was a pleasant breeze most of the time. As we got higher
the mist increased and there were fewer palm trees in the forest. The
quantity of epiphytic plants increased, though. There was not an
abundance of flowers, but there were some bright red bromeliads to be
seen.
After about two hours of steady walking we came to a place where the
trail crossed the exposed mountain face. The wind was very strong,
and the mist was so thick you couldn't see anything. You could tell
that the mountain dropped away steeply. We came to a rocky
outcropping. I crawled out and Linda took my picture. Some people
told us later that the rangers warned them that people had been blown
off that rock to their deaths. The vegetation was stunted by the wind
and it was a pretty surreal scene. The mist lifted briefly and we
could see that it was indeed a very steep drop down the mountain.
After another 1/2 mile we came to the end of El Yunque trail. The end
was anti-climactic: just a guardhouse and a bunch of radio antennae.
The guard was fairly surly, and gruntingly pointed at a cooler when I
asked him for some water. His job was apparently to literally do
nothing but sit in a chair and watch TV, perhaps just to keep hikers
from damaging the radio towers. We only stayed a few minutes and
headed back down the trail. We had seen no other hikers during the
entire 3.3 miles up the trail, but we saw a few groups of people
coming up, while we were headed down. About 1/2 way down we stopped
and had lunch - yesterdays fried chicken and some fruit. The return
trip was much easier, since it was all downhill. Throughout the hike,
we heard the Coqui frog - apparently the symbol of Puerto Rico. It is
a tiny frog that makes a loud "Ko-Kwee" sound. El Yunque forest is
famous for them.
After we finished hiking, we drove back down the way we came, towards
the visitor center. El Portal looked to be a brand new, elaborate
building. However, they charged $3.00 per person to get in, which I
thought was ridiculous, so we passed. Instead we turned around,
headed back up the hill, and took some country roads in a roundabout
trip back to Luquillo. We went down some roads that were about 1/2 as
wide as my driveway, through some splendid mountain scenery. There
were scattered houses, with beautiful gardens, but not much actual
agriculture. We stopped to take pictures of some spectacular flowers
in peoples yards. There were very few people around, and those that
were looked at us with what I interpreted as a mixture of suspicion
and dislike. I really don't know what they thought of two gringos in
a rental car, but they sure didn't act like they were used to seeing
strangers there.
We came out of the hills, back down into Luquillo, and stopped at
McDonalds for some coffee. I normally like their coffee, but I found
it to be mediocre compared to most of the coffee we drank in Puerto
Rico. Again we tried to take a nap at the Parador, and again there
was a one-man power tool symphony in the yard below our room. I was
becoming less satisfied with Parador Martorell each day, and was
really looking forward to Vieques Island on Saturday. We didn't check
out any other accommodations in Luquillo; most seemed to be weekend
condo rentals. I just cannot give Parador Martorell a recommendation.
It is too basic, and noisy for the cost.
We went back down to the main square to look for some dinner. We had
seen a pizza place across the square from Victors, but it looked
pretty scummy. Instead we went across the highway and had a decent
pizza at Antonino's. It looked like a chain, but they served beer
(10oz cans of Budweiser). After that it was another early night.
Saturday June 8 Woke up early and got on the road to Fajardo to catch
the 9:00 am ferry to Vieques. We got to Fajardo about 8:00 and parked
the car in a pay lot ($3.00 per day) near the dock. I assumed (!)
that the car would be safe in a pay lot.
We were dismayed to see hundreds of people lined up waiting for the
ferries to Vieques and Culebra. Most looked like day-trippers, just
carrying coolers and beach blankets. We didn't know where to buy
tickets, but I saw a line at a building across the street where a lot
of people were lined up. I joined the line and learned that the 9:00
ferry was sold out. I was instantly bummed, since my guidebook had
said the next ferry left at 3:00 PM (of course there was no posted
schedule). Someone in line told me that there would be an 11:00 trip,
but that they would not start selling tickets for the 11:00 ferry
until the 9:00 left. So I waited 45 minutes and finally got to buy
two tickets for $2.00 apiece. We grabbed our bags and got in the soon-
to-be-chaotic line for the Vieques ferry. To our pleasant surprise
they started boarding another ferry at 9:30 and we were sailing
before 10:00. The passage to Vieques took about 90 minutes and was
pretty enjoyable. We even saw some dolphins swimming alongside for a
few minutes. As time went on the sea got a little rougher and the
people sitting on the left (port?) side of the ferry got drenched,
especially those at the back. Maybe that's why all the old people sat
on the other side.
At Vieques we got crammed into a little Publico (van taxi) with what
seemed like about 30 other people and their luggage. We were all
headed for Esperanza, about 20 minutes south of the dock area. The
driver dropped us and 3 other gringos at Bananas. Bananas is a 20 or
so room hotel with an open air bar/restaurant right across the street
from the ocean. The view from the bar was superb - bright blue ocean
and sky, a little island about 1/4 mile offshore, some anchored
fishing boats. Our room was a lot nicer than the one in Luquillo - a
suite with A/C and a refrigerator, with a little screened-in porch.
It was clean and cost $60.00 per night. We ate lunch at the hotel
restaurant, a chicken sub and rice & beans. The rice & beans were
served as they were in Luquillo; since the waiter had helped us
there, we knew just what to do.
We took a walk along the main drag of Esperanza - about 3/4 mile,
with Bananas just about in the middle. This looked like a good place
to do not a whole lot of anything. The coastline was very pretty.
There isn't much beach in town; we had read that the good beaches
were on the military bases. We walked down to Blue Caribe Dive Shop
to inquire about diving and Phosphorescent bay trips. Mosquito Bay is
supposed to be one of the worlds best Phosphorescent bays, where
microscopic glowing creatures light up in the water when disturbed.
This was one of our primary reasons for coming to Vieques. We signed
up for a P-bay trip that night, for $17 each. Their dive packages
were $85 pp with their equipment, $75 pp with your own equipment.
They said the weather was questionable for diving the next day, but
that we should come back in the morning. We went for a very hot walk
around this small town, before returning to Bananas for a nap.
It was starting to get dark as we headed over to Blue Caribe for our
P-Bay trip. there were a total of 11 people, using plastic kayaks. We
rode with the guide over to the launch site. He was a Floridian who
had been on Vieques for 5 years and seemed to know and care a lot
about the history and culture of the island. We got the kayaks in the
water and started paddling out into the bay. It was pretty dark, but
it looked like a circular bay, maybe 1 or 2 miles across, with a very
narrow opening to the sea. Our guide (I have forgotten his name) said
the shoreline was all mangroves, and the water was very shallow.
Paddling out, you could start to see some sparkles in the water. The
water welling up into the kayak and swirling around the paddles got
more and more sparkly, with thousands of little phosphorescent spots.
Out in the center of the bay it was truly fantastic. You could see
bright trails underwater from swimming fish. If you shook your hand
underwater there was an explosion of sparks all around it. Even
little waves had flecks of light in them. You could make out each
kayak by its luminescent wake. I jumped in the water and dove under.
The glow from my swimming body is indescribable. The magic of the
moment fled immediately, when I realized my kayak was being blown
rapidly away. The water was shallow, about 4 feet deep. The bottom
was covered with seagrass and mud that threatened to pull my Tevas
off. I got back in my kayak as soon as the guide brought it back to
me. It really was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I took
handfuls of water and poured them on myself: it looked like I was
pouring little diamonds all over my body. This was unique among my
experiences. This is said to be the best bay of its kind outside of
China. There are 750,000 bioluminescent dinoflagellates per gallon of
water (who counted them? I had a hard enough time spelling it!)
Diesel powered boats, pollution and insect repellent all threaten the
delicate life here. The experience could be diminished by increased
shoreline development and its accompanying light pollution. Our guide
said that there was a Phosphorescent bay in Florida when he was a kid
that has been completely destroyed by pollution. The local people
seem to understand that even though this is a tourist attraction that
brings money to the island they have to be careful to keep it fairly
low key. We heard that the other P-Bay in Parguera, the one shown on
the maps, is pretty well diminished in effect now, due to diesel
boats. This is certainly one of the wonders of the natural world, in
my opinion, though the experience was over too quickly.
We walked back to Bananas for dinner: a huge hamburger for me and a
steak sandwich for Linda. I made a note to skip the French fries next
time, though. It was about 10:00 pm by the time we got to sleep.
Sunday June 9 I got up very early and sat on the screened porch for
a while until Linda woke up. We had a great breakfast at the
Tradewinds hotel restaurant. Sunday was Belgian waffle day, so we had
one of those and some corned beef hash. I had already eaten about a
years worth of meat on this trip. At the giftshop we heard some other
people say that their morning dive had been canceled due to rough
seas. We walked down to Blue Caribe to check. The dive master said
the waves were 5'-7', which was to much for their boat. unfortunately
they didn't expect it to get better very soon. Our fallback plan was
to rent a car for the day and go to some of the beaches on the
military bases.
