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.
We now have all the details of our November trip finished. We'll be spending two weeks at Hilltop apartment. Our total cost for the trip just dropped by roughly $1400. We were averaging 5K per trip, it's now down to $3600. That's the cost for a "no brainer" trip to Vieques. Flying all the way to the island, using Cape Air from SJU and a Jeep from Maritzas. I mention this because so many people ask "How much does it cost to go there?" Yeah you could save more by getting to the island differently and then not getting your rental from Maritzas. But like I said, it's a "no brainer". Maritzas now has a desk at the airport that's open till 6pm. The only time I should have to retrieve my luggage is at VQS.
I was doing some research on the coconut I opened this last trip. I thought what was inside it was called "coconut bread". I think I was wrong about that. I now believe it is called a coconut apple. Regardless it's a real treat to experience. It has the consistency of cotton candy or angel food cake and literally melts in your mouth. From what I've read caution should be exercised when eating this. It's important not to have the sprout over 12" tall. Ours had no visible sprout, it was a mere bud, only visible after the outer husk was removed.
I've also been trying to find out what kind of rock it is that I've found on the point of land between Playa La Plata and Escondida. I've photographed it on a couple of trips now. As best I can tell I think it might be "lava bombs" in "tuff"? Still digging...would be curious to know if anyone else is familiar with this type of rock formation.
Trying our best to get back to "real life" here in Indiana. Gloomy gray skies and bare trees...YUCK! I'm slowing going through all the photos we took on the last trip. Finding ones I had forgot about and meant to include in a post.
For instance....here's a photo of a dog that was laying in the middle of the road. We saw him when we left Sea Glass beach and headed back to the gallery for the opening. All he could manage was to raise his head up and give us a sleepy-eyed look. He didn't even move when a car came by....only in Vieques.
There are a number of places on the island where we see dogs like this. One is on the road up to La Praa, at the Y, where the guy is always working on cars. There's always a couple of dogs laying in the road and they don't want to move. Another place is further up on that road around past the school on one on the turns near Luna Azul (or something like that). There's a concrete pad, near the road and it's always got dogs laying on it. Gotta luv those island dogs.
Ok...you pull out of the airport and turn left. You'll been on 200. You go east on 200. You'll drive past the turn off for 201 (that's where you can turn from Isabel if you want to go to Veritas or Next Course.) You'll keep driving on 200 and go pass both gas stations on the island. First one on your left, second one on your right. You'll pass a Morales store, on your left (bookmark than in your noggin for future reference). You keep driving on 200. You'll pass a Tire center. Right afer the tire center is a junky place that is a rental center. Immediately after the junky rental center is the turn for La Praa. If you past the turn for La Praa you will see a red building with a rooster painted on the side of it. This will be on your right. If you see this, you've went too far. Ok..once you turn up to La Praa you kinda wind around. You pass a turn off on your left. then you come to a Y. You keep to the left, all the way to the top of the ridge. You come to another Y. You still keep to the left. You go past the school and around a couple VERY sharp winding turns. You will see a very well maintained gray house on your left and directly across from it you will see some Postal Mailboxes. There's a road that heads downhill towards the right. This is the road Casa La Vista is on. It's a dead end road. It ends up at the construction site for the new Hix House. Casa la Vista is the only house on the right side of that road. So..that's how you get to the house.
From the house you drive back up to the top of the hill by the mailboxes and the nice Gray house. Back track all the way to the school (which was the second Y when you headed to the house). Instead of going back down into La Praa you head left (west). You will head up a ridge. First thing you come to is a narrow Y. You stay to the left. Go past the next T (on your left). All the way up and over the ridge (it is very steep..I mean very steep). Follow this road until it Tee's. Then turn left. You go all the way down hill until it Tee's. Turn left and go a very short distance and turn right. This road leads all way down to 997 (watch out for the drainage dip in this road. If you hit it going fast it'll rattle your teeth). When you hit the final T turn right. This will take you all the way into Esperanza. You will see the Green Store before you get to the Malecon strip. 997 actually Y's at the Green Store. You go left at the Green store to get to the Malecon. If it's on a Saturday expect A LOT of traffic parked along the road of the Malecon. There will be little to no parking along the Malecon. I would park at the kayak rental place on the left as soon as you hit the Malecon. It's right across from El Quenepo. You pull off to the right near the ocean to park. That way you can walk down the Malecon. First time driving on the Malecon, at night on a Saturday, can be VERY frustrating. So that's why I would park just before the Malecon begins. I know this is probably very confusing so I've added some maps.
