Beach Video...

As Lorrie and I sit here, both with colds (gotta luv this Indiana weather), we decided to put together some clips of Caracas, Playa Chiva and Punta Arenas. After this clip I've now officially exhausted all of our pic and video from Vieques. We both miss it so much. Weather today in Indiana reached 64 degrees (regular heat wave). Only 2 out of the last 14 days has seen any sunshine, pretty gloomy time of year here. Our next trip should be sometime in early November. Not sure where we will stay this time, something to plan for. Anyway here's the video for anyone who might be reading this...

Last full day....

First a message to Peter.


The jeep did fine other than it died a few more times during the week. We told Maritza's of the problem when we returned it. It was a pleasure to meet you to Peter and I hope to see you again soon.

Ok...back to the last full day. After coffee we decided to go to Playa Caracas because it had been so nice the day before. We also decided to try and take a different route to 997, the one that Peter had told us about when we met him at Bananas. Somehow I think we must have taken a wrong turn because we didn't end up on the winding road he was talking about. We did end up going by some sort of playground for young kids that was on a nicer paved road. None-the-less we did hit 997 and headed out for Caracas. We were the first ones there and the water was quite still and clear as glass. It didn't take long for us to decide to head out to the eastern point and do some more snorkeling. The video I got this time was much better because there wasn't nearly as many waves. We snorkeled for a good hour or so. Here's a few clips of the snorkeling. (I know...enough with the snorkel videos):

If you can't see the video click here



If you can't see the video click here



Then we went walked down to the western side of the beach and took a few pictures:

When we walked back a few other people had arrived. Lorrie ask one woman if she would take a picture of the both of us, especially since we had none yet. Here's the only shot of the two of us together:

Later in the morning we ran into the guy who had gotten stuck on the road to Puenta Areanas (Shawn) and his wife (Nicki). I told Shawn that I had put some video of him on the blog. He got a laugh out of it. They were flying out later that afternoon.

We spent 4 hours on Caracas Friday. The weather was perfect. Sometime just before noon or so a nice boat came almost up to the beach. I took a few shots of it...oh and Lorrie:
 

Here's just a goofy shot of our legs:

After that we headed out for Esperanza. We were looking for another noodle for snorkeling. Yesterday with the big waves I learned how valuable one of those can be. Keeps you much more buoyant and you don't have to expend nearly as much energy snorkeling. It's almost a necessity when trying to film. We only had one noodle and were planning on heading out to Puenta Arenas for the rest of the day. We ended up finding a noodle in Esperanza. Can't think of the name of the place, but it is next to Diva's Closet and the owners name is Denise. She had exactly what we were looking for. After that it was on to Puenta Arenas, via 995 this time. No more jungle excersions for us, we've earned our stripes.

When we arrived at Puenta Arenas someone had our spot. Yes our spot. Our specific spot. The one we claimed ownership of the prior evening. (Strange how we tend to take ownership of something we've only seen for a few hours.) Anyway we camped out to the north, on the next spot. We were both so tired from the morning at Caracas that we decided to just chill under a coconut palm and drink a few Coronas. It was sometime during the second Corona that the person in "our spot", happened upon us. She was a teacher from the east coast (met so many people from the east coast while we were on the island). She was trying to find a place to snorkel. (I'm thinking...HELLO...it's like right in front of you. You've already got the BEST spot). She proceeded to tell us that her girlfriend had said that this area was good for snorkeling. I mentioned that I too had heard the same thing. I also told her about all the reefs that were right out in front of us and how they came nearly up to the beachfront. She disagreed and said the darker blue areas I was seeing was sea grass. Hmmm...then why the buoys just out from it I ask? She hadn't noticed them. I told her we were heading out to snorkel in just a few minutes. She ask that we let her know if we found the coral. She was there with her two daughters and husband. Great lady..we talked for a very long time about a plethora of things. Such interesting people we've met.

So...about the snorkeling. We hit coral and fish as soon as we got into the water. Not sure how they missed it but they did. The only place we didn't see any fish or coral was right out from our original spot, the one she had taken. How about that..fate has a way...

It wasn't long before the lady and one of her daughters were right out there in it with us. She was pleased and smiled at me saying "You've found it!" Lorrie and I snorkeled a long way southward down along the beach. The rock and coral along that section runs right up to the beach. It makes getting into and out of the water quite difficult. At one point we had to get out and walk, it was just too far. Here's some video of when we got out to walk:

If you can't see the video click here



Good thing we had the noodles too. We are going to invest in a couple of floatation vests for our next trip. By the time we found a spot to finally get out of the water, we were totally exhausted. That was some of the biggest reef we've seen. We saw a lot of larger fish too. I got some decent video of a boxf fish. (yeah...yeah...more snorkeling videos I know)

If you can't see the video click here



We walked along the beach back to our NEW favorite spot. I was just ready to sit and wait for the sunset. Lorrie layed down at the edge of the water and crashed after just one Corona. I think she even may have fallen asleep. I saw her laying there and grabbed the camera for some pictures. Here's some of the ones I took:

While I was taking these shots a sailboat came in an anchored. I got a few shots of it with her in the foreground:

Here's a shot of just the sailboat:

Lorrie woke up and saw me taking pictures of her. So she just had to snap one of me. I like the looks of her better:

While we were sitting there this older gentleman comes by from up the beach north (that's behind me in the picture above). I noticed him kinda fiddling around up beach from us. Not sure what he was doing. He came down to us and ask if we had any phone reception, in very broken english. He explained to me that he was stuck, in the very same spot as Shawn had been the day prior. Lorrie and I both got a laugh out of it. I checked our phones and and we too had no phone reception. But I told the gentleman that I had seen a young woman just down the beach texting and I was sure she had reception. (It was one of the daughters of the lady we met). He went over to ask her and was able to get some help. He lives on the island. He came back and thanked me. Such nice people, I didn't do anything, but he felt compelled to thank me.