The east side base was closed for some type of ammunition transfer
operation. The west side was open, though. We called Island Car
Rental from Bananas and they came to pick us up. We rented a real
beater of a Hyundai for $35 and drove to Garcia gate. There is a
military checkpoint where they look at your drivers license. The part
of the base we drove through looked abandoned. Unusually for a
military base, there were broken down buildings and weed covered
fields, and no people. We drove about 5 miles down a dirt road, to a
turnoff for "Blue Beach" (standard colorful military naming
convention -also on the island are "Red Beach" and "Green Beach").
There were several cutoffs leading to the beach. The bay is
spectacular, with that gorgeous Caribbean turquoise water and white
sand. The beach was pretty shallow, ranging from 20 to 75 feet. There
were a few people scattered around, and a windsurfer flying across
the water, back and forth between the shore and an island about 3/4
mile offshore. We lounged around in the blistering sun, using lots of
sunscreen. We walked to the point at the east end of the bay, where
the shore was rocky. We passed one part of the beach where the water
washed over a bunch of small rocks and broken shells, making a really
cool musical tinkling. We left the beach in the afternoon, and drove
around the town of Isabella, where the ferry docks. It was totally
dead: no people, nothing open.
Back in Esperanza, we ate at Tradewinds. At the bar we met a former
resident of Vieques (American) who does contract teaching for IBM.
Typical talkative expatriate, full of B.S. about everything - writing
science fiction books, living in the Caribbean. The woman who worked
at the bar was more low key, but interesting. She had lived on
Vieques off and on for 17 years. She ran a business making hot sauces
for export and the local restaurants. Our dinner was excellent, but
very pricey. We both had capitain, a local fish with white flesh and
a fresh ocean taste. I love to eat seafood when I can see the ocean
that it was swimming in that morning, and this was definitely the
case here. We also had conch chowder, made with potato and pumpkin.
It was pretty spicy, but delicious. The fish was about $14 each, the
chowder $3-4, so with a few Coronas and tip we were about $60 poorer.
This was our one big splurge dinner of the trip, and probably the
best place to do it.
Monday June 10 Another early morning, and another breakfast at
Tradewinds (French Toast and cereal). I was kind of wishing we had
stayed there instead of Bananas. Bananas was the hangout for resident
expatriate Americans, doing what they do best: drinking and BS'ing
about themselves. I really like these tropical places, but I am
pretty turned off by the expatriate lifestyle, which is pretty
similar every place I've seen it. Work in the tourist industry
(souvenir shops, hotels, bars, dive shops) all day, and drink with
the other expats at night. Tradewinds seemed a lot more laid back
than Bananas, although we didn't check out the rooms. I think the
rates are similar.
We had to have the car back by 1:00 pm, so we decided to do a few
more hours of beach time at the base. We drove to the east base, but
they were still closed for operations. We went back to Blue beach for
some serious power burning from 10:00 to 12:15. This time the area
was completely empty. We could see two other people about a mile down
the beach, but other than that we had the entire place to ourselves.
This was a rare treat - miles of beach and ocean in private. We left
early enough to get the car back on time, and they drove us back into
Esperanza. The town was completely dead. It was mid-afternoon and the
weekend visitors had left. We were outnumbered by the expat drinkers
at Bananas. There is a red-haired waitress at Bananas who had been
completely unhelpful the day before when we were trying to get a
rental car. She was equally unhelpful today when we tried to figure
out how to get a taxi for the next day. The people at this hotel
didn't seem to be interested in doing much for you except relieving
you of your money. We called 3 of the 4 publicos (taxis) with numbers
posted on the bulletin board. One of them said their taxi was broken
but they would arrange for someone to pick us up the next morning at
6:00am. We wanted to get the 7:00 am ferry back to Fajardo. A few
people, including the waitress at Tradewinds told us that the publico
drivers were reliable, so it became an exercise in trust that we
would make it.
We spent some time planning the next phase of our trip along the
Panoramic route ("Ruta Panoramica" on maps) through the south central
mountains. We planned to try to make it to Banos De Coamo, another
Parador northeast of Ponce. The woman at Tradewinds told us that
driving would take about twice as long as it looked on the map, both
because the roads were narrow and because we would want to enjoy the
scenery along the way. We figured that we would need to catch the
early ferry in order to have enough time to get to Banos De Coamo.
After a nap it was time to go out and hit the Monday night Medallia
beer special at Bananas ($1.00 for a 10oz can). We ordered 2 at a
time each. While we were sitting at the bar, a busload of young
American sailors came into town. They were probably not stationed on
Vieques - they had very white skin and didn't seem to know the town
at all. I guessed that they were from the ship that was transferring
ammunition on the east base. At first I wondered if this was going to
be like one of those old John Wayne movies where the sailors come
into town and bust up all the bars and fight with the locals, but
they were all very well behaved. There were two Shore Patrol officers
walking up and down the street keeping an eye on everything, though.
Tuesday June 11 We got up at 5:00 am, in the naive hope that our pre-
arranged taxi would actually show up. We were waiting out in front of
Bananas before 6:00 am, and continued to wait until almost 7:00 am,
the departure time of the early ferry. Finally, a publico came by and
I said "The ferry?" , the driver said "Si!". He got us to the pier
just in time for us to see the ferry leaving. It was literally about
4 feet from the dock. We sat in the taxi bitching, although this
driver was not the guy who had been supposed to pick us up. I really
didn't feel like sitting around the ferry terminal for 4 hours until
the next departure. The publico driver, who spoke very little
English, said "El Aeropuerto?", and managed to communicate that we
could fly to Fajardo for $15 each. This sounded unlikely, but we had
nothing to lose, so we paid him another $2 each to drive us over to
the Vieques Aeropuerto. Sure enough the guy at the Isla Nenes
airlines ticket counter told us he could get us on the 8:00 am flight
to Fajardo for $15 each. It looked like they just flew a circle
route, like a bus, between Fajardo, Vieques and possibly Culebra. We
went over to a little food stand and had some coffee and a great ham
sandwich. In the middle of breakfast the guy from the Isla Nenes desk
called the food stand and said our plane had arrived. We ran back
over to the terminal, paid $30 for our tickets, and hopped on the
plane. It was a twin engine 10 seater which took off with no delay.
The ten minute flight to Fajardo was the best deal we had in Puerto
Rico so far. We flew over the navy ship on the east base and got a
pretty good view of some reefs on the way over. At Fajardo we got a
publico down to the port to pick up our car. I paid $12 to get the
car out. I was very satisfied to be driving off just as the ferry
we'd missed was pulling in.
