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Indiana, United States
Empty nesters...ready to stretch our wings. Life is good and we plan on making it even better. This blog is mostly about our trips to Vieques Puerto Rico, with a few odds and ends thrown in about our life after the mortgage.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Snorkel maps...

Just for the heck of it we decided this evening to put up some maps of places we have snorkeled on the island and places we plan on snorkeling in 8 weeks. (can you tell we're anxious to be back on the island!). Ok...here's the way it works...yellow on the maps shows areas we have snorkeled (Some of these places we have video of too), orange are areas we plan on hitting in 8 weeks.  The first map is of Caracas:


We were unable to get to Garcia beach this last visit because the road was closed because of the all the rain. It looks to be much easier to reach the island via Garcia. We also thought that the south end of Garcia might be interesting. All the sea fans I filmed this last time were off the east side of Caracas, the area I have circled in yellow.

sea fans off Caracas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQHwmJsQXQQ&feature=related
a blue tang and some sea fans on Caracas: http://www.youtube.com/user/6cup6two#p/u/3/pucOIAFzqFs
snorkeling on Caracas when the surf was up: http://www.youtube.com/user/6cup6two#p/u/11/8LEDfdNqkjY



Next photo is of Puenta Arenas. I have included an inset on this map that shows of close-up of a really nice spot to stop and watch the sunset (that is IF you can stand the sand fleas). There's this lone palm tree that provides the most perfect spot to camp out.

Here's some videos of Puenta Arenas:
This is when we had to get out and walk. It was so far to snorkel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5YDua8XUC8
This is of the box fish while snorkeling off Punta Arenas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSdM9cL3SI8
This is video of the nice spot to camp out at under the palm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvbKC8ESeZs&feature=related

This is video of the road to Punta Arenas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I9v9XHvChY


Once again the yellow is where we have snorkeled. I have some video of a box fish loaded from this last trip. There is a very long line of coral to snorkel in this area. Thing is it was difficult to find a place to get out of the water. Your better off entering and leaving near the closeup area I have above. The rock and coral comes right up to the beach in this area. Seemed to be larger areas to snorkel here. We saw more larger fish too.

Next photo is of Playa Chiva (blue beach). Unfortunately we don't haven any video of this because we were unable to snorkel out to isla chiva because of all the rain. The water clarity was terrible on Playa Chiva this last trip. The trip prior we had some wonderful snorkeling at Playa Chiva.


Once again the yellow are areas we have snorkeled. When we were there in March another couple saw sea turtles in the coral line close to the beach that I have marked in yellow. The best snorkeling was out off the island.  I've also marked in orange some areas off of Orchid beach we plan on snorkeling this next trip. We've never snorkeled off of Orchid.


Since this post we've snorkeled some other areas on the island. I made a list of what we think are the best spots we've found so far. You can find it here updated snorkel maps.

16 comments:

  1. Great info. Thanks! Going for a week next month. Did you have a favorite snorkeling spot?

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  2. Without a doubt it would be Playa Chiva. We will be there Feb 18 thru March 5th.

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  3. I'll check it out. Visiting 2/10-16. thanks

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  4. Curt and Lorrie...lots of good info and pictures! My fiance and I are honeymooning on Vieques in early June...we can't wait! We are getting scuba certified and plan on doing a good amount of snorkeling too. Where have you two stayed when you on the island? I hope you guys enjoy your trip in February! Dan

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  5. Dan....we stayed at the Hacienda Tamarindo our first visit. Our second trip we stayed at Casa Dos Chivos. This trip we're staying at Quinta Jabali for a week and then one week back at Casa Dos Chivos. Let us know if you have any questions. I'll be loading to this blog during our next trip.

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  6. Great info, thanks!! We'll be there in July. Have you done any diving there?

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  7. No we haven't done any diving. The very best coral we've seen is on the "updated snorkel maps" post. It is south of Punta Arenas, you'll have to swim to it though. Nice reefs off of Orchid beach too. We're heading back in November.

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  8. Thanks! I read more of your posts last night. We'll be so much more prepared for our trip based on all of your great insight! We love to travel to out of the way, secluded places, so I always do a lot of research beforehand. We're going with our 2 boys (16 and 10). They love to snorkel too, but the younger one has also requested horseback riding, so we will have to check into it :) Are Maritzas and Martinue best jeep rental places? Our property rents jeeps but is out for our week. Will also have to work out arrival logistics since we fly in on Cape Air at 7:44pm (we do have a 3.5 hr layover in San Juan though). Hopefully, no connection problems. I read about your delays from Houston. We are staying just outside Isabel though. Thanks again!

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  9. Kimberly,

    IMO Maritzas is the best car rental place on the island. In November last year we didn't get onto the island until really late, like 9pm (the airport was closing). Maritzas sent two guys to pick us up AND they opened up their office so we could do our paper work that night. Execellent service, very professional. You pay for what you get though, new Jeeps from them run $80 a day. I would rather work with them if I was getting onto the island late.

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  10. Thanks! Their email appears to be done. Did you set up the rental over the phone?

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  11. Sorry- email is down :)

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  12. Do it over the phone and make sure you ask them about arriving later. I've not used email to rent any car on the island. Only time I'll use email is to set up the rental house. What time is your flight out of Vieques? Maritzas won't let you leave it at the airport, if I remember right. You'll have to drop it off back at their office and they'll give you a lift to the airport.

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  13. I'll give them a call then. Departure flight leaves around 1:30pm, so we should have time to drop off at their office first. Thanks!!

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