Video was so large I had to bust it into two parts. First part is Orchid and a full review of Quinta Jabali. Second video is Playa Grande and Garcia.
Vieques Part 1
Vieques Part 1
About Us
- Curt and Lorrie
- 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.
Showing posts with label Quinta Jabali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quinta Jabali. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Leaving Quinta Jabali
I awoke @ 6am this morning and started coffee. Had some of the bread for breakfast and prepared to watch the sunrise over Esperanza. I took a picture of it. We're not going to head to the beach this morning, but rather wait until we drop off our luggage @ Casa Dos Chivos. This of course means that I'll be building another shelter since we know the other will be taken.
Lorrie's up now. We're just sitting here drinking our coffee and starring out into the Caribbean, not saying a word. It's like our morning meditation. Funny how the ocean has the ability to cause one to pause like that. Nice cool breeze this morning and you can plainly hear the ocean waves crashing.
I decided to take some video of the gardens at Quinta Jabali, they really are beautiful. Here's a couple clips:
Before we left we had to enjoy the outdoor shower one last time. We also used some of the sea sponges we picked up along Playa Grande:
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Catch Up Day
I was up early this morning, 5:30am. Got up, made coffee and prepared to watch the sunrise. It looked much cloudier today, a good day to hang around the house and catch up on odds and ends. Lorrie was up about 45 mins later. She made pancakes. We ate by the pool and watched the sunrise. I got a few shots of it:
After breakfast Lorrie decided to do some laundry. I began typing my blog entries. My plan was to head into town later and upload the text, maybe a few photos. A lot depended upon what kind of internet connection I came up with.
Since this is an odds and ends kind of post I'll mention a few things about Quinta Jabali. First, the two things we like the most about the house. The view and the outdoor shower, in no particular order.
The hot water in the house is an "on demand" type of set-up. The heater for the west side of the house (the one i shot the video in) has a habit of tripping the circuit breaker. I've reset it 3 times now. I spoke with Tyler about it and he was already aware of the problem.
Here's some video of the view.
The lighting for the house is state of the art (or at least the way we interpret state of the art). Every light in the house is on a programable dimmer, very easy to create a romantic ambiance. But from a practical sense some areas sorta fail. As is always the case, the novelty of a new house will wear off and one becomes a critic of functionality. Case in point, the master bath. There is only on round designer type of mirror and light is very soft. Like I said earlier it really creates a mood. But when you've got to put in your contacts there's just not enought light. Probably the least funtional part of the house is the sink in the master bathroom. It is a strange creation and nearly impossible to brush your teeth in. Just a few observations. We certainly don't want to come across as too critical. The house IS beautiful and is more a work of art than a place you would live in. We are also aware of how the intial plans for the house changed due to budget over-runs. And lastly it's much more than we could ever afford to live in ourselves.
Before heading into town we decided to check out the pool at the house. I shot some video of it:
We left the house about 11 or so and headed into Esperanza. We decided to try Tradewinds so I could upload the text for the blog. The internet connection at Tradewinds was excellent this day and Dottie was working so very hard again.
We met a couple while we were there, Bill and Bev from Mass. The both took early retirement from HP and Bill is now a realtor. During our conversation Bill told me he had a fixer upper in Esperanza (Bill is a realtor in Mass). He gave me the combination to the key box so we could check it out if we so desired. We talked with the two of them for so long that we decided to head to Belly Buttons to get something for lunch. Suprisingly I was able to pick up the internet connection from Tradewinds down at Belly Buttons and it seemed even stronger. I guess my initial observations about the internet at Tradewinds was wrong. It's just very poor/not there in the rooms we stayed at.
I ordered the angus burger and Lorrie had a tuna sandwich from Belly Buttons. The angus burger was very poor. Neither of us were impressed. Price was $25, including tip, so not much was lost. After lunch we drove by the house Bill was selling. Yes it is a fixer upper. Just not sure I could ever bring myself to pay 180K for something I could buy back home for under 30K. I know, back home it gets down to single digit temps this time of year.