A Tour Around Puerto Rico This is a review, in the form of diary with tips, of my wife Ariane, our 20 month old son Kyle and myself, Evan's, first holiday in Puerto Rico. We set out to try and get a flavor of all the island in only 10 days by renting a car and driving around PR. Hopefully, if you're also a first timer, this will give you an idea of what's available. If you've visited before it would be interesting if you've shared any of our experiences (including our first hurricane, Bertha!). We reckon we've gotten a reasonable handle on what to do and eagerly look forward to our next trip, so that we can re-visit our favorite places and explore some new ones. Puerto Rico was and is a dream vacation. Thursday, 4th July - Arrival in San Juan We headed to Puerto Rico, courtesy of Delta Frequent Flyer Miles, from Houston via Atlanta and Orlando. In San Juan, we had decided to make reservations at the Condado Beach Hotel through Travelers Advantage, as this was on their list of half price hotels. We managed to get a room with two doubles, overlooking the sea, on their executive Vanderbildt Club 5th floor for a rate of $90 per night (breakfast included along with a free private bar area in the evening!). We reckoned this was a great bargain as the Tourist Guide Magazine we had listed rooms at $190-$430. We arrived at Luis Munon International Airport at about 10:30pm. Originally, we'd planned to hire a car from National on arrival, but I was a bit nervous about first messing around and picking up a car that late in the evening (from an airport we'd been told could resemble a zoo), and then in the dark, finding our hotel in a place we'd never been to. We therefore decided to keep things simple by taking a 20 minute taxi ride into town and then collecting our car the next day. This turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise. We'd heard rumors about traffic in San Juan, but thought that late at night it would be minimal - wrong! Because we were arriving on the 4th of July, everyone was out to party and the streets of Ashford Avenue, where the Condado Beach is, were jam-packed. Our helpful taxi driver tried a few short cuts but everything was locked solid reminding us of the traffic in Jakarta, Indonesia, where we used to stay. Eventually we got to the hotel at about midnight, checked in and collapsed into bed. The Condado Beach is at 1061 Ashford Avenue, San Juan, PR 00907 - Tel 1 800 468 2822 & 809 721 6090 / Fax 1 809 724 7222, (Mail to PO Box 41226, Minillas Station, San Juan PR 00940) Friday, 5th July - Our First Day We rose early and caught a taxi into Old San Juan. Unlike last night where our driver had charged us at the rate we'd read about and expected, I didn't notice this fellow had left his meter off and charged us double what we expected. We rightly or wrongly decided to avoid a fuss and be more careful next time. We do understand than the San Juan authorities have tightened up considerably on unruly taxi drivers and you can see many cabs and magazines displaying a map of flat rates, based on zones within the city for each journey. Make sure your driver switches his meter on and follows these rates. We got dropped off at the Tourist Information Center, La Casita just by the Cruise Ship docks and set off into Old San Juan. We discovered Old San Juan to be a beautiful collection of small winding streets with, obviously, many strong Spanish architectural influences. There are an abundance of beautiful old churches, convents, museums, etc., interlinked with signs that you are still actually in the US, e.g. Walgreens, KFC, etc. From the former, you might want to visit such places as Cathedral de San Juan (Cristo and Caletta de Las Monjas), Plaza del Quinto Centenario - Quincentennial Square (just off Beneficencia), Iglesia San Jose (by Plaza San Jose by Beneficencia and San Sebastian), or a myriad of other gems. Old San Juan is chock a block with places to visit within a small area. The streets are a bit hilly so be prepared for a strenuous walk. However, they also offer many scenic picture opportunities, particularly looking out from the City Walls over San Juan Bay. The tourist office had also given us a small street map and marked it up with some local tips of eating establishments. For lunch we decided to try a place we hadn't read about in any of the literature we'd received in the US, Cafe Guillermo. This place was a real find and we'd recommend it highly for an inexpensive, yet terrific local or continental meal! It's located on Cruz (on the El Morro side), in between Luna and San Francisco. We had a great meal of appetizers such as Chorizo (spiced sausage) sauteed in wine, potato chunks in a tomato sauce, diced onions & tomatoes on a crisp new baguettes, Spanish egg omelet etc. Out total including soft drinks and tips, for Ariane, Kyle and I was only $22. We'd recommend going early though as we were literally first through the door at 11.30 and by 12, it was full with mostly local office workers. In the afternoon we headed off by foot for El Morro. We reached the promenade grass area in front in about 15 minutes. We stopped to rest up as the day was scorching hot and the hilly climb had taken it's toll on a pregnant Ariane. The large grass area in front was perfect to lie back and mellow out and Kyle had a blast running about all over the place, watching all the kites being flown. We then had our first misunderstanding of the trip. I wanted us to go up and look around El Morro but Ariane strangely decided against it and remained to relax further in the grass. In any case I headed off and had a great time with Kyle exploring the myriad of corridors and rooms, watching the video in the theater, checking out the souvenir shop and admiring the stunning views from all angles. We then headed back and met up with a somewhat irate Ariane who was wondering why we'd taken so long to look at what she thought was meant to be only a rundown shell of an old castle. On explaining what El Morro did contain, Ariane then obviously decided she'd wished she'd come along so we decided to come back the next day. As a "reward" and peace offering we then thought we'd chill out somewhere and catch a small refreshing beverage. We walked back into Old San Juan on the higher northern part and onto San Sebastian, just beyond Iglesia De San Jose. We entered a simple open bar, I forget the name, on the corner and I had my first Medallia, the local beer. The cold as ice bottle turned out to be marvelously refreshing so I decided to stick with this for the rest of the trip, in favor of the widely available mainland brands such a Bud or Coors. After this we walked around the area doing some window shopping (good quality costs in Old San Juan, inexpensive bargains are undoubtedly poor quality) before catching a cab to the airport to pick up our car and then returning to the hotel. For dinner, we have to take this opportunity to thank fellow Compuserve members Heber and Larissa Rosa, who recommended some restaurants in a reply to a question of mine in The Travel Forum. They suggested we try out Ajili Mojili in Condado (Joffre and Clemenceau) for some fine Puerto Rican food. We walked there in 5 minutes from the hotel and had the culinary experience of the trip. On Larissa's recommendation we both had Mofongo, a local specialty. It's was served in a wooden "cup". The cup contained an outer casing of what I believe was a pork rind base and then filled with, in my case stuffed crabmeat, and Ariane's, tenderloin and chick peas. This was accompanied by beans and rice and was a gastronomic extravaganza which totally filled us both up. I'd recommend calling ahead for a reservation (725 9195) as we were lucky to get a table for two. The waiters were also very attentive and, for a good restaurant, also paid positive attention to Kyle, at one point taking him for a walk to the bar allowing us to eat uninhibited! Dressing up a bit would also help as a T-shirt and shorts would look a bit out of place. Meal, drinks and tip was a reasonable $66. After dinner we walked back to the hotel for a nighttime cocktail. We sat in the lounge in the entrance and admired the Condado's beautiful Grand Staircase. Some fancy function, probably a prom, was underway as scores of young Puerto Ricans dressed to kill in tuxedo's and stunning evening gowns were arriving and going up to the ballroom. Saturday, 6th July - More of Old San Juan Instead of having a hotel breakfast, when we arose we decided to eat on the run. Directly opposite the Condado Beach is a tiny kiosk in the wall which sells empanadas, pies and other local specialties. They are very tasty, fresh and cheap. We then drove back into Old San Juan and it being a Saturday had no problem finding a car parking spot in one of the multistory car parks. We decided to tour "outer" Old San Juan, starting from the same Tourist Information Center. We walked down Paseo de la Princesa, a pretty pedestrian promenade below the City Walls. Toward the end is the scenic Paseo de la Princesa fountain and all along the walk are old statues set in below the city walls. We then headed up inland again towards El Morro. When we arrived, as luck would have it, there was a Puerto Rican salsa band and dance troupe recording a pop video in the grass moat of El Morro. We stood and watched this for a while, really enjoying the music which seemed so suitable for the location and the sunny weather. We then ventured into El Morro and I enjoyed my second trip as much as the first. We spent more time on the higher regions of the fort and also visited the small museum. There are many photo op's and amongst others, we got some good ones of me "posing" on top of a pile of cannonballs. By now it was time for a late lunch. We headed back to San Sebastian, which seems to be filled with nothing but pubs and restaurants. We stopped in at Patio El Sam for cerviche, Guava Shells with Puerto Rican Cheese, Tostones (fried plantains) and the mandatory beans and rice. Although this sounds mouthwatering the food was a bit disappointing despite Patio El Sam having a fine decor. A lunch bill of $33 saw us on our way back to the hotel for a siesta. Back at the hotel we realized we'd lost some souvenirs we'd bought at El Morro. We reckoned we'd left them under the table at the restaurant and called up. Fortunately they were still there and I drove back into town for them. I stopped by the small bar we'd visited yesterday, which was almost next door to Patio El Sam for another refreshing Medallia. At this time a policeman and a somewhat agitated mainland US tourist came in. The tourist was apparently looking for some help in translating something to the policeman. The barman helped out and it arose that the situation was that the tourist's wife had had her bag snatched at Plaza del Quinto Centenario. The policeman duly went off to help. For the whole time in the island this was the only hint of crime we saw. We always felt very safe and comfortable and it appears that the only crime against tourists is occasional random petty theft without violence. If you follow some basic, common-sense precautions, then the crime is probably far less than back on the mainland. Back at the hotel I joined Ariane and Kyle at the nice outdoor pool on the third floor for a leisurely swim. Later I was watching CNN and casually mentioned to Ariane that they said a tropical storm was heading into the Caribbean in our direction. Thereafter we relaxed for the rest of the day before heading