Vieques and home

While on Culebra, we decided to visit the other "Spanish virgin island," Vieques. There are no scheduled boats between the two islands and going back to Puerto Rico to catch a ferry would have wasted most of a day. So we found someone to give us a lift. Our babysitter was excited about the small plane. Marie was a bit nervous, especially when they told us all, including little Abigail, where to sit to balance the plane.There are two small towns on Vieques. We stayed in Esperanza, a town on the south that is filled with ex-pats, societal dropouts and sea side bars. The first bar-retaurant-hotel was Banana's, we stayed next door at its similar, and lizard infested, rival.Unfortunately, we have no photos of Marie's favorite part of the trip. We went to Vieques to see the bio-bay. After a few calls we found a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy (that was how business on this part of the trip went) who would meet us at a bar to take us to the bay. After dark he drove us and a few other people out through a dirt road to the bay. We kayaked out to the middle and tied up the boats and took a swim. The bay is filled with little microorganisms that glow when disturbed. The kayaks and the paddles caused the water to glow once we got a third of the way out. Swimming was crazy since every movement turned the water electric blue and every drop glowed. Marie turned into a little girl, she loved it.
Then we got back to the kids and sent our babysitter out with the second group.



The next day it was a ferry to Puerto Rico to pick up the car and drive back to San Juan. We walked around old town a bit but were too tired, grimy and burnt to do much else. Our main regret was that we did not get to see the inside of the Fortress. The place we stayed was the Beach and Water club, which turned out to be an ultra-modern style place with neon lights and waterfalls everywhere. Alyssa loved the water theme. There was even a waterfall in the elevator. Then it was time to head home.