Trip Report SJU/Vieques June 17-25 Part 2

Old Jul 3rd, 2008, 11:41 AM
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Trip Report SJU/Vieques June 17-25 Part 2

Trip Report Part 2 Vieques

Getting OFF the ferry was easy We gathered up the luggage and headed on our way.
“Casa des Los Frutales” (www.thefruittrees.com) was to be our home in Vieques. I located the house on www.enchantedisle.com which was a very helpful website for planning this trip. The house manager met us at the dock in the Jeep that we also rented from the homeowner, which make things very simple! We squeezed in with one teenager on my lap, for the thankfully short ride, as we took our first look at Vieques.

When renting over the internet there is always an element of risk that the accommodations will live up to expectations, but we continued to have good luck in this area with Los Frutales! The house, which is located basically in the middle of the island, is a wonderfully maintained, comfortable vacation home. We enjoyed the many fruit trees, privacy, pool, and beautifully decorated interior. If anyone would like more details just let me know, I could go on and on about the house! We had one issue during our stay concerning a problem with the electricity and the house manager was immediately helpful and we even received a follow up phone call a day later from the owners just to make sure everything was taken care of. Great house and wonderful service!

After quick sibling fight on who gets what bedroom we geared up with swimsuits and snorkeling equipment to hit the first of many beaches! On our short drive to Esperanza, which we determined would be an easy first snorkel site; we continued to form our first impressions with the island. Our teenagers only other trip to the Caribbean was to Grand Cayman and although I tried to describe to them the differences in the two islands they were not quite prepared for the more modest homes, what we would call “run down” buildings and the more charming aspect of livestock in the street. Although I was prepared for the modest living and didn’t expect a “tourist” town the roadside trash was a surprise to me and I will be honest, continued to be an irritant to me during our stay. Unfortunalty, when we walked from the car to the beach by the old pier in Esperanza we walked through a lot of trash on the ground. I can completely understand the cost and logistic dilemma of discarding large items like refrigerators, but just common roadside garbage is especially disheartening. We snorkeled around the pier and did see a large school of fish but not much else. It had been a long day by now so we made a quick trip to the grocery store before heading back to the house. I was very surprised to find grocery prices not much higher than home. I really didn’t need to lug that extra suitcase full of food all the way from Oklahoma! We finished the first of five great evenings relaxing at the house and pool.

The next four days we explored the whole island!

Snorkeling: We knew not to expect snorkeling as good as Grand Cayman or St John but even so we were very disappointed. When we would spot a fish or a sea fan etc it would be exciting because it was so RARE. My husband did get a glimpse of a departing turtle while snorkeling Blue Beach and we did see a lot of Starfish at Mosquito Pier, along with a lot of underwater garbage L, but never found a snorkeling area from the shore that we considered even “fair” or felt comfortable at as novice snorkelers. For example at Mosquito Pier (which is really a mile long rock seawall that extends into the water) we were seeing Starfish and a few fish, but the water got very deep very quickly, like dark deep where you couldn’t see well, and we were the only people there which sounds great but in reality made us uncomfortable. More experienced snorkelers may have a different perspective but for us snorkeling was disappointing. Thankfully the only disappointment of the week!!


Beaches: The beaches though were a different story. We went to beautiful beach after beautiful beach after beautiful beach. Many times we were the ONLY people there. All of the beaches were very clean; many had picnic areas and shade. Two highlights were Navio Beach where we enjoyed the waves and the Black Sand beach where we picked up many shells. We walked approximalty a mile down the Black Sand beach and never saw another soul!! WOW! Vieques is ALL about the beaches!

Sail/Snorkel Trip with Captain Bill (741-1037) In our attempt to experience better snorkeling we booked a half-day snorkel trip with Captain Bill. Captain Bill has sailed his boat from Boston to Venezuela and many places in between. While taking to him on the phone I was assured that he knows what he is doing, is licensed and that he will take us to a great snorkeling spot. He also mentions that he doesn’t do “sissy” trips, but when I share with him that I AM a sissy and one with motion sickness issues he promises to take it easy on me. We met him at the dock in Isabella and due to my concerns about the possibility of getting sick he takes us straight to the reef that can be seen when you are arriving by ferry. I am having a bit of anxiety when he ties up the boat, but really really want to see what is under that water, so we all gear up and hop in. My husband takes the lead and I bring up the rear as we swim out into what feels like open ocean with huge waves (novice snorkeler perception here). We spent under an hour in the water and did see some huge coral, lots of sea fans and a few fish and then head back to the boat. I think we disappointed Captain Bill that we didn’t snorkel longer, but it was just all we could handle. The waves were a bit much for us and the open ocean feeling with no other people made us uncomfortable. I never could really relax and enjoy it due to trying to keep track of my kids. We could have spent the rest of the time sailing, but unfortunately we found out that we are not sailors. It was a quiet trip back to the dock with four out of five of us seasick! I am proud to say that I managed not to embarrass the family by heaving over the boat, but it was a very close call. Even though the snorkel trip wasn’t exactly smooth, we were happy to have had the opportunity to see a bit more of underwater Vieques and to have had what will probably be the “once in a lifetime” sailing experience! If you would like to sail out of Vieques I can’t recommend Captain Bill highly enough! He is a great captain and was VERY patient with a boat full of sick Okie landlubbers!!!!!


Bio Bay: We did the Bio Bay trip with Island Adventures. Excellent guides and the pontoon boat was more our speed (sorry Capt. Bill) The Bio Bay is as great as everyone says and definitely the favorite activity for all of us!!!!!!