downstairs for dinner at the Condado Beach's Cafe Del Arte. Unfortunately, this restaurant was disappointing in relation to the grandeur of the hotel itself and our first waiter was particularly inattentive and unhelpful. The food itself was fairly average and Ariane and Kyle retired for an early night. I myself feeling a bit more adventurous, took off for an after dinner stroll down Ashford Avenue. It was an interesting walk and as I've said before, I felt perfectly safe. About the only disturbance was young Puerto Ricans cruising in their cars, each trying to outdo the volume of the others car stereo's! I stopped by a bar for a cocktail and ambled back to the room. Watching CNN again I noticed that the storm was now a Hurricane called Bertha, was getting bigger and heading our way! Sunday, July 7th - El Yunque and Vicinity We arose bright and early on a sunny morning and headed out Highway 3 to Palmer, where we turned inland to El Yunque. On arriving at the first "gate", which was actually the entrance to the new multi- million dollar El Portal Exhibition and Conference Center, we were told by the attendant that the park was going to close at 12am so that they could prepare for the hurricane. This would give us 3 hours to tour El Yunque so we decided to bypass El Portal and head up into the forest on a quickly twisting and rising, but wide and relatively comfortable road. We had been concerned, with Ariane's pregnancy that El Yunque would involve parking in a central area and then some hefty walking. Much to our pleasure we discovered El Yunque is literally a "drive through" rain forest and all the main attractions can be reached this way. However, there are plenty of opportunities to park and either visit a site or head off into the forest for a hike on one of the many marked trails, of varying degrees of difficulty. Our first stop was at Las Cabezas Observation Point which offers a panoramic view out towards Luquillo and the coastline. We then drove on another few hundred meters to the scenic La Coca Falls. This seems to be an area of prime photo opportunities and is a must stop. A little bit further on is the Yokahu Observation Tower which Ariane commented looked like Rapunzel's Tower. Kyle and I climbed to the top, about 150ft, and again had some more 360 degree panoramic views of the forest and the coast in the distance. We then decided to drive on up to the top of El Yunque, bypassing some visitors centers which we planned to catch on the way down (you cannot do a "circular" tour, but must return down the same route). The road stops some 13 kilometers up. We wanted to hike to Mt. Britton lookout but decided it was too rough. We tried driving a bit closer down what appeared to be an side extension to the main road. However, the road got narrower and narrower and very pot-holed and rocky. Just when we decided we were heading into the middle of nowhere and would need to execute a multipoint turn, the track suddenly opened out again into the main route. We had in fact done a 1 kilometer, 180 degree turn, much to our relief. We then happily started heading downhill again and stopped at the Palo Colorado Visitor Information Center and Picnic Area. This is a small, but nice stop, which also offers some short walks to some nearby attractions. There is a picnic area complete with barbecue pits, some rock pools where many people were deciding to take a swim and a small man-made pond and bridge area which was very pretty. When we were finished, we then packed up and continued on downhill, bypassing the Sierra Palm Visitor Information and Picnic Area. Cars continued to head uphill in droves and I immediately began to pity the unfortunate tourists and also many Puerto Rican families who were arriving en-masse, complete with sumptuous barbecue supplies. The time was now 11:30am and they had obviously not stopped at El Portal and were all blissfully unaware El Yunque was soon to close. As we left El Yunque we felt that it did deserve its reputation as "an enchanted forest". I had never seen so many different types of trees and vegetation in a small area - it felt that every "climate" of tree was there, from palm to pine. We had also been lucky as it had never rained during our relatively brief visit, it apparently rains heavily on the forest every By now, we were feeling very hungry. The day was still sunny and beautiful so we decided to head to nearby Fajardo and the El Conquistador resort. On arrival at El Conquistador, we were struck by the magnificent opulence of the place. You reach the resort proper from the main gate (where you pay a few dollars to get in) by driving a couple of kilometers through the golf course. As we were driving in, streams of cars were heading out. When we arrived at he hotel proper and walked into the reception, there were big long lines forming at the check out desk. Apparently, due to the incoming Bertha, the hotel had just made the decision to evacuate all local residents along with any mainland or foreign tourists who also wished to leave. People were struggling for the nearest phone and trying to get the few remaining seats on flights out of San Juan that afternoon. It was at this point we started to get a bit apprehensive as we were scheduled to check out of the Condado Beach the following morning and drive to Cabo Rojo, our next base, on the western side of the island. We decided to have a quick lunch and afterwards head back to San Juan to decide on what to do. The lower portion of the hotel on the coast looked very scenic, set against the vivid blue sea, so we took the cable car down the side of the hill to this area and went to the Stingray Cafe. On the way down, I took the opportunity to ask the cable car attendant on his recommendation as to what we should do and he basically laughed and told us to hunker down in San Juan and see the storm out. As we waited for lunch we eavesdropped over some other tables conversations. It transpired that although the hotels private Palomino Island was closed to residents, one of the managers of El Conquistador was sitting next to us, organizing a quick trip out in his yacht to it with some of his cronies - "while I still have a yacht" he was saying! Bertha therefore hung over us like a shadow during lunch. It was almost surreal sitting outside looking into the marina as the sun beat down, realizing that less than 24 hours later we could be getting battered by Bertha. The meal however lightened our frame of mind. I had a tasty goat cheese pizza and Ariane, some salmon with taboulli. With drinks and tips this came to $41, pretty reasonable indeed considering the setting and well worth trying out. The drive back to the hotel was a slow one with Highway 3 jam packed with weekend trippers heading back to San Juan to prepare for Bertha. On arrival at the Condado Beach, the staff basically re-iterated it wasn't wise for us to head to Cabo Rojo so we made a tentative reservation to stay an extra night. Although it was now 5pm, the weather was still gorgeous so we decided to head onto the beach to make the best of it while it lasted. We enjoyed frolicking around with Kyle and the rest of the beachgoers, still with no sign Bertha was on the way. After freshening up in our room we headed down to the Vanderbildt club for a quick cocktail and a dinner recommendation. The girls on duty recommended Amadeus on, yet again, San Sebastian in Old San Juan, as many of the restaurants had closed early to prepare for the hurricane. Thankfully the drive to Amadeus was quick with virtually no traffic. The meal though was average to decent as we dined on Cerviche, fried plantains and salmon, salad and soup finished off with some more guava shells and Puerto Rican cheese. The bill this time, a moderate $53 with drinks and tips. We paid by Visa and took advantage of a Visa Coupon book we had obtained from the Tourist Office, which gave us 10% off the bill. This is worthwhile obtaining as it has a wide variety of discounts for dining, excursions souvenirs and so on. Back at the hotel we inquired again as to the latest Bertha update. At this time we were fortunate enough to run into one of the off duty hotel management. This gentleman turned out to a tremendously friendly and helpful fellow called Mehdi Naqvi and he was the Director of Finance for the Condado Beach, it's sister hotel the La Concha and the neighboring Convention Center. He was most reassuring that the hotel had a good plan and suggested that we either stay this night as we'd planned and an extra day & night or if we wanted, check out early and head off to Cabo Rojo right away if we were up to it. As we'd had a long day and were tired we decided to stay put, sleep on it and hope that Bertha would change course overnight. Monday, July 8th - Bertha We awoke to gray skies, increasing wind and very choppy seas outside our balcony. With dismay we realized we were in fact going to have to hunker down an extra day & night. It was somewhat disappointing as we had planned to visit the Rio Camuy caverns this day, and then head on to Cabo Rojo for the next three days. As it was we went to breakfast with our heads down. We bumped into Mehdi again, now on duty, but every bit as cheerful as the first time we met him. Mehdi said that the hurricane was bearing down on us but that he felt it would turn north at the last minute. He told us to take it easy and that the hotel would put a evacuation plan for the refugee shelter under our door, with instructions as to what and when to do. He told us the plan was to move everyone into the Convention Center's windowless auditorium and wait out the storm. There would be food provided and radio info on a regular basis. After breakfast we met some mainlanders who were resident on the island, coming into the hotel. They explained that they headed for the Condado Beach every hurricane, as it was the "best place to be on the island". I also decided to make a quick run to Walgreens to stock up on toys for Kyle to entertain himself with during our upcoming "internment". It was now about 9:30am and the eye apparently 3 to 4 hours away. As I left the hotel with Kyle, it still hadn't started to rain but the wind was picking up quickly. I also met a couple who told us that they'd been told to move their car from the Condado Beach's underground car park to the neighboring La Concha's high-rise, as the former was expected to flood! We quickly went into the garage and I noticed that the drains were already higher (due to the tide?). We got to Walgreens and found they were shutting down in 5 minutes, so we hurriedly picked some things out and returned to park at the La Concha. Afterwards, on walking the 200 meters from the La Concha to the Condado Beach, the wind was beginning to gust and it was getting harder to push Kyle's stroller. The streets were visibly and quickly quieting down and many shops had boarded up their windows. Back at the hotel we started to follow the evacuation rules which included packing all of our belongings up and putting them in the cupboard in the bathroom. Apparently this was to prevent damage if the windows blew out/in, as they are prone to do in a hurricane due to atmospheric pressure changes between outside and inside a building. We then headed off to the refugee shelter. When we arrived the place was busy. The auditorium looking like a Bosnian shelter, complete with neat rows of camp beds. After we had settled into a corner, we again met Mehdi and he made sure we were all right. It