By the time we were down looking at the house it was mid afternoon. Lorrie and I decided to just head down to Playa Grande for the evening. I'm sitting here now, on the beach @ Playa Grande writing this. Rough surf is pounding away and a nearly constant tradewind has an ocean mist blowing on shore.
I took a few pictures and some video of Playa Grande.
and here's some video:
:-)
After breakfast Lorrie decided to do some laundry. I began typing my blog entries. My plan was to head into town later and upload the text, maybe a few photos. A lot depended upon what kind of internet connection I came up with.
Since this is an odds and ends kind of post I'll mention a few things about Quinta Jabali. First, the two things we like the most about the house. The view and the outdoor shower, in no particular order.
The hot water in the house is an "on demand" type of set-up. The heater for the west side of the house (the one i shot the video in) has a habit of tripping the circuit breaker. I've reset it 3 times now. I spoke with Tyler about it and he was already aware of the problem.
Here's some video of the view.
The lighting for the house is state of the art (or at least the way we interpret state of the art). Every light in the house is on a programable dimmer, very easy to create a romantic ambiance. But from a practical sense some areas sorta fail. As is always the case, the novelty of a new house will wear off and one becomes a critic of functionality. Case in point, the master bath. There is only on round designer type of mirror and light is very soft. Like I said earlier it really creates a mood. But when you've got to put in your contacts there's just not enought light. Probably the least funtional part of the house is the sink in the master bathroom. It is a strange creation and nearly impossible to brush your teeth in. Just a few observations. We certainly don't want to come across as too critical. The house IS beautiful and is more a work of art than a place you would live in. We are also aware of how the intial plans for the house changed due to budget over-runs. And lastly it's much more than we could ever afford to live in ourselves.
Before heading into town we decided to check out the pool at the house. I shot some video of it:
We left the house about 11 or so and headed into Esperanza. We decided to try Tradewinds so I could upload the text for the blog. The internet connection at Tradewinds was excellent this day and Dottie was working so very hard again.
We met a couple while we were there, Bill and Bev from Mass. The both took early retirement from HP and Bill is now a realtor. During our conversation Bill told me he had a fixer upper in Esperanza (Bill is a realtor in Mass). He gave me the combination to the key box so we could check it out if we so desired. We talked with the two of them for so long that we decided to head to Belly Buttons to get something for lunch. Suprisingly I was able to pick up the internet connection from Tradewinds down at Belly Buttons and it seemed even stronger. I guess my initial observations about the internet at Tradewinds was wrong. It's just very poor/not there in the rooms we stayed at.
I ordered the angus burger and Lorrie had a tuna sandwich from Belly Buttons. The angus burger was very poor. Neither of us were impressed. Price was $25, including tip, so not much was lost. After lunch we drove by the house Bill was selling. Yes it is a fixer upper. Just not sure I could ever bring myself to pay 180K for something I could buy back home for under 30K. I know, back home it gets down to single digit temps this time of year.
By the time we were down looking at the house it was mid afternoon. Lorrie and I decided to just head down to Playa Grande for the evening. I'm sitting here now, on the beach @ Playa Grande writing this. Rough surf is pounding away and a nearly constant tradewind has an ocean mist blowing on shore.
I took a few pictures and some video of Playa Grande.
and here's some video:
:-)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Quinta Jabali
Feb 20
We we arrived at the beach, which really is directly down from the house, the surf was rough but we knew at the very least we could try out our new snorkel vests. So..with snorkel vests on we headed out into the water. As we had expected the water was just too rough to snorkel. There were lots of sea grass and sand making visability poor at best. The snorkel vests worked fabulously though and it was a good thing because we were both really tired from our night in the gas chamber.
"Quinta Jabali"
First I have lots of pictures and videos to upload...I'm sitting here at Tradewinds loading text. Check back because the video and pictures are amazing. Also..there may be some confusion with the continuity of the blog due to the fact that I'm entering 4 days worth of posts at once....
That said
The drive up to Quinta Jabali is extremely steep. It is all concrete and I was amazed that they were even able to pour it. Tyler told the drive cost 80K. The maid had yet to arrive and prepare the house for us, we were very early. We dropped off our luggage, got a quick tour of the house and headed to a beach just down from the house that Tyler suggested for snorkeling.
