Welcome to Vieques*

Or "Isla Nena", Puerto Rico's little sister island. Christopher Columbus first sighted Vieques in 1493. Since then it has remained a jewel of the tropics, nestled between turquoise sea of the Caribbean and the azure waters of the Atlantic. The Jewel part is really appreciated at the beaches or when seen from above...

Now thousands of visitors come every year to discover what the 9000+ inhabitants already know, Vieques's beauty is unsurpassed. A must see on your stay is our bioluminescent bay. It is one of the best examples of this phenomenon in the world and will absolutely astound you. The luminescence of the BioBay is stunning. You go in the by after dark, swirl your hand in the water and you create a small trail of light in the water. You jump in the water, thrash around and you create bluish glow around your twisting limbs and torso... the water droplets twinkle on your skin and hair... pretty surreal!! The only unfortunate part was that some tour operators are unlicensed and seem not to be careful with sensitive eco-habitat of the bay and the surrounding mangroves.

Next, you rent a vehicle and go beach hopping. Chances are you will be one of only a handful of people on a half-mile stretch of glistening white sand... The beaches in Vieques are breathtaking - in coves and bays with aquamarine waters... At some beaches there is nobody or one or two other people all afternoon long with crabs giving you company as they zip back and forth digging holes. At some popular big beaches, though, there are people - lots of people enjoying Presidente or Medalla Light in the shallow water or blasting loud music - especially Shakira singles ;-). The April waters were warm, shallow, and sometimes with Angel fish trying to cozy up... if you decide to snorkel along the coast you can either see a plethora of beautiful coral fans, multicolored, multi-sized fish or nothing/sea grass - the remnants of US Navy's bombing practices for decades or an occasional plastic bag :-(... As for renting a car or jeep on the island, if the exorbitant prices don't get you, be prepared for gas shortages with lines as long as 60 vehicles at the only two gas stations on the island. Renting a scooter, on the other hand, is much more fun except for required attention to avoid hitting multitude of horses roaming the island roads and beaches!!

Vieques is located just 7 miles off the east coast of the big island. Though if you are planning to take the ferry from Fajardo, those 7 miles can cost you almost 4 hours - what with long wait times at the ferry ticket counter depending on when the ticket window opens, or once open when the clerk decides to sell the tickets to non-Viequense (may be after 45 mins) or whether the Puerto Rico Maritime Shipping Authority decides to start the ferry trip 5 minutes past the scheduled time or 30 minutes later. Some hotels in Vieques strongly recommend to instead take the 20-25 min flight from San Juan. But if the objective is to be a laid back traveler or to develop an appreciation for "island time" or to court the uncertainty of boarding the ferry currently in the dock or the next one, Fajardo to Vieques Ferry Service delivers... Big Time :-)!! And then the ferry ride itself is redeeming - especially on a clear sunny day with flying fish and dolphins darting around the ferry, and clear views of the waters and islands of the Caribbean.

You'll find the people of Vieques very friendly and helpful if you are in need of assistance, directions, or just a quick Spanish lesson. Friendly indeed - An employee from Hix Island House went over and above his duty of call to drive guests from Isabella back to the hotel late one night when no taxis were available or a lady at the Coconuts Restaurant being exceptionally helpful to find a taxi late one night... some of the taxi drivers, on the other hand, did try to swindle the passengers and some locals do seem to not care about the beauty of the island throwing water bottles, soda/beer cans, out of the window of their cars, along many a roadsides....

To learn about Vieques's history and culture visit our museums: the Historical Trust located on the strip in Esperanza, Punta Mulas Lighthouse just past the ferry docks in Esable II, and the Fort Conde de Mirasol, the last military fort built by the Spaniards in Western Hemisphere, perched on a hill just above the center of town. The Symphonic Orchestra of Puerto Rico performed at the Vieques Cultural Festival at the grounds of the Fort Code Mirasol on Saturday April 16, 2011 under the direction of Maestro Rafael Enrique Irizarry, along with tenor, Cesar Hernández and the Lyric Coral of Puerto Rico. The pleasant surprise of the orchestral performance was the uninterrupted hub-hub and noise at the back of the tent behind the audiences where the local merchants/artisans were plying their wares or selling sweet concoctions or making margaritas, while the tenor sang and musicians performed - another unique Vieques/Puerto Rico "thing" presumably!!

In summary, if real relaxation is what you are after, Vieques offers tons of it.... So kick back, order another Pina Colada and watch the sun go down.








*Source: Text modified from a hotel brochure.

Guest Blog by Jeff Goforth, a new friend found and made in Vieques :-)

The Greatest American Hero



I rented a 50cc scooter from a guy who worked in a shed in Esperanza, a very small town in Vieques. The scooter literally would not go uphill. I think my engine was powered by a hamster...or a mongoose. They have mongooses (mongeese?) down there. Anyway, my mongoose was lazy, or hung-over or something. As long as I rode along the perimeter of the island I was fine. It was relatively flat along the shore. 