appeared that he was giving us special attention, and these thoughts were confirmed, when he told us that if Ariane had been about 4 weeks more pregnant, they would have moved us to the hospital as the hurricanes pressure change could also induce labor. Apparently windows were not the only thing liable to blow out! We basically sat down and started to wait. There was a radio news stream being piped into the auditoriums speaker system and we listened to constant storm updates and learned that currently the nearby US Virgin Islands were bearing the brunt of the eye. Just then the power went out for the first of four or five times. It was eerie being into a windowless room with some 400 people in total darkness. A few flashlights appeared and nobody panicked. When the power came back the A/C didn't, so the room started to get very warm. The hotel then served the first of two surprisingly good meals, considering the type of self serve area they had built in the center of the auditorium. I looked at the storm from a small area outside that hadn't yet been boarded up, where yesterday evening we had been playing. Now it was dark, pouring rain and the palm trees were leaning sideways with the fronds straining and stretched out horizontally with the wind. Some crazy youths were playing on the pier, no doubt trying to prove their macho-ness! However, we also later learned that a little earlier, an American had drowned at Luquillo while waves. Looking out at the weather he must have been stark raving mad. Mehdi came by to check on us and gave us some industrial size candles which came in useful as the power stayed off all of the afternoon, while we waited, and waited, and waited and waited for about 8 hours - only broken by another meal serving and being filmed by TV cameras. We also made it back to the Channel 11 news back home in Houston and some friends were worried! At about 8pm the all clear was eventually given and we ventured back to the Condado Beach. Mercifully, Mehdi's prediction had turned out to be right - at almost the last minute and the eye had missed us. Going back to room all we needed was a relaxing (medicinal) drink! Unfortunately the governor in his infinite, but reluctantly understandable wisdom had banned alcohol sales for that day, so nothing was available. Mysteriously though, we found a couple of miniatures in our room which saved the day - had Mehdi helped again? - I suspect so. After a surprisingly relaxing day we went straight to bed for an early start the next morning. We felt like we'd had quite an adventure really as this had, not only been our first hurricane, but also the earliest to hit for 100 years - just during our first week in our first trip to Puerto Rico! Tuesday, July 9th - To Cabo Rojo Our trip to the western part of the island was now down from three to two nights, with us due in our subsequent location, Jayuya on Thursday. With Bertha having messed up my best laid plans of visiting the caves Monday, on the way to Cabo Rojo, we reluctantly decided to miss them out as that would've basically only given us the Wednesday in Cabo Rojo. Although we greatly regretted missing out on Rio Camuy, one of Puerto Rico's premier attractions, we decided that this would be nice to save for our next visit. The Condado Beach at this time still hadn't managed to restore full power, so we decided to strike out early. We packed up, checked out and got on the Highway 22 Express Tollway and headed west towards Arecibo. We made excellent time and were there in a little over 55 minutes. We hadn't had breakfast so we decided to try and grab some food en route. About 200 meters after Highway 22 ends and turns into Highway 2 proper, we discovered another real find. There is a small local roadside restaurant called El Neuva Union. It's a simple little stop but has a wonderful selection of clean and freshly made local specialties. We bought some pastries, sausages, omelets and the like and heartily pigged out at the restaurant for about $7! This is a great place to stop if you're heading for Cabo Rojo or Rio Camuy (although for the latter it is about 5 minutes out of your way) and the family running it are very welcoming and friendly. Well fed, we got into the car again and spent about another hour following 2 round to Mayaguez before exiting onto 102 and following this smaller coast road about 20 minutes to our next hotel. For our next stop we had decided to choose one of the Paradors. From the book we'd obtained from the Puerto Rican Tourist Office we had selected an attractive looking one called Perichi's. (Route 102, KM 14.3 - Tel (809) 851 3131 / 0590 and Fax (809) 851 0560.) We checked in to a modern, but quaint and clean 4 story hotel, and for $69.55 a night, were given a nice room overlooking the sea. It was now only about 12am, so we decided to go and explore the coastal region around Cabo Rojo. A couple of recommendations had been made to us to visit Boqueron, so we took the 10/15 minute drive there. To be honest we found Boqueron somewhat disappointing. There really didn't seem much there apart from a few seedy looking T-shirt shops. We'd had visions of a quaint harbor town but this wasn't it. Some reviews had said that there is more to Boqueron than meets the eye but we decided not to hang around and struck out for the a leading local landmark, the Cabo Rojo Lighthouse beyond the end of +++++++++ When we say the beyond the end, we mean beyond the end. After the paved road stops, you'll have to follow a sand road for what seems like a very long time towards the end of nowhere. We didn't spot any tourist info signs suggesting the lighthouse was further along this track but seeing no other opportunities, we stuck it out. This turned out to be right as we then began to see the lighthouse in the distance. We drove on and parked at the car park and took the 10 minute walk up to the disused lighthouse. The area is very remote and windswept, with the lighthouse sitting at the edge of some steep cliffs. It was very pretty and we hung around for some time before heading off. It was now early afternoon and we were hungry. Our luck at stumbling onto some great food stops held and by accident we found a place about KM 307. This is a really excellent seafood restaurant along the roadside fancier than you may expect from the outside. Ariane had grouper in a white wine sauce and even though I should have had fish, settled for a Churrasco steak with beans and a rice dessert of papaya with Puerto Rican cheese. This was an wonderful meal and what we felt was a bargain $38. On the subsequent drive back to Perichi's we felt that we were beginning to fall in love with Puerto Rico, not only for it's natural beauty but also it's culinary extravaganza. All we were fit for back at Perichi's was a lazy afternoon by the pool. When we were at our room, Kyle took a liking to the young female receptionist - who just happened to have a plate of French fries. The stairs to our room overlooked the downstairs reception and the food. Noticing this she pulled a couple off her plate and came and gave them to him! In the evening we were pretty tired after a long day and didn't feel like venturing out of the hotel. We decided to eat in Perichi's award winning restaurant. The owner of the hotel, Mr. Perichi has had a long and distinguished career in hotel and catering and this is reflected by the many food awards and trophies on display in the hotel bar and restaurant. The restaurant itself is surprisingly upmarket for the south western portion of the island and wouldn't be out of place in a fashionable neighborhood of San Juan. >From an extensive menu we chose some hearty vegetable soup followed by pork chops for Ariane and a red snapper filet in Spanish sauce for myself. We were still a bit full from our late lunch and this meal almost finished us off. Perichi's also has an extensive choice of quality wines, although the wine list doesn't always correlate with what's available. We had a non-listed, outstanding bottle of Pinot Grigio '94 with dinner and were amazed at a total bill with tips of only $48. The staff were also very well trained and friendly. One of the waitress, Walesca - Wally for short - took an immediate liking to Kyle and unrequested by us, took the opportunity of the restaurant being pretty quiet to entertain him so mom and dad could eat unrestricted (if you're parents of youngsters you'll understand how great this can feel!). Toward the end of our meal Kyle's energy started to fade so I decided to take a time out and put Kyle in the stroller and go for a walk. Although it was dark, it felt great to wheel Kyle along a deserted pavement in the village, with the sea no more 10 meters to our right and listening to nothing but the sounds of nature, I began to feel really mellow. Kyle obviously did too, and within minutes was snoring away. In Houston I couldn't imagine doing this (walking down dark, deserted streets, late at night), yet down here I felt 101% safe. I did pass a couple of locals out strolling and they smiled and greeted me with a friendly "Ola" which I tried my best to repeat in my rudimentary Spanish. Back at the hotel Ariane and I continued to mellow out before happily retiring to our room and joining Kyle in sleeping like babies. Wednesday, July 10th - Guanica and La Parguera We awoke invigorated and motivated to explore further. We ate a leisurely breakfast outside by the pool and headed off for a beach at Guanica, a tropical dry forest, compared to El Yunque's tropical rain forest. We took the slow (i.e. scenic) route for much of the way and went through the main town of the region San German. We got to Guanica in about 30 minutes and right away saw lovely coastline, with hills coming down into the sea creating lots of scenic bays. We then followed Route 333 out into Guanica forest. The vegetation by the road side was varied and impressive with everything from palms to cactus and from the distinctive bright red flamboyan trees to "normal" trees. Along the coastal side of the road are a myriad of small and medium sized beaches. We passed the main one Cano Gorda, by the Copamarina Resort and followed 333 to the end at Tamarindo Beach, just to see what was there - we ended up shooting a lot of film along the way. Here there are also a couple of very small executive home developments off to the side of the road and I imagine these are weekend retreats for wealthy locals, from Ponce, or even San Juan. We turned and headed back, deciding to stop for some beach R&R at Cano Gorda. The beach was relatively quiet and very clean. A few cafes played continuos, loudish salsa music which helped our relaxed mood. For lunch we snacked on Baguettes with some cheese and chorizo which we'd bought from Extra Supermercado in Cabo Rojo. (At the supermarket we'd been amazed at how cheap everything was, even compared to Houston - not having to pay sales tax also helped.) In the afternoon, after leaving Cano Gorda, we decided to try and follow the short coastal route to La Parguera. On the map this seemed easy enough, but in reality it was a little more difficult. Indicative of the island, there are many more roads available than marked and we ended up in a small beach town called Playa Santa, which didn't even appear on the map. With a little persistence, we found the road we wanted and headed into La Parguera. We had also read good reviews of La Parguera and understand it's a popular resort, underscored by the many water side Paradors. To be honest, like