We we arrived at the beach, which really is directly down from the house, the surf was rough but we knew at the very least we could try out our new snorkel vests. So..with snorkel vests on we headed out into the water. As we had expected the water was just too rough to snorkel. There were lots of sea grass and sand making visability poor at best. The snorkel vests worked fabulously though and it was a good thing because we were both really tired from our night in the gas chamber.
After we got out of the water Lorrie walked east down the beach and found a patch of black sand beside some cliff faces. We're not sure but this may be Playa Negra. We also watched some guys head out off the beach and do some spear fishing just off the reef. It looked as though they were having some luck. By now is was after noon, well passed the time the maid said she would be finished, so we headed back to the house, keys in hand.
The house was really beautiful but rather than explore every nook and cranny we opted to take a nap, the chemical hangover just wouldn't let up. After a nap we were both famished and still having that dull, lack of sleep, head-ache we opted to just drive to Island Adventures and grab a quick/cheap bite to eat. We both orded chicken fajitas and suprisenly were both very disaappointed in the meal. That's a first for Island Adventures as we've eaten there many times. The bill was only $24 so not so much lost.
After the meal we headed back to the house to get a real nights sleep.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Quinta Jabali
This is where I was thinking Quinta Jabali is located on the island. I've got an enlarged pic of what I think is Quinta Jabali when it was being built.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Finally it's coming together...
Note to self: plan WELL in advance to vacation in Vieques.
I can't stress enough how important it is to plan in advance for a trip to Vieques. I mean like 6 months in advance. There are so many different elements that need to come together.
We are now in the final stages of finishing our next trip to the island. This next trip should make for some good blogging, given how much moving around we're doing. We have, for the last two trips, been having problems arriving on the island before 6pm. Just can't make it into San Juan out of Indianapolis prior to 4pm. Three weeks ago we were 4 hours late getting on the island. It was 9pm when we arrived and the airport was shutting down. Your not going to find any publicos outside the airport at that time of night. So with this in mind we decided to spend the night in San Juan and fly out the next morning, Sat, to the island. We are staying at the Best Western San Juan Airport . From what I've read it's within walking distance of the airport so no need for a taxi or car. We are then taking the 8:10 Cape Air flight to the island.
Once we make it to the island it gets kinda crazy. We are going to stay 1 night at a CHEAP place on the island (this has yet to be found, we're still searching). The reason we're having the one-nighter on Veiques is because we couldn't check into Quinta Jabali until Sunday. We are both looking forward to our stay at Quinta Jabali. The web site for the place is stunning. After we are there for a week we head back to Casa Dos Chivos for another week (Casa Dos Chivos is perfect and fits us). If Casa Dos Chivos was available we would have probably booked it for the whole two weeks.
So that's it...just 12 weeks to wait.
:-)
I can't stress enough how important it is to plan in advance for a trip to Vieques. I mean like 6 months in advance. There are so many different elements that need to come together.
We are now in the final stages of finishing our next trip to the island. This next trip should make for some good blogging, given how much moving around we're doing. We have, for the last two trips, been having problems arriving on the island before 6pm. Just can't make it into San Juan out of Indianapolis prior to 4pm. Three weeks ago we were 4 hours late getting on the island. It was 9pm when we arrived and the airport was shutting down. Your not going to find any publicos outside the airport at that time of night. So with this in mind we decided to spend the night in San Juan and fly out the next morning, Sat, to the island. We are staying at the Best Western San Juan Airport . From what I've read it's within walking distance of the airport so no need for a taxi or car. We are then taking the 8:10 Cape Air flight to the island.
Once we make it to the island it gets kinda crazy. We are going to stay 1 night at a CHEAP place on the island (this has yet to be found, we're still searching). The reason we're having the one-nighter on Veiques is because we couldn't check into Quinta Jabali until Sunday. We are both looking forward to our stay at Quinta Jabali. The web site for the place is stunning. After we are there for a week we head back to Casa Dos Chivos for another week (Casa Dos Chivos is perfect and fits us). If Casa Dos Chivos was available we would have probably booked it for the whole two weeks.
So that's it...just 12 weeks to wait.
:-)
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