Fort: The fort was closed for the day when we arrived, but as we were walking around the grounds taking some photos, an employee stepped out and told us to come on in and have a look. We took advantage of his offer and enjoyed the historical displays. The fort also has a wide selection of books for purchase. We purchased a book called “Vieques: A Photographically Illustrated Guide to the Island, It’s History and It’s Culture” by Gerald Singer. Sombereo Publishing Company PO Box 1031 St John 00831. My best tip for future travelers is to purchase and enjoy this book before visiting Vieques or to find a copy as soon as you arrive! It is an easy read with beautiful photos. Without the book we never would have found the black sand beach, which was one of our favorites! Learning about the relationship between the US Navy and the island was especially enlightening and for me as an American, embarrassing.

Gas: One tip I would pass along is to fill up the gas tank ASAP! On about our third day we went to get gas and none was to be had. Boy, that was a shock to all of us, and another great travel lesson. It put a bit of a damper on that day because we had no idea when more gas would arrive and with only a 1/8 of tank felt forced to conserve. Thankfully more gas did arrive and we were VERY lucky to be one of the first cars in line. I have no idea what the usual situation is with gas availability, but we saw some very very long lines of cars. One other tip that I hope someone will benefit from… wear your seatbelts! When we were informed that gas was once again available in our excited rush to get to the station my husband and I did not buckle up. (We ALWAYS buckle up but for some reason didn’t this time!) We had the pleasure of donating $50.00 each to officials of Vieques. It made us feel a bit better that they seemed to be stopping everyone, residents and tourist alike. Oh well, our fault, so we paid with good humor. What is one more hundred right?

After four great beach days and relaxing family fun nights at our lovely house we headed back to San Juan, this time on an almost empty ferry. I told my kids to mark my words when they visit Vieques again in twenty years or so it will be a very different island. I feel very blessed to have made a visit in these early tourism years.

Our driver was waiting at the ferry port with a smile and was kind enough to make a quick stop at Wal-mart before dropping us off at the Embassy Suites in San Juan. The Embassy Suites was a good choice for us. The location is minutes from the airport and we enjoyed the two-block walk to the beach. The rates also included a free breakfast, a good value for our last night. The next day was a long one with uneventful flights home.

I am always a bit sad to have vacations come to an end but this time a bit less due to the fact that my husband and I could agree on the answer to the age old question “the mountains or the beach??” so next week we are heading to Colorado. We will see how the Okie landlubbers do with river rafting!!

Thanks for reading! Happy Travels!

tdelano is offline  
Old Jul 6th, 2008, 11:52 AM
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Great report! My husband and I stopped at Vieques ten years ago while doing a Windjammer cruise but only long enough to do an evening kayak ride in Bio bay. We're considering a longer stay in PR and your trip report was helpful.
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Old Jul 7th, 2008, 09:33 AM
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Nice report. Thanks for posting.
mnag is offline  
Old Jul 9th, 2008, 03:45 PM
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Thanks for taking the time to post a trip repot. Sounds like your family really enjoyed Vieques!

It would be helpful to future readers doing subject searches on this forum if all of your trip report parts were together in one post rather than in separate ones. Could you possibly go back and add all of these to your first post? Thanks!
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Old Jul 9th, 2008, 06:05 PM
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Thank you for your very informative trip report.
You were honest. I guess it is just their way to throw trash on the ground, even when there is a trash can 10 ft. away. (that is what I love about Sun Bay and Red Beach, many trash cans, but they are supported by the Fish and Wildlife Dept). We found this when visiting Culebra and the response to us was "well they pay someone to pick up thier trash". But in the defense of the Vienquese, they are not all like that.
And did you notice that all the children were so clean, wonderfully dressed and well behaved. There are never screeching kids in the grocery stores!
Snorkeling...no, it is not great. We live there during the winter months and did not even snorkel at all this past winter. I did hear from a local tour guide about the school of fish near the Esperanza pier and I wonder if it was the little silversides we kept seeing while in the BVI's a month ago.
I am glad you found the Black Sand Beach...we only found out about it from the Vieques book you mentioned. It has great stories about the history.
Mosquito Pier, we have found lots of fish...you need to stay close to the rocks. They are small, but lots of variety.
Gotta love Capt Bill, we prefer to call him "The Barnicle" he is a salty old guy!
We did the same snorkel with him you did, Cayo Blanco, and I am still a novice, and the water was too rough for me,I knew I could not keep up, just trying to stay above the surf. DH was there, but it was my yoga teacher friend who came up to me and said "breathe", so I settled down and was able to complete the snorkel, the Barnicle showed us a puffer fish. It still remains in my mind, more stressful than enjoyable but am glad I did it. Loved the sailing part.
Bio Bay is awesome, and I always recommend Izzy, Ricky, Mark and the guys. They have so much to offer with the island history, astrology, and nature related things around the island.
I am going to insert this now because while finishing up my TR of the BVI's I may forget to put it in, so much of the island waters are biolumouminous (sp) we saw it in the BVI's, Great Harbor stands out as one place, and CGB.
Gas...if you only have a tank half full, you pass the station and there is not a line, get some!! Simple as that!!
The lines are not fun...and you never know when they will run out, due to the ferry being broke down or bad weather. I was in line for 40 minutes just before I came home. (and will not be so lazy next time as I have avoided that for 3 years!)
Glad you had a great time.
mahobaygirl is offline  
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