Boqueron, we reckon La Parguera is a little over-rated and wouldn't have exchanged our Parador at Perichi's for any of the ones we saw. La Parguera seems to be more of a young peoples party town and does offer good diving and snorkeling. However, our family situation obviously rules out most of these. We did stop for a refreshment in one of the clubs, which at 4pm was empty apart from us. However, there were photos all around the wall of it packed out with kids boogying to a live band on stage. There is also some construction going on in La Parguera and I'm sure things will look better when everything is finished. That evening we decided to eat again in the hotel at Perichi's and Wally again helped out with Kyle as we had another fine meal of extremely tasty chorizo along with gammon steak, minute steak, some lasagna for Kyle, finally polished off by a large chunk of chocolate cake. I was beginning to feel my weight in food and took the opportunity to again try and walk some of it off before we retired for the night. Thursday, July 11th - Ruta Panoramica to Jayuya. After another leisurely poolside breakfast we said good-bye to Perichi's. Today, we had to reach our next stop in Jayuya which is pretty much bang in the middle of Puerto Rico. We had the options of following the Coastal Route 2 and heading inland from due south of Jayuya, or heading back to Mayaguez and picking up the famous Ruta Panoramica which traverses the middle of Puerto Rico, coast to coast along the mountains. We chose the latter. The tourist brochures warned us to take 3 days for this route but I thought they were being somewhat conservative since we had driven almost the same distance from San Juan to Cabo Rojo in a little over two hours. However, the tourist brochures were right and family Ferguson was absolutely wrong! In Mayaguez we spend almost 45 minutes just trying to find the start of Ruta Panoramica. The center of Mayaguez is an intricate series of narrow and very busy one way streets - the start is right in the middle of these. We then headed inland up a series of permanently rising, zig zagging roads. We enjoyed seeing thousands of papayas lying by the roadside, having fallen from overhead trees, just begging to be picked up. Compared to Puerto Rico's speedier roads, here it was hard to get above 25 km/p/h for more than 10 seconds at a time. Earlier, we had tried to find a detailed map of the Ruta, but hadn't been able to find one and we now discovered that the Ruta itself is very badly marked. There are many signs marking the route but they tend to be on a stretch of roadside and not at an intersection, when the road would suddenly split and with no sign available for help you're left with a 50/50 choice on which road to take. Invariably, we took a few wrongs ones and became a bit disorientated. At one point we happily re-discovered the Ruta, only to find out we were heading in the wrong direction and were going back to Mayaguez! Our tolerance was shortened by the fact that the twists and turns were playing havoc with Ariane's hormones and after 5 hours strapped in the car Kyle's patience was also getting justifiably exhausted. Although the scenery is outstanding, we re-christened the Ruta, the Ruta From Hell. Before we would undertake it again, we would highly recommend a) not being pregnant b) not doing it with very young kids, and c) the Puerto Rican Tourist Company, or suitable authority, remarkably improving the level of signposting at intersections - as I said earlier, there are lots of nice signs, so they have made an effort, but they are not always in the right place. We did eventually find our overnight stop of Hacienda Gripinas, (Route 527, KM 2.7, - Tel (809) 828 1717 or 1 800 828 1718 and Fax (809) 828 1719.) late that afternoon. At $65 a night for a three bed room, the Hacienda proved to be a gem and an oasis. It's a beautiful old wooden house, located in an old family coffee plantation. We understand the local press had given it some questionable reviews but we loved it. Our sole regret was that we were only staying one night - next time we'll certainly stay for 2 or most likely 3. You do not feel like you're staying in a hotel. You feel like you've been transported back to the grandeur of a late 19th century Spanish coffe plantation. Our room was in the main wing of the house, just by the reading room/library and we had shuttered doors that opened out onto the scenic balcony, beautifully furnished with hand carved rocking chairs. The tranquillity was breathtaking. We took some walks in the immaculately kept grounds and explored the lower pool area, which is just installing a Jacuzzi. The swimming pool itself was the prettiest one we saw on the island with one side being molded into beautiful rocks. We only had to be there for a few minutes before the stress of Ruta Panoramica began to fade away. In the evening we ate at the Hacienda's restaurant. Kyle had some chicken gumbo, Ariane some soup and salad, I had chicken empanada's with beans and rice and to finish we had a wonderful homemade dessert of coconut pudding, of which we unashamedly had seconds. We retired to the rocking chairs on the balcony to listen to the night sounds of birds, crickets and so on. There were board games available to play and it was so relaxing with no TV, radio or telephone in the room. There was also no A/C, but then again, no need for one with the cooler mountain air. An overhead fan was more than sufficient. On the balcony, I fancied mellowing out with a Drambuie and asked the duty manager if he had, not expecting him to find any. He invited me into the kitchen and showed me the bottles of liquor available - just about everything was there including Drambuie. He then invited me to choose my own glass and pour (without a measure) my own drink! It is little personal touches like that, that stick in my mind on a holiday, and encourage me to go back to somewhere again and again. By now, Kyle had now fallen asleep and Ariane and I sat and relaxed on the rocking chairs, reluctant to go to bed. Friday, July 12th, - Jayuya to Vieques Island In the morning we arose early and took another walk around the grounds before breakfast. We ate heartily and began to check out. It was at this time we bumped into Hector Sanchez Martinez. Hector is a native Puerto Rican tour guide and he had a minibus of tourists also staying at Hacienda Gripinas. He was running an escorted tour across the island. We talked to him of our experiences on the island (he laughed at our trials on Ruta Panoramica and commented that even Puerto Ricans get easily lost on it) and of our remaining plans. When we told him that we were heading to Vieques that day he, believing we were going to follow the second half of Ruta Panoramica, told us we'd be lucky to make the ferry at Fajardo. We told Hector we were going to reluctantly blow the Ruta off and head due south from Jayuya and pick up firstly Express Tollway 52 and then the coastal Highway 3. Hector said that it would still take a little bit longer than we thought. He then (friendly, but unabashedly), started plugging his book "Puerto Rico Turistico - Guia De Viajes Para Puerto Rico". This is in its fifth printing and is an exhaustive, well researched A-Z of Puerto Rico, by town and region. Although it's only in Spanish at present, Hector is re-printing it in English. In any case it was such a good book we bought an autographed copy. For information on one of Hector's tours call (787) 765 8595. For information on Hector's book, contact him directly at Calle Soller #528, Matienzo Cintron, Rio Pedras, P.R. 00923 or telephone 748 7483 and 767 4023. (We would probably consider doing a tour with him if we wanted to avoid driving ourselves and also wanted to avoid the having to research and then find the many sites to visit.) After we had finished with Hector, we reluctantly checked out. In retrospect we would have planned a longer stay in Jayuya to visit the many attractions such as the local artisans work shops and also to take advantage of the many sites along Ruta Panoramica, which we were going to have to miss out on. In any case we headed off to race for the 1pm ferry from Fajardo to Vieques. The first part of our journey went well and fast down to the coast and then along Tollway 52. We exited at Salinas and picked up Highway 3. Since Highway 2 had been a fast route, we expected 3 to be similar. Again we were wrong, Highway 3 is a very scenic, but slow and tortuous coastal road which often gets bogged down in small towns with heavy traffic and narrow streets. This is all very well if you have no deadlines but we were pushing on for the ferry. In retrospect we would have followed the Expressway closer back to San Juan before cutting across to Fajardo from, say, Caguas. Alternatively, in the future Highway 3 is also in the process of being supplemented by the new Tollway 53, which is currently under construction and open in a few small areas. This will dramatically shorten the driving time between Salinas and Fajardo and also complete a high speed network which will cover 100% of the perimeter of the island. Getting back to our journey, as the morning progressed it became clear that we were going to a small, remote, little and finally no chance of hitting the 1pm ferry. Fortunately, there is also a 4:30pm one too (as well as 9.30am also). Highway 3 does offer a lot of scenic opportunities such as the Point Tuna Lighthouse and the Caribe Playa beach resort area. We eventually got to Fajardo at around 2pm, with little to do but kill a couple of hours till boarding time. There is very little to do at the Dock area, in fact it is a typically dock type area with a couple of seedy bars, restaurants and hotels. If we'd had more time to kill we'd probably have driven up to El Conquistador, but as it was we drove around Fajardo a bit exploring nothing in particular, before parking our car in the long term car park at the Dock.. The ferry tickets are very easy to organize and obtain, costing only $2 per person. We bought our tickets for the 4:30 ferry and crossed into the terminal waiting area. As this was Friday, and also the last ferry of the day, it was pretty busy with people heading to Vieques for the weekend. Ariane, being pregnant, and Kyle were allowed to board first and get a seat before the hordes of others (including me, as an elephant with all the bags) scrambled on. I say scrambled as their was mad rush to get on, even though there was more than enough seats for everyone - it wasn't as if the ferry was going to suddenly depart and leave everyone behind! A Viequesian I talked to, said it was the same every Friday and that a little simple organization would cure all. On hearing that Ariane had pre- boarded because of her pregnancy, he produced a lemon and gave it to me, saying that if she felt rough during the crossing, to nip into to it and inhale as a cure. This again was another personal touch that I really appreciated. The ferry then departed on time and we headed off. The journey took about an hour and 15 minutes and there were many scenic sights, which would have been enhanced had it not been for slightly overcast weather. The crossing was mildly rough and very quickly about half a dozen people were heaving into the available sick bags. A good tip for the crossing to Vieques is also not to sit on the left hand side of the open, upstairs area. This area is prone to fairly severe splashing as the boat dips into the waves and just about everyone