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.
:-)
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.
:-)
While I can appreciate day after day of relaxing on Orchid, your last 2 days look fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the local word on exploring Ensenada Honda and the other eastern areas via water with regard to the closed areas and leftover munitions?
Also, what happened to your plans for Blue Tang Reef? Our guide at Mosquito Bay suggested the snorkeling there was superb if you could get there.
Brandi,
ReplyDeleteFrom what Jorge told us, you can walk the water line. He beached on Playa Fanduca.
Blue Tang is still in the works..but after seeing Lemon reef with Jorge ( and the fact that I helped with setting a mooring out in that reef) we opted for Ensenada Honda. I don't know if there's any mooring out in Blue Tang and I wouldn't want to tie to teh coral. You can swim to Blue Tang from the far eastern point of La Chiva, where Lorrie and I watched that sunset a couple days ago.
The snorkeling at Lemon was better than anything we've seen on the island, regardless of my video. It was so beautiful that it caused me to film way too fast and consequently had to edit out the bulk of the underwater video.
This is hands down the best trip so far. It just keeps getter better...gotta luv it.
I have been to the exact same place when I was last on Vieques. But, I was fishing. Next time I will get a kayak.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your videos. Thomas.
Thomas,
DeleteWhen we were leaving we saw a boat some into those flats...i assumed the guy was bone fishing?
Curt
Hi Curt...
ReplyDeleteThink I spoke too soon about Hill Top. Can you give us directions so that we can drive by and check it out? We tried to find it on our own but couldn't. Thanks!
Sure no problem. You won't be able to see much from the road, even though the house is right on the road. Anyway. Turn off of 200 (as your heading towards Isabel) and head up towards La Praa. The turn off of 200 to go to La Praa is right after a tire rental center and then a rental place. If you go pass the turn off you'll see a red building on your right that has a big rooster on it. You see that big rooster and you've went too far. If you already know how to get to La Praa then nevermind. Ok..so we're headed up towards La Praa. Take that road all the way up until it Y's. (Don't take the first Y) You'll know your at the right place because right at the Y there's this guy that is always working on cars. He has car parts and junk everywhere. There's also always dogs laying in the road. So at that Y you go left. Take that road all the way up to another Y at the top of the hill. You'll have a bright orange/green house on your right. If you go to the left you pass the school. But you want to go right. As you go right you start going up again. You'll come to another Y (this one is a really narrow Y) you want to go to the left. Take this up, pass the t that on your left. You'll crest just about the highest point on that ridge. Now keep your eyes open. On the east side (the right) of Hilltop is a place called "Casa Que Vista", I think I got that right. It's a blue house. The next house is Hilltop. There will probably be a white volvo parked on the side of the street in front of the house. Let me know..if you still can't find it I can mark a google map and show it to you.
DeleteThank you so much! I think we may actually have driven by it because I seem to remember Casa Que Vista and I remember looking to the right and seeing almost the exact view from your video. We both commented that it had to be close because there are not that many possible locations with that view! Pretty stunning.
ReplyDeleteThanks again and maybe we'll see you both tomorrow. Spent today at Navio. We often laugh that every beach we are at we say, "Now THIS is the perfect beach!" :-)
I'm sorry that your video didn't turn out. I'd love to compare with what we saw off Cayo Blanco on the north side, though I'd doubt our experience compares. The coral was beautiful with huge elkhorn in particular, but the visibility was obscured due to the ferry passing more than twice (!) and lots of sand being stirred up as a result.
ReplyDeleteGood to know that the shorelines in the eastern preserve are accessible and also that you could swim to Blue Tang. I will have to stay tuned. We are glad to see that you finally got hooked up with Little Boat. Looks like it was worth the patience over communication.
Curt, please share the song/artist on this clip. Like your choice in music.
ReplyDeleteCool video too.
Can't wait for Vieques in May... now THIS is the life!!!!
The name of that song is "Always Had a Dream". The artist is Rodina and it is off the album "Over the Sun", produced in 2008. If you like that genre of music you might check out the Lush channel on SomaFM (somafm.com). That's where lorrie and I do all of our music listening. Amazon had the MP3's of that album for download. Glad you enjoyed the video...and yes...this is the life. We love Vieques.
DeleteWe are thinking of kayaking out to lemon reef on our next trip. How far is it from shore? Any other off shore places you would recommend kayaking to? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIf memory serves me correct it took about 40mins to get out to Limon reef. A lot will also depend upon the surf. We had almost perfect conditions when we did it. Blue Tang is supposed to be really good. We didn't go out to it last trip because there wasn't any mooring and I didn't like the idea of tieing to the coral. You could also set out from Caracus and go along the cliffs that are south of Garcia, I walked from Garcia to those cliffs and took some video. If you could find a place to beach (it was really rocky along that shoreline) it looked like the snorkeling would be great.
DeleteThanks! Is Blue Tang closer or furthur than lemon reef?
DeleteHi, I really enjoyed your post! Do you think this is a doable kayak experience for 3 teens and 2 adults? We will be there is June 2019.
ReplyDelete