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Stuff Grows on Vieques

December 17, 2013 – 2:23 pm
Posted in vacation
Tagged bananas, bougainvillea, flowers, hibiscus, jasmine, plants, trees, Vieques
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We were there at the beginning of the dry season. However, someone must have mis-read the calendar. We had some rain most days and quite a bit of rain on one day. And with the never-ending summer weather, plant life thrives. Any building or car that had been left alone for a while appeared to have stuff growing on, around and through it. I was impressed by the shear numbers of flowers that we saw – most of which I could not identify. There was lots of bougainvillea, many varieties of hibiscus, jasmine, morning glory, bromeliads and much more. Also much to my surprise, there were quite a few cacti species! And no, I don’t know what they are. If you know the names of any of these plants, do let me know. We were surprised by the honey bees! They were pollinating many flowers. We never saw any evidence of bee hives so maybe they were introduced and have gone feral along with the horses, dogs, cats, mongoose, etc.

Kiwano – horned melon

They look like saguaros

Another cactus

mangrove roots

hibiscus fruit

palm tree lit up at night

300 year old Cieba tree

From a distance it looks like a good climbing tree. Up close it looks armed and dangerous.

Wing-like roots

bougainvillea

This looked like a pea flower

Bougainvillea

jasmine

bougainvillea

Love this palm

hibiscus

Another kind of hibiscus

Anyone know what this is?

Unused trails and roads are swiftly overrun with foliage

morning glory

two dimensional palm

big bromliad

This looks like an orange chantrelle. We saw dried chantrelles for sale in a market.

Making our way to beach

Sometimes we had to wade

mangroves

Boardwalk through a mangrove forest to a brackish lagoon.

Vieques Beaches

Vieques is known for miles of beautiful beaches. Much of the island used to be a US naval bombing range. That ended maybe ten years ago. Now that land is owned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service however much is still off limits due to unexploded ordinances. Fortunately many beautiful beaches are open. There are also coral reefs that provide good snorkeling experiences. I am not a swimmer but have always thought I’d like snorkeling and indeed, once I got used to putting my face in the water, I really did like it and at the end of the trip, I was wishing for another week just to snorkel!

Sun Bay

Like a postcard

It’s hard to believe we could have such a place all to ourselves

Horses go where ever they want

Not very many sea birds

Emerging from the sand

Coconuts are everywhere

White crab

One of our group took synchronized swimming in college

This beach was rocky, not sandy but it had good snorkeling

Brain coral

Beach lizard

Esperanza beach

Playa Punta Arenas used to be known as Green Beach and it was our favorite

Esperanza

Esperanza is the smaller, newer town on Vieques. It is more of a tourist destination with gifts shops and restaurants. The Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust has its office there too. They have a small museum, gift shop and a small marine life exhibit. The day we visited the gift shop was staffed by their marine biologist who was happy to answer our many questions and show us the marine life.

Learning about the local marine life

Jen had fun with her underwater camera and I admit, I want one too……

starfish

Invasive lionfish

One of several restaurants

Fishing skiffs and pleasure boats

Another pretty sunset

Fun Times

We ate very well on this trip. The fresh fruit was amazing! Papayas and mangoes and citrus were ripe and juicy like you never taste them at home. Avocados were big and ripened perfectly. We visited the fish market twice; buying the beautiful lobsters the first time and returning for fish at the end of the week. Every morning after yoga practice we’d prepare a large bowl of fresh fruit for breakfast along with granola or eggs. We needed energy for the rest of the day! The house sits on a hill with view to north, south and west.

The view from the house. While it seems like mostly vegetation, there are quite a few homes in there.

fruit

We loved our fruit and wanted to remember it back at home

The view from the terrace

White house, blue skies

Jen gets to know her dinner

We were all impressed by these guys

Fresh cabbage salad

We ate all of our meals on the terrace.

It rained some

Now that’s a papaya!

Look at that mango

Relaxing on the terrace

Fresh limones

Jen did a series of watercolors

Scenes from Isabel Segundo

Isabel Segundo is the bigger of the two towns on Vieques. It is the place where most business gets done; the post office is there as is the ferry dock. Some of its buildings date back to the 1800’s! Everything seems to be made out of concrete. The humidity, rain and winds are hard on other materials. The colors are amazing. I really enjoyed the local color palette. Dogs and cats freely roam throughout the island and are very noticeable in town. Streets and roads are narrow and not in very good shape overall and the cars reflect that.