on that side was very wet by the time we arrived in Vieques! On arrival at Vieques we called up to the Sea Gate Guesthouse where we would be staying (PO Box 747, Isabel Segunda, Vieques, P.R. 00765 - Tel (809) 741 4661). We had booked a room for $60 a night. The Sea Gate does not take credit cards, only cash or travelers checks, and a two night deposit must be sent ahead in advance. Earlier, when I was making the booking, the owners daughter, Penny Miller, had been immensely patient and helpful with my questions, advising me of the ferry timetable and so on. They offered to pick us up from the terminal and sure enough, when we called, a car driven by a smiling Dutch American lady, appeared within a few minutes and drove us up to the Sea Gate. The Sea Gate is set high up on the bluffs overlooking Isabel Segunda, the main village on Vieques. It also overlooks the newly restored old fort, which now serves as the town museum. When we got to our room on the 3rd floor of the guesthouse we were delighted to see that in actuality, it was a beautifully and quaintly decorated self contained apartment. There was a fully utensil stocked kitchen and dining/ living area with a fridge/freezer. Adjoining this was a double bedroom leading into a large bathroom. The rooms were spotless and we felt at home the moment we walked in. The views were spectacular and we also had a large balcony in front of the apartment, complete with tables and chairs. The owner, Ruth Miller, is a half Irish/half German American from New Jersey who settled on the Island some 30 years ago and she and her daughter are now a local institution - everyone we met on the island knew, and spoke highly of, Penny and Ruth. Ruth made sure we were comfortably settled in. In addition, the lady who had picked us up at the terminal was actually another guest, Kitty Scheuer, who had the adjoining apartment on the other side of the 3rd floor. Kitty has been coming to Vieques for years and always stays at the Sea Gate. From our subsequent experiences, we definitely will be doing likewise. If you choose to stay at the Sea Gate, which we highly recommend, please be sure to tell Penny and Ruth that Evan, Ariane and Kyle encouraged you to stay there. By the time we had settled in, the sea air from the crossing had given us a hearty appetite. We asked Kitty for a dining recommendation and she suggested Taverna Espanola, a Spanish Puerto Rican restaurant located 10 minutes walk down into the village of Isabel Segunda, just opposite City Hall. She told us that she would be going there later that evening with her brother and his family, who had also arrived on Vieques a little earlier that day. They had flown in and were staying in a bungalow on the guest house grounds. Kitty volunteered to drive us down to the restaurant, and being pretty hungry, we accepted. The Taverna is a very simple but lovely local restaurant. We had some vino chorizo, beef stew with beans and rice, and pork chops. Dinner was tasty and washed down by some Medallia's came to a inexpensive $34. During dinner first Kitty and her relatives, then Penny Miller, arrived so we all got one table together and had a great time, getting to know one another. Penny, it transpires, also literally doubles as a local veterinarian, working for The Humane Society and had been off treating a horse which had hurt itself. As the night went on we knew we were going to fall in love with Vieques. Saturday, 13th of July - Exploring Vieques We arose bright and early and opened the apartment door and breathed in the view. Writing this now, I'm almost jealous of myself! When staying at the Sea Gate your rate, will include a full breakfast consisting of something like sweetbread, freshly picked fruit, cheese, coffee, tea and milk. It gets served on your balcony at about 8am and sets you up well for the day. We had also arranged to hire a car from Island Cars (on Route 201, Tel (809) 741 1666 - just beyond the Crows Nest Guesthouse). They will rent you a car or jeep for $25/$35 a day and will collect you from where you are staying. When we got to Island Cars they also gave us a free car seat for Kyle. Unfortunately, it turned out that you can't fit it into the back of a jeep, so they re-booked us into a beat up old red car, which looked like a reject from Rent-a- Wreck. Even so, we weren't disappointed and it only added to the fun of our trip. We lovingly re-christened the car Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! In any case, we headed off to explore Vieques, which essentially is a fairly small island and looks so from the ferry. When you are there is appears much bigger and a car is a necessity and there is a lot to explore. (The island is in reality about 21 by 4 miles with an area of 33,000 acres and a population of 8,000.) Firstly we headed out east as far as the road would go. This went through some residential areas with private beach but ended at the point the road turned into the US Marine Base (more of the Army presence later). We turned back and headed to the other side (south) of Vieques where we hit Esperanza. This is where most of the tourist activities occur and the beachfront is a series of restaurants, bars, guesthouses and diving shops. We've spent some time in Bali and this type of beachfront wouldn't look out of place there. We chose to eat in one of the nicer open air restaurants, Banana's. This is a typical Denpasar joint with some rooms for rent through the back. It is owned and run by "mainlanders" and offers a wide variety of tasty food in it's clean restaurant. We had some marinade jerk chicken, a fabulous tuna melt, something whose name I forget, which was actually fried dough, and an enormous hot dog for Kyle. The bill with drinks and tips was about $20. We then decided to hit the beach. From any map of Vieques you will see there are a wide selection of beaches, of varying degrees of accessibility. Two of the more popular ones are Red Beach and Blue Beach, both located on the military base. These are open to the public on production of a driving license, but are closed when the military are conducting exercises. Unfortunately they were there when we were, so the beach was closed. The US Military has a controversial role on the island, with the land on the island itself almost being split into three equal areas. To the East is the Marine Base, to the West the Navy Base and in the central strip is virtually the complete population of Vieques, bar some squatters on the military lands. Earlier, before the military came, Vieques had had a thriving sugar industry. As it began to decline the military arrived, and in the 1940's expropriated some 26,000 acres of land and relocated large chunks of the population. In 1947 they at one point tried to take the remaining 7,000 acres and relocate the rest of the population to the Virgin Islands. Luckily, strong opposition caused them to abandon this plan. Also fortunately nowadays, the military are confined to base and not allowed to enter the middle chunk so you can almost, from a tourist perspective, ignore their presence. The only problem we experienced was the beaches being closed and hearing some very short series of distant explosions as they had some bombing practice, which was relatively unobtrusive. On the other hand, from a residents perspective, the bombing is undoubtedly destroying some of the pristine environment and coral reefs, along with disrupting the fishing stocks. The military did assist greatly during Hurricane Hugo when Hugo destroyed some 80% of the island. On behalf of the population, they basically rebuilt many things and replaced wooden buildings with solid brick and cement homes. Conveniently, their presence also prevents the construction of large tourist resorts and hotels, a la San Juan, which if it did occur would spoil the desolateness of the island. This presence and its associated handicaps or benefits are therefore two-edged. However, looking at all the evidence today, we personally feel that Vieques is too gorgeous to spoil and that the military presence should be scaled back somewhat. Political moves are underfoot to reflect this, but Vieques must, if this occurs, as we say, not spoil itself by becoming over commercialized. It's appeal is in its unspoiled beauty. One review we read said "Vieques is for the newly wed or nearly dead". In essences, this is true. If you are looking for nightclubs and casino's, forget it - stick to San Juan. If you are looking for some refreshing solitude, beautiful and quiet beaches, along with a fair selection of restaurant, then Vieques is for you. We feel people either love it or hate. We were certainly moving rapidly into the love it category. We decided to go to the main public beach, called Sun Beach. It was remarkably quiet and we enjoyed splashing about in crystal clear water, with only a mild surf. There are no food kiosks, bars or other facilities on the beach, so if you want something come prepared! We had also been warned that Vieques does have a small, petty theft problem, with poor squatters hiding in the vegetation lining the beach and then throwing fishing lines out it, hooking rucksacks and the likes. The official tourist literature echoed this fact so we always left our camera, watches and jewelry behind at the hotel. We had no problems and when we were finished at the Beach, we headed back to the Sea Gate to prepare for dinner. For dinner we chose to go to The Inn on the Blue Horizon, which is located through Esperanza and about another kilometer or so down the coast. This is a new upper class hotel, and is openly marketing itself as the poshest on the island. It indeed has a beautiful setting and a lovely outdoor restaurant. However, we discovered that it is run and owned by some unbelievably arrogant and American flaming homosexuals. Personally, we have nothing against ones sexuality, providing they keep it to themselves. I do have a problem however, with gays who are arrogant to the point of looking down on you because you are straight. I also have a problem with gays (or anyone else) who are also arrogant and condescending towards children. Unfortunately, the staff of the Inn on the Blue Horizon are of this type. For example, at one point we noticed a scenic vista in front of the open air restaurant, beyond the outdoor pool area looking out to sea. There was a small sign before the entrance sating only residents were permitted beyond this point. Even so, I politely asked, since it was quiet, if they would kindly make an exception and allow me to walk to the vista and shoot some pictures. The waiter, who is a double for Ed Begley, Jr., condescendingly told me that the owner, Billy Knight, was at the bar, and "Billy" wasn't happy by these requests and that "Billy" wouldn't allow it. I felt a little bit put out by this answer. I mean, it is one thing if a bus load of tourists wanted to get off and take over the place to take pictures. However, I was a patron of the restaurant and voluntarily spending my money there, so I sort of considered myself a temporary resident. This sort of soured our feelings for what, I say again, is a beautiful Inn and beautiful restaurant. Ariane's meal itself of pompano fish in a white wine sauce and mine of Cajun snapper was worthy of a high starred restaurant. With drinks and a lower than normal tip, the bill came in at $36 and for which in return, I "arrogantly" paid for with my Platinum Amex, was also undoubtedly good value. Needless to say though, "Billy" won't