when I will go back to San Juan, I know a plane I can get on

Next stop: Vieques.

This was our only chance to experience the actual Caribbean, as we spent the rest of the trip on the north (i.e., Atlantic) side of the main island. And the Caribbean was everything that everyone always says about it:

warm...


...calm...


...clear...


...and blue.

We went kayaking in the mangroves and snorkeling out beyond Mosquito Bay. Somehow, the meaning of the name was lost on us, and we didn't use bug repellant. We looked like we had chicken pox the rest of the trip. It was all worth it for the chance to try mangrove oysters, kayak in lake-like seas, and, most of all, for the chance to swim in the bioluminescent bay at night. Unfortunately, none of the pictures came out well, because we brought along a disposable waterproof camera, rather than endanger the precious Digital Rebel. Anyway, you had to be there. =)

The rest of our 2-1/2 days we spent wandering up and down Esperanza's strip (ten converted houses across Calle Flamboyan from the Malecon, pictured in the first and last photos above), getting sunburned at Sun Bay (pay attention to placenames in Vieques!), and sipping Coronas and coladas at Bananas, the local tourist hangout.

Ex-pat is a strange term in Puerto Rico. Of course, Puerto Rico is part of the U.S., so technically the term is a misnomer. But beyond that, many of the Puerto Ricans we've met have lived in, or were even born in, the States. A working definition of ex-pat seems to be native English-speaking and caucasian.

We quickly discovered that every tourist in Puerto Rico is from the East Coast. It was not until after we left Vieques that we met tourists from elsewhere: turned out to be Kentucky. We were repeatedly asked what Californians were doing in the Caribbean: we're so close to Hawaii and the Mexican Riviera, after all. Go figure; I've never been to either of those places.

Several people told us it was high season (it was Spring Break, after all), but the evidence of our eyes left us doubting. There was never more than a dozen people at the famous, mile-long Sun Bay beach. Only one restaurant on the strip was open for lunch Monday, two for dinner, two for lunch Tuesday, and three for dinner. Our own guest house didn't open its restaurant ("Bili") until Wednesday night, our last meal in Vieques. Dinner was pretty high quality - especially after the horrible, pricey dinner we had at Tradewinds our first night - but Bili was nowhere near the quality of Parrot Club.

I made the mistake of trusting someone at Amapola Inn to reserve a taxi (actually, a público) for our early morning flight on Thursday. Sure enough, with half an hour until departure, still no taxi, and we started making some calls. With fifteen minutes to go, a público happened to drive by, and we flagged it down. After dropping off his father, the driver picked up his mother, all before we could communicate that our flight was leaving in ten minutes. At which point he started swerving through the one lane country lanes in his full-size van at an uncomfortable speed.

We got to the airport (airstrip is more accurate) ten minutes late, and the plane had already taken off. We were told curtly there would be no refunds and no other available flights that day. The Vieques Air Link man waved us over to the Cape Air counter. There, we luckily found they had room on a flight leaving in half an hour. It only cost us $179 extra. The Cape Air experience was much more professional and pleasant that our flight in on VAL - Cape Air is the only carrier with thru service from the States to Vieques (i.e., I could've booked them through Expedia). On VAL, the passengers were Puerto Ricans; leaving, we travelled with tourists (one of which went to the same college as us!) As it turned out, we were still on time to hit El Yunque that day, and so, credit card a little lighter, we proceeded with our vacation relatively unperturbed.

I now have two non-transferable one-way tickets from Vieques to San Juan - Isla Grande good through 3/17/2006. (see title of post)