Puerto Rico (5/2/07-5/8/07)

Itinerary: Puerto Rico (5/2/07-5/8/07)
5/2/07-5/3/07: Puerto Rico (Vieques Island)
5/3/07-5/6/07: Puerto Rico (Culebra Island)
5/6/07-5/8/07: Puerto Rico (El Yunque, Condado Beach and Old San Juan)


5/2 (Wednesday)
Early morning flight from NYC to San Juan, Puerto Rico with Josh Pushkin. I then took a charter plane (20 min flight) to Vieques (island), while Josh headed directly to Culebra (island) first. Was the only passenger on this 10-seater plane. Took a cab from Vieques airport (north coast near the town Isabella Segunda) to the south coast town of Esperanza. The price for the cheapest place listed in the Lonely Planet guide turned out to outdated, and actually cost $80+/night. I asked for the cheapest/bare bones place to just crash for a night, and was directed to a place a few blocks in from the beach – the place was falling apart, but the room was actually quite decent and had air-conditioning, all for $50. It was actually as nice/nicer than any bungalow I had stayed while in Thailand’s islands (albeit 5x more). I then hiked east from Esperanza beach, checking out a few beaches along the way (Sun Bay – where I took a long nap, and Playas Media Luna & Navio – beaches used in the movie “Lord of the Flies”). At the last beach, I chatted with this guy from Boston named Rob who was a regular visitor to Vieques and planned on buying a place on this island some day. Thankfully, he offered me a ride back to Esperanza… although it was only 2 miles or so, the sun was setting and the mosquitoes were swarming, and I had to get back to the Esperanza strip to meet with the Blue Caribe Kayaks tour group for an evening tour of Mosquito Bay.

Bioluminescent Mosquito Bay is well known as having the highest concentration of phosphorescent dynoflagellates (microscopic single-celled organisms that light up when disturbed) in the world. We were glad to have just a small group of 5 people, but were concerned that the full moon that night would diminish the visibility of the bioluminescent organisms, as warned by guidebooks. But as we began to kayak out toward the center of the lagoon, the moon ducked behind clouds and our surroundings went dark. It was a bit eerie, yet very serene kayaking out into dark waters… but after about 20 minutes of intensive kayaking across the bay, the water around our paddles began to light up as they hit the water… everything glowed as it touched the water… white-blue outlines. We tied our kayaks together and jumped into the water, and for the next 30 or 40 minutes we were mesmerized by this phenomena… When I lifted my arm out the water, light-glitter would sparkle all over my skin for about 5 seconds. The tour guide said we were very lucky about the hidden moon – and that visibility of the organisms was near 90%. One lady kept repeating the words “this is truly something special,” as I found myself speechless the whole time. I did come up with a morbid thought though, wondering if the organisms died all over my arm when I took them out of the water. I took some time to swim off a bit…. I floated on my back, making glow angels… I stared at what seemed liked disco lights between my chest and life-vest… I thrashed around the water to create a ball of light around me … and pretended I was some kind of superhero mutant that could create light-energy with my body movement. When it was time to leave, my fingertips were heavily water-pruned, and it was probably the perfect time to leave… because as soon as we began kayaking back, the moon came out behind the clouds, as if a bright spotlight was beaming down on us, lighting our path back to the mangrove trees where we had launched off from.

As we got back to Esperanza, it began to drizzle. I found a restaurant and was surprised to see Rob sitting alone, having just ordered his dinner and joined him. As it turns out I chose a pretty solid restaurant – and had delicious pork chops.


5/3 – Ferry from Vieques to Farjado, then to Culebra
Early morning, took cab from Esperanza to Isabella Segunda… went straight to Fort Count Mirasol… beautiful view from up there of all around the island… and small museum inside the fort… Vieques artist who did reverse-graffiti – pressurized water/air to remove grime from walls, creating beautiful images… of butterflies/flowers bursting out of broken army helicopters/tanks, signifying the beauty of the island that is now reemerging since it has become free of the repulsive U.S. Navy occupation/practices back in 2003. Took ferry from the port in Vieques to Farjado back on east coast Puerto Rico (1h15min, $2), then NE from Farjado to Culebra (1h20min, $2.50). Josh met me at the Culebra ferry port – he had already had a great 1st day on the Culebra and got to dive earlier that morning (and had clearly gotten some sun!). We hitched a ride to Jerry’s Jeep – rented a vehicle and headed for our hotel on Flamenco Beach. Dusk was falling, and Flamenco Beach was stunning… white sand, and clear clean water as far as the eye could see… and no one around! Perfect for a swim.

5/4 – Kayaking and snorkeling. Josh and I rented a kayak, and headed off from Playa Tamarindo to Cayo Luis Pena… I was stunned at how beautiful it all was… we had the cay all to ourselves… and the snorkeling was wonderful and so peaceful… it really was paradise… and no one in sight… well, besides an occasional boat in the distance. From Cayo Luis Pena, we headed to Playa Carlos Rosario where we were told to check out another extensive reef system… wonderful as well, but the beach was not nearly as nice as our isolated cay.

5/5 – Diving and Zion Beach. We headed off on a boating trip with 2 dives. It was my first time diving in the open waters… so I was given a quick run through of instructions… it was such an awesome experience – and much to see… saw a few barracudas on the first dive, and a crazy nurse shark swam right toward us on the second dive. After getting back to land, Josh and I headed off to Zion Beach – which I would rate as the second most beautiful beach…

5/6 – Morning Flamenco Beach – taking in our last moments in beach paradise. Ferry from Culebra to Farjado, then rental car from Farjado to El Yunque Rain Forest… where we did a quick stopover at La Coca Falls and hiked the very short Mt. Britton Trail… but the tower we reached far surpassed our expectations… we felt very high up and panoramic views all around the surrounding rainforest… all the way to the waters… and with constant clouds moving by us, we felt like we were way up in the sky. As night fell, we quickly headed over to the San Juan area (Condado Beach)

5/7 – Spend day wandering in Old San Juan. After returning rental car at 4pm, we wandered around Condado Beach area. Pretty tired at this point, and sun was beating down pretty strong… got a popsicle, and headed to the movie theatre to watch spider-man 3. We showered back at the hotel, went to grab late dinner, before headed off to our 1am flight back to NYC

PUERTO RICO PHOTO LINK