One afternoon I decided to hop on my hog and check out Blue Beach. The road to Blue Beach was gravel, which is always a wise choice when you are looking for a good challenge on a scooter. Blue Beach is a very long beach, and it is undeveloped. No buildings at all, some of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen. There were several entry points to Blue Beach from the gravel road. I pulled up to one of the entry points, grabbed my towel and planned to hang out there for a little while. 



Just as I emerged from the coconut tree lined entry two older women approached me and said, "be careful, we just got ripped off." They were still dripping wet from a swim. Apparently they saw someone going through their things while they were in the ocean no more than 2 minutes earlier. They were missing their camera and 800 bucks. As they were describing the robber, a young male, dark hair, gray t-shirt, one of the ladies pointed behind me in the woods and yelled "there he is!" I turned around to look, but did not see anything. Like the 70s, this beach was totally natural. The brush was thick. Apparently he was just about 20 yards away, but I didn't see or hear anything. 

I went into the brush, not really thinking about what this guy had available for weaponry. I had a helmet, a towel and had a coconut, and I was ready to smoke him out of his hole! I never saw the guy. The two women helped in the search by yelling things from the beach like, "give us back our stuff, jerk!" Very helpful. Eventually the ladies told me it wasn't worth it to try to confront the robber so that portion of my man hunt came to an end after only a few minutes.

 None of us had a phone signal, so I volunteered to drive back towards Esperanza and alert the authorities.

I hopped on my hog again and took off, peering into the woods as I drove to see if I could find someone matching their description. The guy had to be close. We were miles from any buildings. There was only one way out. He had no way to get away quickly. These beaches are pretty isolated. 

As I was performing my first ever mongoose powered man hunt I saw a guy running down the gravel road several hundred yards ahead of me. I put the hammer down on that scooter to get a closer look. As I approached him from behind I noticed the guy had dark hair and was wearing a gray t-shirt. Decision time...Should I run him over from behind with my 35 pound scooter? Should I clothesline him as I drive by at 8 miles an hour? How effective would a helmeted head butt be? Could I just throw my scooter at him? Do I know karate? So many things running through my head. My testosterone fueled decision making skills were tempered just in time, because 1/4 mile or so past the perpetrator I spotted a uniformed park ranger. 

I again put the hammer down. I must have had that scooter up to 10 or 11 miles an hour!

I past the runner and interrupted the park ranger's discussion with a local. I had just enough time to quickly describe the situation before the perp arrived at the park ranger's location. 

The ranger stopped the robber. I sat on my scooter smugly and observed, all the while making mental notes of where the closest coconuts were just in case all hell broke loose. He questioned the man, asked him where he was coming from, to empty his pockets, etc. The man replied that he was just jogging. His wife and kids were still at the beach. Then the park ranger patted him down and found nothing, and sent the guy on his way. Turns out he was just a tourist going for a run. The park ranger called for reinforcements to try to find the real robber, but as far as I know they never caught anyone. I was glad I didn't have to pretend to know karate or test my coconut throwing abilities.



Pros:
I did not run anyone over or throw my scooter at anyone. Got my deposit back.



Cons:
As far as I know the robber got away.
 Need karate lessons.

Flat Annie Does India

A dear friend's daughter asked me to take Flat Annie on a recent trip to India. Annie, a 2nd grade student, wrote a letter, which read in part, "We just finished reading a book about Flat Stanley. This book is about a boy that gets flattened, but not hurt, when a bulletin board falls on top of him. His parents decide that since he is flat, they can send him in an envelope to California to visit a friend. Inside this envelope, you will find a flattened version of me. I have come to visit you. I am trying to find out about where you live and have a little fun. Please spend a day or two with me doing some of your favorite things." I spent about two weeks taking Flat Annie around in the Indian state of Haryana, where I grew up.

In researching about the project, I discovered that Flat Stanley is a 1964 children's book written by Jeff Brown. In 1995 the Flat Stanley Project was started as an "international literacy and community building activity for students of all ages, teachers and families."

In showing Flat Annie around I developed a new appreciation of the way of life and culture in Haryana - its foods, its customs, its festivals, its villages, its home life, its street life... Below is a collection of Flat Annie's discoveries in Haryana set to the vocals of a dear aunt and Runa Laila!!

God's Country - Federal Lands?

On a trip through southwest Utah in late April, met this guy from West Virginia who acknowledged that even though Appalachia is beautiful, this part of Utah with Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, is "God's Country". I agree with him. You are hard pressed to describe the place - majestic, breathtaking, remote wilderness, monumental... barely begin to describe the landscape of mountains, mesas, and canyons (including the world's longest slot canyon)!! And atop and across the landscape is the varied flora and fauna in stunning colors and shapes.

