Greetings from Vieques. You may remember this island from news accounts several years ago in which the Rev. Al Sharpton spent time in jail and on a hunger strike to free the island from the ravages of the US Navy. After hearing different accounts of what happened here with the Navy and it's use of the island for Naval Gunnery practice, I'm still not sure what the real story is, but there are plenty of stories nonetheless.
We pulled into Sun Bay and dinghied over to the small town of Esperonza. It is a cool little village with plenty of bars and food shacks to refresh any tourist. We walked around for a bit and Sunny decided to get a drink made from roasted sesame seeds. It is kind of like horchata (sp) a Mexican drink made from rice which is blended with some sugar and cinnamon. While there I sat next to an older gentleman who appeared to be sleeping. We got to talking and discovered he, Victor, was blind but more importantly he was an ex-marine. His wife, Ruthie, of 50 years was born on Vieques and they met while he was pulling duty as an engineer on the island. They insisted we take a tour of the island with them and we did. As we drove down the roads I was amazed that he would point out different things to look at while at the same time he hadn't actually seen any of it for over 30 years. Pretty remarkable I thought and his wife was the sweetest lady you could ever hope to meet. We had a great time, but for many of the islands residents I'm sure they were glad when we finished, as she had a habit of driving down the middle of the highway at the break neck speed of 10 miles per hour with the occasional stop in the middle of the road to point out different aspects of the island. It was like a convoy.
We then went back out to our boat and discovered Bristol Rose anchored next to us. We all decided to make a trip to the world famous Phosphorescent bay about a mile and a half away. These bays are famous for glowing water which is caused by a type of algae or plankton, which glow when agitated, like mini fireflies. As the sun rested we dropped into the 90+ degree water and were amazed at the amount of light these bugs give off. It is very neat to see your hands glow green and the water glow around you as if you were the electric horseman under water. I wish I could get a picture of it but alas all efforts failed.
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Hello from San Juan. We have taken a quick road trip to the city of San Juan to get off the boat for a day. Even we need a vacation sometimes. We had a great time driving up over the mountains from Salinas and doing some obligatory shopping. We needed quite a few things that were unavailable locally and it was fun to see the island. Amazing how PR could be anyplace USA when you drive through it. Everything from Churches Chicken to Macy's is here. Sunny even found an Asian grocery. I never expected to see all that here in in this island so far away from the mainland. Had it not been for the Spanish roadsigns I could have easily been fooled into thinking I was in California. We spent the night in San Juan and took in the Bodies exhibit which we seem to miss in every city were in. Very interesting, a bit creepy, but it is well done. Were definitely coming back to this city again.
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Hello from Caja de Muerto or Coffin island to us gringos. We are anchored in a beautiful cove of the island which sits just 7 miles from the city of Ponce in Puerto Rico. Should be a fun place for the next couple of days with all the festivities scheduled in the area.
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