I had a comment today on how to find sea-glass beach. This is how we were shown to find it. I started from Blackbeards in Isabel. The X is where we were told Seaglass beach is.
This is a little closer picture of it. You can walk all the way down to the beach from Isabel. You walk through a narrow street between some houses, and the road leads all the way down to the beach. You can see the old shipwreck off to your right when you hit the beach:
We left Casa La Vista very early today...needed to make the most of our last day on the island. I also had some unfinished business to attend to. I still need to plant the cotton seeds for Jennifer. So on the way to Playa la Plata, actually right before the road Y's (where you can head to Escondida or Playa la Plata) I planted the cotton seeds.
I put four rocks around where I planted the seeds Jennifer.
and I put a green rope above were I planted the seeds:
We also marked one of the plants that had the cotton on it for you:
That's blue rope on that one. Then we took a picture of Lorrie in front of one of the plants for scale. They are really quite tall.
Ok..after our farming we headed on into Playa La Plata. This was the earliest we've made it to the beach this trip. It was about 8:30 when we hit the beach. We were greeted by a note from Hal and Adrienne.
It was really nice to meet them too. We've met so many wonderful people on this trip. Lorrie and I were talking last night about how we feel this has been our best trip of all! Imagine that, after 6 trips, it just keeps getting better.
So..after admiring the nice note in the sand from Hal and Adrienne, Lorrie was off on her morning meditative walk. I just hung out at the cabana. Next was our morning yoga, so nice to do that when you have the beach to yourselves. Then we did the swim over to the gallery. I took a few pictures of the place in the morning sun:
The picture to the right is the one I took this year. The one above is the one I took a year ago. Kinda kewl to see that it's almost the same..but not quite.
Then it was back to our cabana to just" chill-ax", to quote our daughter. Didn't take long for Judy and Andre to show up. They ask us "What happened to you guys after the opening in Isabel?". We told them about Cnuc being full and that we ended up going to Veritas. They told us that they ended up going to El Patio and thought that the meal was over-priced.
After that Lorrie and I watched the beach fill up. Really didn't take long either. We counted 32 at the high point. Sometime before noon a couple showed up by our cabana. The female of the couple walked up to Lorrie and ask if she was "Lorrie from Indiana". Yep, Lorrie replied. Seems that Hal and Adrienne had told them about the kayaking and about us. They were also having Donty deliver a kayak this afternoon. We watched them paddle out into Ensenada Honda.
Last days on the beach are tough. You hate to do much of anything...seems there's a lot more of just trying to sit back and take as much of it in as possible. We were hoping that towards the end of the day the beach would empty and Lorrie and I could close it out, one last time. Things did begin to thin out, as the sun dropped further into the horizon. Long before the last visitors left, Andre and Judy came down to say their goodbyes. What a wonderful visit we've had with them this year. I took a picture of the two of them walking away:
I remember how pleased we were to see that yellow tee-shirt when arrived two weeks ago. I sure hope to see it again in another year. Thank you two, for just being you.
There is a time, in the late afternoon, when things turned a beautiful golden color. It's almost a surreal kind of light and it doesn't last long. It was nearing that time so I ask Lorrie if she wanted to take one last walk over to the gallery. We took our time walking over, there was only one group besides us on Orchid now. As we were walking over I ask Lorrie if we had been to any other beaches this trip? No, she told me. Other than our "no beach day" we had spent two weeks on Orchid and the novelty still hadn't worn off. I took some more shots of the rock sculptures in the fading light. (I know your getting tired of seeing them..but it's something we really enjoy).
The sand was unmarked now, since everyone had left.
This one was my masterpiece. Lorrie and I drug it up onto the beach one day last week. Upright it stood nearly 3 1/2 feet tall. Andre said it was his favorite.
