My Everyday Photos

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.

Downtown Isabel

The produce market. Fruits and vegetables arrived from Puerto Rico three days a week

Starfruit

This produce seller told us how to cook taro

Fishing skiffs

Fish market

This fish seemed to pretty to eat

Grouper

Enormous lobsters!

An old bar that faces the town square

Decorations in the town square

Meow

Keeping cool

The tree is overtaking the sidewalk

Lovely old architecture

A coral cairn

The view from a pocket park overlooking the water

Stuff grows

This was a very old house

Color

Love these colors

We didn’t know what this meant.

Getting There

Vieques is a long ways from here. In case you don’t know, it is part of Puerto Rico; an island a little bit east of the main island. To get there, we had to drive from Twisp to Sea-Tac, fly to Chicago overnight and then to San Juan. At San Juan we flew on a much smaller plane to Vieques.