Joshua Tree Flowers

Late March in Mojave desert this year was full of Joshua Trees in different cycles of blooming flowers. From flowers as greenish buds atop the branches to flowers in full bloom with white/greenish white petals to remnants of flowers withering away as brown twigs. The flowers smelt musky and sweet. Quite a sight it was - the whole valleys and mountains of high desert in the southwest blanketed with amazing Joshua Trees!!

Brazilian Graffiti & Graphic Designs

One thing that stands out when traveling through Brazil are amazing crazy beautiful designs done by street artists, private companies, government along the sidewalks, on the billboards, store fronts, in the train stations, airports... everywhere!!

Rio de Janeiro's Bondinho

Here are some snippets on a crazy tram ride in Rio.

Chasing Teixeira in Salavador, Bahia

In preparation for a recent trip to Brazil, I had been reading works by Jorge Amado - one of Brazil's most beloved writers. When I reached the city of Salvador I discovered that the original Portuguese editions of his books, unlike the English versions, included illustrations rendered by artists known well in Brazil, like Carybé, Floriano Teixeira and others.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find a sketch that Teixeira did for Amado's brother's book called Chamado do Mar (roughly translated - calling from the sea) in an art gallery. The sketch had this little girl trying to catch a crab by the beach, all in black and white, about the size of a 8.5 x 11 inch page. It was so cool looking - I just wanted to buy it right there!! Asking price R$2500 (1470 USD at 1.7 exchange rate )... eeehhh... painfully beyond my budget... so a bit disappointed, I left the gallery telling them, I'll come back, next day or something...

I strolled over to the Salvador Tourism office at top of the Lacerda Elevator and mentioned to this guy, who had provided very helpful tips to do fun things in the city, about my experience with Teixeira sketch and he said his friend works at an art gallery in the old part of the town and might know if the price is in the right range or not. After a quick phone conversation with his friend he suggested that I go over to this art gallery run by a French woman. Trudging through tiny cobble stone streets, walking past churches with side-walks full of cafezinho vendors and Bahian women selling acaraje, when I get to this second gallery, the lady tells me she has no Teixeira but she thinks price is right. She has Carybe' for R$ 3000 and more. Thinking there was nowhere else to go with this, I just hang around in her gallery looking at other works and chit chatting until suddenly she recalls that she thinks Teixeira's grand-daughter works as a cashier at a big bookstore "Livraria Saraiva" in one of the shopping malls in the suburbs - Bara Shopping. She also suggests to check with the biggest art dealers in town - Paulo Darze'.

So I hop on to a bus, struggling with language to head in the right direction, get off too early and walk 20 blocks to get to Paulo Darze'. You walk into this gallery and you already know this is way beyond your league... Teixeira paintings start at R$10,000, the sketches start R$ 3000, no room for negotiation - take it or leave it. As you walk around admiring different works and expressing preferences, the lady prepares a personalized folder with colored print outs of all the works that you liked and you walk out with a personal portfolio of works you would like to own one day but most probably will not... she talks about different insurance options, and special FedEx delivery arrangements in New York and LA... I quickly take leave!!

I take another bus and to get to the shopping mall. The first girl behind the cash-register at the bookstore I speak with turns out to be to Teixeira's grand-daughter - Isabella, daughter of Monique - one Teixeira's seven children. Isabella is greatly baffled and in her pequeno English manages to blurt out - "Who are you?" I think she might have also meant - what are you? what is this? After a not-so-lengthy explanation she understands and very kindly agrees to talk to her mother to see if she still might have some of her father's works that she might be interested in selling to this stranger who just walked into her daughter's workplace and that too for a "reasonable price" - a tall order of things to pull off, but my accidental discovery had turned into a quest!! By the time I walk out of the shopping mall with the correct telefone celular, the sun had set and the Salvadorans were out and about in the pracas enjoying their customary chopp. I find another bus to head back to the hotel and grab some food at Acaraje da Dinha in the Rio Vermelho neighborhood along the way.

Next day I call Monique's phone but it is picked by Sylvana the other Teixeira daughter who speaks English very well. She agrees to see me two days later at her father's house - in fact in Floriano Teixeira's studio - woohooooo!!!

When I get to the studio it is absolutely amazing - even though Floriano Teixeira passsed away 9 years ago his studio has been kept by the family in more or less the same condition when he was alive - it seems like he has just stepped out for a smoke or something while a few incomplete sketches on the canvasses await their fate... After going through many of his works, now carefully preserved by Sylvana, she agrees to sell a few pieces to me. Here are pictures of two of them -