This one was Judy's favorite. She said it looked African. When I saw it I was reminded of "Venus of Willindorf".
I sat this piece of brain coral up earlier in the week. Judy had ask me if it was mine. She was able to pick out my style. As I was taking pictures, in the waining light, I noticed that Lorrie was missing. I turned around to find her out in the water sitting. She was sitting very still and these little purple and yellow damsel fish were all around her. The tide was exceptionally low right now and was nearly like glass. I took some shots of her out in the water sitting.
Even though we hated to, it was nearly time to leave. The no-see-ums were just beginning their evening feed. The good thing though was that the place was ours, everyone had left. After we packed up our stuff in the Jeep, Lorrie and I had one last drink while the gallery on the far shore was ablaze in the golden light. I managed to catch of shot of it.
Since we're nearly at the end of our stay on Vieques Lorrie and I got an early start on Thursday. I took a picture of the sundial when we got there. Can you tell what time it was?
I realize that's kind of unfair of me, since you can't see the markers on the bamboo stakes. It was right @ 9am when we arrived. Lorrie took her morning meditative walk while the beach was empty. I busied myself with making a sign for our little cabana. We have yet to hang out our shingle, so I decided today was a good time to do that.
The plan was to hang out on the beach until 4:00 or 4:30. Then we were going back to the house to change and then head into Isabel for the Siddhia Hutchinson gallery opening. We were supposed to meet Andre and Judy there. The four of us would then try to hook up for dinner afterwords. . We were hoping to eat @ Cnuc.
Ok..back to the beach...
Thursday was a nice slow day on the beach. Judy and Andre were at Sunbay today doing their yoga and writing sessions. Lorrie and I did our yoga first thing before anyone showed up. We then took a swim over to the rock gallery. We did our maintenance, at the gallery, that Andre is always reminding me of. He says it's part of my "responsibility" as curator. After that it was just hanging out and enjoying our beautiful Playa la Plata.
Around 12 noon Hal and Adrienne showed up. They came down and chatted for a bit. They were excited because Donty was delivering them a kayak! The plan was to kayak out to lemon reef and then go find those two mangrove trees where Lorrie and I were. I took some video of them taking off from Playa la Plata and then their return:
Seems like the days on Orchid just keep going faster and faster. Lorrie and I can't believe how quickly the day goes. Before we knew it 4:00 arrived and it was time to leave. We hated leaving early...we've become accustomed to closing out the beach. Anyway..we headed back to Casa La Vista and then on into Isabel for the gallery opening.
As it was we got to the gallery early, way too early. Lorrie got a picture of me standing outside.
Since we had some extra time, Lorrie and I decided to walk down and find the "real" seaglass beach. We had found what we thought was seaglass beach a year ago, but have since been told it wasn't really it. As we were walking down to the ocean Lorrie and I struck up a conversation with 4 some that was also waking down the same direction. We found out that they were also going down to seaglass beach and knew exactly how to get there. We ask if they didn't mind if we tagged along. As we were walking and talking we figured out that we already knew these people. We had met them the day before on Orchid. They were Irene and Jake and were friends of Andre and Judy's . Jake's an artist. As we walked down near the ocean Jake explained to us how much the area had changed, he's been coming to the island for a long time. He pointed out some new buildings that weren't even there a couple years ago. I took a shot of one of the new houses:
While we were on the beach, finding lots of sea glass btw, one of the ferry's took off from Isabel. You just can't believe the amount of diesel exhaust that spewed from that thing. Jake said that he bet it didn't even make it to the main island. Lorrie grabbed a shot of it:
How would you like to be on board breathing that in! YUCK
It was getting near 6 so we all walked back up to the gallery. Still no sign of Judy and Andre so Lorrie and I headed inside the gallery. The place was really filling up. We grabbed a couple glassed of wine and began to mingle. As we were walking around a guy came by with a plate of sushi. Lorrie and I dove in.
We hung out in the gallery for another 45 mins. By that time the place was really getting packed
------------------------------------------------------------------
Well...I have to cut this post short. We're now in Houston..trying to get back to Indiana. Our flight was delayed 3 hours and Lorrie is telling me we need to get to the gate. More to come....
