Vieques Vacation

Cue Bruno Mars' "Lazy Song," which will likely be drowned out by the louder Bachata music blaring from the sound system behind a little bar by the beach where I sat writing postcards from Vieques Island, just off the northeast coast of Puerto Rico. Like the carefree song goes, one of the best jobs you'll do here is to do absolutely "nothing at all!"

Well, we didn't actually do nothing.

We spent a night here where I rode a jetski for the first time, and went on a scooter to explore the jungle paths of this small island. We had to keep our eyes open for wild horses that would likely dart into our way from the dense woods. They roam freely like stray dogs out there! And we had to be careful not to startle them.

We swam at night, drinking cold Medalla beer in the Caribbean sea pretending to be dolphins and experimenting with underwater flash photography. We were blessed with rainless weather during our stay when there were flood warnings in the San Juan area the night before we headed for Fajardo pier (where the ferry leaves for Vieques).

Our scooter adventures also led us to some hidden, less-crowded beaches on the island such as Media Luna Beach. We only spent a day here and yet this was where I got toasted the mostest.

My favorite souvenir from Vieques was a locally published illustrated storybook of how Puerto Rico was created based on a Taino legend. Puerto Rico's first inhabitants were the Taino Indian tribe. The most interesting part of the book (apart from its price) was that the author was from the mainland United States who fell in love with Vieques Island and decided to buy a house and live there. His wife had followed him, intrigued by the author's infatuation with the island that he chose to leave the States for good. When the wife saw Vieques with her own eyes...she finally understood and stayed with her husband there. I heard this story from the clerk who sold the book to me at the small museum shop in Barrio Esperanza. She herself used to live in Massachusetts, then Florida, before settling in Vieques. And she knew the author personally, she said.

I hope to show you some pages of the book sometime. I had bought it so I can share the story with my baby niece, as the whole point of this Puerto Rico vacation was to have her discover her half-heritage early on, and especially since she still gets to fly free.

I also hope to get around posting some of my favorite vacation photos. For now, I just want to let you know that I'm still aqui! (here!)