Vieques

I know I’m not in Durham when I am woken by the hurumpff of a horse just outside our window - a glassless window, just wooden louvers and a screen. (In fact there are rows of windows on two walls of our room letting in delightful breezes along with the sounds and smells of this Caribbean island).   As though the horse were the key to the day, a rooster follows in quick succession and then the beat of reggae passing in a car. Loud, insistent.  Before 7 am!  There is the smell of frangipani, and constantly in the background the comforting sound of ocean waves, responsible perhaps for my deep sleep, despite the buzz of mosquitoes and the roving, lumpy mattress cover.

We are at the Hacienda Tamarindo in Vieques, Puerto Rico.  We develop a morning ritual.  Roll out of bed, pull on our swimsuits,  reach for a towel and drive a few minutes to Sun Bay for a long walk on the  (at that time of day) deserted beach. 

And then a swim before heading back for our well-earned breakfast eaten on the second floor under the tamarind tree.  Juice, fruit, Spanish omelet, bacon, spicy hash browns, English muffins.  There are many other choices, but that becomes my usual order.   While we drink vast amounts of coffee and watch birds we cannot name on the feeder by the bougainvillea (a massed froth of white blossom), the kitchen staff make our picnic lunch and pack it with ice in a back-pack.  We add books, suntan lotion, grab our snorkel equipment and decide which beach to head to for the day.    

Again there are many choices. Most are named for colors – blue beach, red beach, green beach – the sign posts looking far more exotic in Spanish.  You need a car to get to them,  ideally, a four-wheel drive.   When you get there there is just the white sand, the warm aqua water, some palm trees or other vegetation, occasionally a couple of other people, but often not.   

 

There are rocks and reefs and bright tropical fish, magical shapes of coral.  I do not have an underwater camera. You will have to visualize this for yourself.  Picture three fan coral growing next to each other, one intense mauve, one pure olive and one almost salmon.  The sun is striking them so the colors are crayon bright and they are waving slightly in the current.  Between them is swimming a vivid yellow fish and a narrow one with a green tail, turquoise head and a dramatic white and black band around its middle.  And then you are distracted by two multi-colored parrot fish crunching on the coral, and, oh my goodness, there is a school of brilliant blue tang. You follow them, trying to count, over sixty for sure! And then, heading back to shore, your heart bursting with the beauty, a leopard ray passes below you, the elegant slow flap of its “wings”, the incredible length of its narrow tail.  You walk up the beach, pulling off your goggles.  It is deserted, no sign of anything man-made except what we carried down the forested path.  Graham is reading under the shade of tree.  No one else is on our secret beach. 

One of the reasons these beaches are so unspoiled and undeveloped is that, for many years, much of Vieques was used by the United States Navy for military exercises.  Protests led to the the Navy's departure almost 10 years ago and the land they used has now been designated as a National Wildlife Refuge.  The navy is responsible for color-coding the beaches. 

Vieques has been on my radar-screen (oops!) for many years.  When we lived in Kenya a friend from Boston waxed lyrical about the place, told us we'd love it.  She used to rent a large and wonderful house there with a group of friends.  Years later, when we moved to Durham, friends here raved about Vieques, made it a family holiday every year, told us we'd love it,  gushed about the house they rented. Turned out it was the same house that our friend in Boston used to stay in!! 

 I am a firm believer in the power of serendipity -- of taking it as a green flag (more color coding).  Knew we needed to go.  

We timed our trip to coincide with our friends.  They were in the house with their extended family, we had a charming room at the Hacienda Tamarindo.  They knew the best of the island -- the character of each beach, the perfect places to snorkle, the best restaurant.  The perfect guides, loving the same things we do.

If you like shopping, a  wide choice of good restaurants, sophisticated night life, TV in your room … what we did is not for you.  You need a car. Many roads were being re-surfaced, others had huge potholes.

You need to be aware of security issues – we were advised not to leave anything of value in the car and to leave it unlocked at all times to avoid the risk of windows being smashed.  We saw nothing that felt threatening.  There are wild horses everywhere, dogs and chickens, flamboyant trees coated with orange blooms.

Main drag of Esperanza early in the morning - usually buzzing with activity

One of the primary tourist attractions is a bioluminescent bay.  You take a boat tour at night and marvel at the dinoflagellates lighting things up – the outline of your submerged hand, the spray of water you kick from the boat, the bucket of water you stir into a flashing blue frenzy, the glowing blue outline of fish swimming away in the dark bay.

 

I know I am somewhere else when I order mofongo with shrimp at a casual outdoor restaurant and when we recline with our whiskey by the hotel pool and see the Milky Way flung out bright across a moonless sky.   But there is also a comforting familiarity.  We could almost be back in Kenya.  I find Scorpio, my constellation.  Clear as day on this dark night.