Well...our flight has been delayed again. We have another 2 hours..so more time to blog. Weather in Houston is terrible today.
Now where was I.....
Oh yes...Lorrie and I hung out at the gallery for 45 mins or so, hoping to see Judy and Andre. I finally told Lorrie that my stomach was saying "feed me" and that we might as well go eat. Now wouldn't you know it, right as we were heading out of the gallery Judy and Andre show up. So...we headed back into the gallery for a bit longer. It was elbow to elbow. After another 30 mins of it Lorrie and I opted to just head out for dinner. We told Andre and Judy what we were doing and that they could hook up with us at Cnuc's.
Now the fact that the gallery was packed and that Cnuc's is right across from the gallery never really crossed our minds. We never thought about making a reservation, but we should have. They were full for the night, do in part to the gallery opening.
So now what? We tried to find El Patio..but couldn't. I said "Let's just head to Next Course, we know it's good. Lorrie agreed and that's where we headed. Problem was...Next Course is closed on Thursdays...oops...forgot about that. Now what?
We remembered Judy and Andre talking about Veritas and how much they liked it. So we headed to it. I knew it was at the Crows Nest and I know where the Crows Nest is, right down from Maritzas on 996. So off to the Crows Nest we headed. When we got there we were surprised how few people were dining, it was about 7:45. We were seated in the back outside, I think it's called the patio. It was a nice setting, there was some Herbi Hancock playing softly in the background. Our waiter, Mark, showed up. He was getting it now. I mean working hard. He ask if we wanted to start off with a drink. I said, sure. Lorrie orders a gin/tonic. Mark asks "what brand of gin would you like?" Yeah...I'm thinking this place has got it's sheit together. Lorrie orders Tanqueray, of course. Next I'm up to the plate.
"What kind of single malt scotch you got here Mark?" I ask.
"Sorry...we don't have any scotch."
grrr.....so I order a gin/tonic. But then I change my mind and think "I'll have a mojito..I haven't had one of them in a long time."
Mark then tells me they have no mint.
grrr....so I get the gin/tonic. Lorrie is laughing.
We make things simple and order the spinach salad and the surf & turf special. Now let me tell you the spinach salad is fabulous. You've got baby spinach tossed with sun dried cranberries, red onion & goat cheese with pomegranate vinaigrette. It was every bit as good as Next Courses spinach salad, really it might even be better. The main course was Grilled Sirloin Steak topped with Wild Mushroom and Gorgonzola Sauce plus Pan blackened Mahi-Mahi topped with a Lobster Cream sauce served over Wild Mushroom and Sun dried tomato Israeli Couscous....aka "surf and turf". It was good..but not great. It was way beneath the salad. I thought the lobster sauce on the Mai Mai was rather bland. But like I said the entree was good. Then for desert I had a slice of key lime pie. Don't know why. I just wanted a piece of key lime pie. It was very, very good. Lorrie had Chocolate espresso flan over red velvet Belgium waffles. There was some kind of whipped topping on it too. Now that was great. It hit just as high a note as the spinach salad. Total bill, including tip was $125. After that big meal it was back to the house and to bed early. Tomorrow is our last day on the island.
----------------------------------------------
airline update....our flight has been delayed another 2 hours. Somebody does not want Lorrie and I to leave Houston. At the rate things are going we could have stayed another day on the island.
We had quite a bit of rain overnight. I woke up around 5:30 and watched this rainbow form in the western sky with the sunrise. Nice quiet morning for Lorrie and I. We left the house around 8:30 and arrived @ Playa la Plata (Orchid) about 8:44 (Lorrie says it takes 14 mins to get all the way back to Orchid from this house). We were, of course, the first ones there. Lorrie took her morning meditative walk. I just sat an stared out into the ocean. Judy and Andre arrived not long after we did. They came down our way and we chatted for awhile. They invited us out to dinner Thursday eve. We had planned on going into Isabel anyway to see the Siddhia Hutchinson gallery opening. So now it's a foursome. I think we're going to eat at El Patio or Cnuc.