be seeing any of my hard earned dollars on my nest trip to Vieques. If they wish to establish a high class, arrogant resort, then "Billy" can keep it to himself! Sunday, 14th July - More of Vieques Overnight, while we were deep asleep at the Sea Gate a fairly heavy tropical rain burst located itself over Vieques and continued to shower on and off for most of coming day. We were determined not to let a little bit of rain hold us back, so after breakfast, a book read and chat with Kitty, we stoically trooped off in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to explore the remainder off the Island. The rain though, did put a damper on our beach plans for that day. Around lunch time we ended up again in Esperanza and decided to have a meal at Mario's (also called Restaurante El Quenero). This is a very local restaurant and we were the only tourists there. Everyone else appeared to be local families coming together for Sunday lunch. We ordered up some local dishes which were only average, decided to eat and quickly pay up, then relocated 50 meters back down the road to Banana's, which was turning into a favorite stopping ground for ourselves. Whilst we were there we heard some samba music coming from a small deck area across the street. I wandered across and saw that an impromptu local dance was taking place and the same families we'd left at Mario's had now moved over here after their lunch for a Sunday afternoon dance. It was enjoyable watching the different generations all coming together and having a good old dance together. Back at Banana's we finished up with some desert and since the weather was still somewhat iffy decided to head back to the Sea Gate for a lazy afternoon. Whilst sitting on the balcony, my curiosity got the better of me and I ambled down to the Fort Conde de Mirasol to have a look at the museum. The Fort was constructed for the then Spanish Governor between 1845/55 and is the last actual Fort constructed during Spain's colonial days. In recent years it fell into disrepair before being lovingly renovated and re-opened in 1991. Today, the local historian, Robert Rabin, in charge at the fort, is a walking talking knowledge book on Vieques. He can be called at the fort on (809) 741 8651. I enjoyed my tour around, even though most of the professionally produced exhibits are in Spanish. The museum, in a good balance, covers everything from the history of Vieques, including details on French, British, Spanish and Danish fighting over it, details on the natural history, local dignitaries, the sugar plantation, the army's role on the island and the fort restoration project. This is thoroughly worth a trip and on the way out I bought a "Viva Vieques Libre" T-shirt in a show of solidarity with the island. In the evening we decided to dine at the Crow's Nest (Route 201, KM 1.6). This turned out to be another marvelous culinary find and in a beautiful environment to boot. We sat outdoors beyond the well stocked bar, overlooking the northern coast. We had a splendid meal off pureed curried vegetable soup, Thai chicken with basmati rice, escargot and killer chocolate cake. This was a superior meal and the atmosphere at the Crow's Nest blew away our distasteful experience the previous evening at the Inn on the Blue Horizon. After dinner, the friendly mainland American waiter sat by our table and we chatted about the island, it's economy and so forth. Being our last planned big meal on Vieques we splashed out a bit on drinks, but the bill with tips still only came to $53. The Crow's Nest is a must dine experience if you go to Vieques. As mentioned previously it is also a guest house and has a dozen or so well appointed room, pool etc., and is probably also well worth staying at, at $50/75 a night. Once again, when we later returned to the Seagate we mellowed out on the balcony and went to sleep very happy and content. Monday, 15th July - Our Last Full Day on Vieques We arose invigorated to have a healthy breakfast. Thankfully, the weather had improved overnight so we decided to spend as mush of the day on the beach as possible. We talked to Kitty and told her that we wanted to go shell hunting with Kyle. Kitty said that the best beach for this was just on the Navy base by the long and man-made Mosquito pier. We headed out and gained easy access, as fortunately with the maneuvers being on the Marine base only, the Navy base was wide open. No sooner did we reach the beach than I started to find huge conch shells. They were in pristine condition, the likes of which I've seen on sale at beach shops for $50+. We zealously collected a lot, with the intention of taking them back to Houston as presents. It was quite an effort to clean them all up and even more of an effort to find space in our luggage for them as some of them were over 30cms across. This find put us in a great frame of mind for the rest of the day and complete with packed lunch in hand we headed off for the beach. We decided this time, on a recommendation, to choose Half Moon bay. Vieques has many hidden beaches which can only be reached by heading down a beaten up earth road through whatever vegetation is there. However, your hired car will fairly easily accomplish this and the little bit of extra effort is well worthwhile. Half Moon Bay turned out to be our favorite beach on the island. There were only 20/30 people there and there was absolutely no surf. With a gently sloping shore it was ideal for Kyle, who at 20 months was able support himself in mild waves. He went nuts and at the end of the day it was pretty hard to convince him to leave. We had to, as we had saved one of Vieques high points till last - as a sort of parting treat. That evening we scheduled a trip to Phosphorent or Bioluminescent Bay. This is a famous area for those who know of it, but if you've never heard, it's literally a bay which can glow in the dark due to tiny microorganisms radiating light when disturbed. We had booked a trip with Penny's friend Sharon, who runs a tour service out of the another guesthouse, Casa Del Frances (Route 201, about one kilometer from Esperanza - Tel (809) 741 3751 / 0717 or Fax (809) 741 2330). The Case Del Frances is another popular guesthouse, set in an old colonial mansion. (We heard that Clint Eastwood was actually rumored to have stayed there while filming the movie, Heartbreak Ridge on Vieques.) The Bay trip itself is quite expensive at $17 per person for about 1 1/2 hours but is worth every cent. That night it was heavily booked and they were running two separate trips. We went on the first and once assembled, all got into a minibus and were driven through the vegetation by Sun Beach. We arrived in an eerily dark bay and were escorted onto a medium sized boat. Our guide carefully navigated us around the incredibly calm bay pointing out mangroves, schools of darting fish and eventually anchored in the center. He pulled a bucket of water out of the bay and placed it under a blanket on the boat, encouraging us to peer under the blanket and splash our hand. Like magic the plain water turned into a myriad of sparkling lights which took our breath away. He then invited us to get into the bay for a swim. Initially I wasn't going to get in thinking it would be cold, deep and choppy with current. In reality, although the water was about 20ft deep, it was surprisingly comfortably warm and there was less current than a swimming pool. If you want to swim, the tour organizers rightly insist you to wear a buoyancy "banana" for safety reasons. Inspired by the bucket, I decided to get in with some others. Looking back, I would have severely regretted not doing so as I got a huge adrenaline rush and high. As I jumped in the water exploded into light. I swam about splashing my arms and legs, which each looked liked Darth Vader's luminous Sword of Light. The time flew by and it was with great reluctance that I got out. When each person got out, their swimsuits were obviously wet and as such sparkled like glitter for a few seconds. This is a must and can only be done at night. During the day the bay would look no different that any other. Tuesday, 16th July - Homeward Bound After last nights euphoria over my Bio-bay swim, it was with a heavy heart that we packed up and prepared to ship out from Vieques. The weather was beautiful and thought of being back at work tomorrow was less than thrilling. We checked out of Sea Gate, telling Penny and Ruth that we would be back as soon as we could - this being a promise we fully intend to keep. Once again they helped by accompanying me when I went to drop off Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and then by driving us down to the ferry, which was leaving at 11am (there are others at 7am and 3pm.) This would give us more than enough time to get to San Juan for our 4:25pm flight. Before leaving Vieques, Ariane stopped at the town bakery and we bought some fresh sandwiches to eat on the ferry back. This time, the crossing was much smoother as we looked back and sadly watched Vieques fade into the distance. We were also able to get some good views of El Conquistador on the way back and shot some more film. We hadn't at this point finished our souvenir shopping and we were debating whether or not to pay the exorbitant prices at the airport. However, on the drive back, just between Luqillo and the entrance to El Yunque we discovered by the main road, a strip of a half dozen or so tourist souvenir shops. They had everything you could imagine from the obligatory T-shirts to wood carvings, glassware, cigars, machetes, fruit, calendars etc. The prices were more than reasonable so we stocked up in one mad buying session. On arrival at the airport we made one mistake which fellow first timers should be aware of. The queue at the lone Delta counter was about 45 minutes long and just when we reached the front, an announcement asked us to make sure, "that if we were traveling to the mainland, to ensure we got our bags pre-checked and X-rayed by the US FDA". Unfortunately, this area was back, some 200 meters, at the entrance to the airport and I had to trudge back with our bags, get them x-rayed and stickered and then return to the end of the Delta line for a second time. About 25% of the people in the line suffered the same fate as us. We eventually got our bags checked on and headed off for home with a heavy heart. Summary Puerto Rice, and particularly Vieques, are a dream vacation. For those of you who've traveled extensively, without wanting to sound contrived, it's a cross between Bali, Hawaii and colonial Spain. We can't wait to get back and explore the things we missed out on. We were delighted with all our accommodations and would happily stay at each again. Whether we were lucky, or if this is indicative of all accommodations, I don't know. I suspect we may have been lucky. We loved the food and none of us had any stomach problems the whole trip, even though we ate at everywhere from hotel restaurants to roadside cafes and from bakeries to local fried food kiosks. For eating our best meals were at Cafe Guillermo, Ajili Mojili, Del Pueblo, Perichi's and the Crows Nest. All over the island, the people were charming and we ended up making friends with no effort at all with people like Mehdi at the Condado Beach, Walesca at Perichi's, Hector (visiting) at Hacienda Gripinas, Penny, Ruth & Kitty at Sea Gate etc. Our thanks to them all. We are now Puerto Rican "converts".
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