Puerto Rico Day Tres!

Saturday morning we were around the corner to the cafe and ordered egg sandwiches to go. Once we rented our car and got on the road we ate the sandwiches, their heavy Cuban-like bread making them a bit of a disappointment.

Before leaving the city, we pulled into a Chili’s restaurant parking lot so that Nirvi could call the airline and let them know that one of our passenger’s name’s was not “Libby” as I had ordered the tickets under, but “Elizabeth”.  The airline didn’t care a lick.

Nirvi gets to work...

Nirvi changes plans from C.M. Scott on Vimeo.

In the parking lot with us were some humongous lizards and a few chickens “This is the best Chili’s parking lot ever!” Nirvi decided.

It took us only about 40 minutes to get to Loquillo beach which was a shame. Not only were we there much earlier than we planned but we were also way too full from our mediocre egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches to partake in food form the relatively creepy street of kiosks we’d read about being must-visit places for lunch. We made our way to Loquillo Beach and simply wandered it. The colors were so vibrant and there were again lots of sea glass and coral.

From there we did go to the kiosks where we only had eyes for the fresh cold coconut water. While being surrounded by weird tourist gifts like hammocks and swings and tiny figurines of ET in a hammock.

fresh coconut water!

E.T. in a hammock?

Nirvi attempts to dig out the flesh in her coconut.

We arrives at the airport in Ceiba very early, so we passed the time chatting in the empty, tiny airport, sharing peanut M&Ms and trying not to eat all the other crap food we’d bought to bring along.

To get onto the tiny plane for our brief ten minute (at most) flight to Vieques, we had to walk out onto the tarmac and enter the plane almost as if it were a car. The pilot basically told us not to do dumb shit and we were on our way. I have never had a smoother flight that that one!  There was only one other passenger on the plane - he seemed like a local who also had a slight air of perpetual eye rolling at the tittering girls he was stuck in the plane with.

We look so adventurous!

Here is your flight safety demonstration

Thumbs up for the fun and the not crashing!

Our hotel, Trade Winds, was in Esperenza, in the south side of the island. The room we rented was strange, with terrible artwork and a random tapestry on the one window which had no similarity to the rest of the concrete room at all. Random murals were everywhere. But it would do for a night.

weird guest house room

Weird guest house room with crappy art!

Next was the bioluminescence tour at 6:30. We gathered up ourselves and headed to a gazebo nearby where we were met by the tour guide Carlito, along with others joining the tour. We rode for quite a while in a bus that reminded me a bit of an old VW bus. The seats were covered with plastic (because we’d likely be wet on the return trip).

(I'll point out that the next few photos were taken with me phone with a special waterproof case on it. I had hoped to try and shoot the bioluminescence but it was a lost cause. Separately from that though, I think the dreamy effect that resulted is kind of neat!)

waiting for the ride to the bio bay tour

Horsies you should not pet

We stopped in a field where there were horses a few paces away. Apparently the horses all have owners, but the owners let them roam free to graze. One moron from the tour walked over to one to pet it and I thought “I really don’t want to miss out on my tour because some moron tried to pet a wild animal and got kicked in the face”. The tour guide warned her that it was a bad idea.

Once other groups joined us from other vans, we signed our lives away and got fitted into life jackets, or as Nirvi called them “hugging bustiers”, before piling back into the vans for the bumpiest ride I have ever experienced in my life!  It took probably a solid ten minutes to get to the kayaks on the shore, and the van had to drive over a dirt road riddled with potholes to China.

Rockin' the hugging bustiers

I was paired with a guy named...I don’t remember his name, but he was nice and kayaking with a stranger earned me a Mulligan with the ladies so I was cool with that.

We kayaked out into the darkness. Our tour guide wore a blinking light on his head so we all sort of followed him and tried not to hit each other in the dark. I had read poor reviews about there being hundreds of kayakers out and not much bioluminescence, but that was not the case for us!  There were probably ten to fifteen other kayaks, all park of our tour alone, the moon was nowhere to be found, and the bio was out big time! 

At first it was minimal, but as we paddled farther out into the bay it was amazing. You could stick your hand in the water and sparks would fly! Pull your hand out and they disappear like an illusion. I’ve never seen so many stars in the sky as I did that night either. There was much ooing and ahing and we were so grateful we came to Vieques for this purpose!