Water was super clear on Orchid today. Clearest we've seen so far. And of all days...I forgot to bring my spear gun. Not only that... I was unwilling to make the long arduous trek (all 14 mins of it) back to the house, yeah I'm on island time now. So we just hung out on the beach..nice lazy day. Things were actually pretty quiet on Playa la Plata today until about 11pm. We counted nearly 30 people around noon...elbow to elbow. I noticed some dark clouds over to the east and I pointed them out to Lorrie. I told her that the beach had reached it's maximum capacity and mother nature was about to clear it out. We moved all our stuff into the cabana well in advance of the approaching storm. I don't think anyone else noticed it coming. And then it hit...wow..did it rain and did the beach clear out. I have some video:
After the crowd cleared I went down to talk to Judy and Andre. I told them that I was going to try and remove an unsightly wad of nylon banding material that was buried in the sand over by the rock sculpture gallery. Andre had told me prior that he himself had also tried to remove that same wad but was unable to. He even took a pair of wire cutters over thinking that might help him, but it didn't. Andre told me that the nylon was twisted into a large knot and was around a rock. I told Andre that I was taking my diving knife and would hack it out of there, if necessary. As it turned out I was able to dig the whole thing out. Took me almost and hour to get it all free. So here's my catch of the day:
Now is that a mammoth wad of banding or what?
We stayed on Playa La Plata until nearly 5. It looked like more rain was moving in. After we unloaded our gear at the house Lorrie and I walked down to the construction site where the "new Keep" is going to be built. Lorrie took a picture of me staring at it.
Yep...you read that right. We didn't go to the beach today. I believe that's a first. Why? Well we're tired and we wanted to spend some time enjoying Casa La Vista. I mean...you spend a couple k for week at a place and you would like to do more than just sleep. Besides ...it looked to be one of those gray days. So we slept in....lounged around the veranda...hung out by the pool. Late morning I had come in from the pool area to do some blogging and check some news. I had thought that Lorrie had followed me into the house but I hadn't seen her for awhile. So...I decided to go find her, camera in hand (always got to be prepared). Seems every time we come out of the house someone is staring down at us from "the keep"...you know..like a watchman or something. I took a couple shots as I stepped outside:
So I made my way out to the pool and no Lorrie. hmm...I've lost my wife. Since I was out at the pool with camera I grabbed a few shots.
Here's a shot showing the house from the pool
Beautiful vistas from this house...the very best we've seen from any rental.
Here's a shot of another Hix House (aka "the keep") being build to the east of Casa La Vista
After that I headed back into the house. On my way in I noticed a couple of knees sticking up above the pillows on the bed that's out on the veranda. ha..found her.
So I say to her " you really like this mosquito netting and this bed out here, don't you?" She assured me that it was only to stop the bugs from biting her. Sure....
Speaking of bugs...I found two of these battery automatic bug sprayers in the house. One's in the master bedroom. I walked by it as it shot out a little blast of stuff. Scared the sheit outta me.
Lastly I would like to post a map of where Hilltop apartment is. Lorrie and I had met Hal and Adriene yesterday on Playa La Plata. They were asking me where it is located. I have a shot of the two of them talking to us on Orchid.
Adriene, here's a snapshot from google showing the Hilltop apartment. It's the yellow box (which I now see I should have made much more bolder...oh well)
So that was about it for today. Oh..wait..I almost forgot. Lorrie and I looked at a house today with a realtor. Just looking...doesn't hurt to look.
Tomorrow Lorrie says she wants to go to Escondida. So I guess that's what we'll do.
Got up early...had a light breakfast of eggs, juice and coffee. Got to Orchid around 9am. Today looked to be the very calmest day yet, perfect for our little kayak trek. Our initial plan was to kayak out to lemon reef and then, given time and energy, we might hit a beach or something. Donty showed up @ 10:30. By 10:45 we were on our way.
What we ended up finding was our own little private island and a conch shell graveyard. We had a wonderful time and were out in the kayak for almost 4 hours. I think we traveled somewhere around 3 miles by water. I've got video of the trip.
Tomorrow will be an easy day...we're both pooped from the last couple days. Weather has been perfect.
Well...we were almost late getting to Playa La Plata Sunday morning for our sail with Jorge. Wanna know why? I couldn't get the door of the house unlocked. Yep... we were locked in. I finally tried to get the padlocked bars over the window in the kitchen open. When that really didn't work out Lorrie finally managed to get the last lock (there's 3 on that door) open. We made it to Playa la Plata right at 8am, Jorge was all ready. We were going out with one other person, Stella. She needed to be back at the beach @ 11am in order to catch her flight off of the island. Jorge ask if it was a problem if we came back in early. Lorrie and I both said "no problem at all". Jorge promised we would work something out. We sailed out into Ensenada Honda and then out into the open ocean. Jorge told us Venezuela was only 400 miles away. Might as well have been 4000 by they way it looked. Stella didn't want to snorkel so Jorge steered the cat out towards Playa Fanduca. We landed on the beach and spend nearly 1 hour. Lorrie and I snorkeled off of Playa Fanduca. There's a small stretch of coral just off of the beach. After that Jorge sailed back out towards Ensenada Honda. He pointed out two small mangrove trees in the middle and said the water was really shallow and that there was a tiny little island by them. Lorrie and I both bookmarked that for our kayak trip tomorrow. We then headed back to Playa la Plata so that Stella could head to the airport. Jorge mentioned that he needed to put some mooring out in Lemon reef. He had been anchoring there but hated what the anchor was doing to the reef. Jorge ask if Lorrie and I wanted to go with while he and his help anchored the mooring. Lorrie and I were glad to do that, heck it probably meant more time at the reef.
Lorrie and I snorkeled through and around that reef. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life. Huge schools of Blue Tangs swimming by. The water was crystal clear. As a matter of fact, Jorge called the eastern end of that reef the Aquarium. We didn't get back to Playa La Plata until nearly 2:30. I would say he MORE than made up for the little interruption of taking Stella back. We saw flying fish on our little trip. Had a blast with Regga (hope I spelled that right) and Jay. Regga was instrumental in demonstrating against the U.S Navy and played a major part in the large-scale protests on the bombing range in eastern Vieques.
After that Lorrie and I hung out on Playa Plata for until about 4pm. I wanted to leave early enough to call for a kayak rental for the next day. Before leaving we spent some time talking with Dave and Christine from Utah. We offered them the use of our cabana since we were leaving early. Christine knows of our little blog.
Jorge and Regga had both encouraged me to call a friend of theirs, Donty, for the kayak rental. They told me he was a local who was trying to get a kayak business going. On our drive out of the refuge I picked up a phone signal around Playa Chiva. I gave Donty a call and he said no problem. He could rent us and 2 person sea kayak for Monday and deliver it to Playa La Plata in the morning. And you know what the best part of it was? He said it would only be $30 for the whole day. Doesn't get much better than that.
Having taken care of the kayak rental before even leaving the refuge we decided to take a quick drive up through Monte Carmelo, since we never really got to the other day. On our way into Monte Carmelo I took a picture of Ron's container house:
We ended up getting kinda lost up in Monte Carmelo. All the twisting narrow roads. I finally made my way back to 997 and told Lorrie "we're heading home". Home...yeah...that's what I called our rental house in Vieques. If only...
When we got back to the house we were both exhausted from the day and we couldn't believe it went so fast. It seemed like just an hour or so ago that we were locked in at the rental. First thing I did was to shower. Lorrie said she wanted to check out the pool and make a few phone calls, neither of us had really looked at the pool yet. When I finished from the shower I walked out to the pool, camera in hand, and took a few shots of Lorrie:
While I was out at the pool I decided to take a look at the outdoor shower. I was looking at it and thinking out how nice it would be to use this outdoor shower, then I turned and saw "the Keep" looming over head. Kinda defeats the purpose of the outdoor shower...having someone watching your every move.
To think that soon they'll be another one of those monstrosities on the other side of this house...jeez. They sooo dominate the landscape.
After Lorrie finished with her phone calls and we ate I began blogging. I was in the house for quite a long while. I hadn't seen Lorrie so I decided to go find her. She was on the outside bed thats' on the veranda. I took this picture of "her majesty" laying under the mosquito netting reading.
This last shot is looking down towards Lorrie from the far end of the veranda.