Lorrie and I sat there watching the sun slowly set, not really saying anything. Just drinking our Coronas and taking it all in. It was perfection. Lorrie looked at me and said that a week is just not long enough because it seemed as though we had just now struck the right chord with the island and were in tune. I agreed.

We ended up getting our sunset. It had taken all week to develope but was worth the wait. Here's a few shots I took:
 

I knew when I took this below below that the light wasn't right, but I took it anyway. Lorrie had put on her blue dress and even though you can't tell it in the picture it was a beautiful shot:

 
I was so mellowed from the beautiful sunset (and my fair share of Coronas) that I suggest to Lorrie that we head out to "Next Course". She got a big smiled and said "why thank you Curtis". Ha...I know I rack up major brownie points when she says that.


Ok...hold onto your seats. (sorry but we're easily impressed). Here's what we had:

Lorrie starts off with a mojito, of course. I've already had enough Coronas so I just do tea. First course consists of local caribbean lobster wontons, asian style slaw, coconut red curry broth for Lorrie. Donna's bayou shrimp, drunk in house lager beer over fried polenta for me. Yum!

Second course we both do baby spinach, apple wood bacon, crumbled blue cheese, red onion & cranberry cider vinaigrette. We had this in March and loved it!

Third course was a herb crusted ribeye over wild mushroom risotto, shoe string shallots and red wine balsamic reduction.

Let me tell you folks that IS the perfect way to end a perfect week in Vieques.

One last note. I'm typing this as we're flying to North Carolina to connect with a flight back to Indy. Today was the first day in 6 that Lorrie or myself have really cared about what time it is or what day it is. And furthermore it's the first in 6 that we've worn pants and SOCKS. I even forgot to check the markets. I was so turned around that when I did finally check the futures this morning I was confused by the data and Lorrie informed me "it's Saturday Curt".

So that's it. Back to the real world. I'll miss the roosters in the morning and the clippity-clop of the wild horses going down the street outside the casa. The smell of the ylang ylang tree outside the veranda and the breeze thru-out. We'll miss it all just long enough to prepare for the next trip. Right now we're trying to decide if it's 4 months away or three.

Hasta Luego Vieques

Worst road on the island...

We found today, against the good advice of our new friend Peter, what might be the worst road in Vieques. More on that later.

Today began earlier, thanks to me waking up sleeping beauty. She seemed a bit grouchy in the kitchen. When I ask if she slept alright she replied "just fine..but why can't you give your wife a kiss and say softly, wake up dear?" I didn't have an answer. If I told her the thought never occured to me I know it would get me into trouble. I did ask what I said...because I honestly couldn't remember. She told me I said "If you don't get up your gonna miss the best fork'n part of the day." So...after I patched things up we headed. We packed for a full day today because the weather looked promising.

First stop was Playa Chivos (Blue Beach). Water was turbid and there was lots of debirs along the beach. My shelter that I had built earlier in the week had also bit the dust. If this was how the beaches were gonna look today there would be no snorkeling.

Given how nice Playa Caracas was last night we headed to it next and to our delight it was just how we left it the night before, only with a little less rough surf. We were the first ones there too. So we set up camp and waited for the weather to clear. There were a few lingers storm clouds but they looked to be moving east. While we were just sitting there enjoying the vista some horses came on the beach and one of them kept drinking the sea water. I managed to film it:

If you can't see the video click here


After I filmed the horses I went and got Lorrie and she walked down to see them:

If you can't see the video click here


Then the both of us walked down to the western side of caracas were the waves were the biggest:
If you can't see the video click here



After that we decided to get into the water because the waves were still really nice. It was a lot of fun trying to body surf. A few other people began to show up too.

 It was about this time that I noticed the water clarity and that I thought it might be possible to do some snorkeling. A nice lady, with and ausie accent, told me that there was some decent snorkeling on the eastern side of caracas where a rocky point sticks out. With plan in hand I suited up and head out to see for myself. Although the surf was still pretty rough I manged to see a few fish and some coral formations. During my time snorkeling the skies had cleared and the sun was out in full force. I head back to the beach to grab my video cam. Lorrie grabbed her snorkel gear and we headed out. (and I think it is worth mentioning that she had no problems getting her mask on today, I was genuinley impressed ).

Now before I post these underwater videos I must warn you that it was still very wavy. And...when your snorkeling your just kinda floating along with the wave action. So...if the videos make you a little dizzy or queasy..you've been warned. I'll also say that I was impressed with the quality of my little $150 Kodak Play-sport.

If you can't see the video click here



If you can't see the video click here


If you can't see the video click here




We were at Caracas for about 6hrs. It was a great time and the weather was just perfect. But...our stomachs were telling us  it was time to head into Esperanza to grab a bite to eat. So off to Esperanza we went,  Bananas was the destination.  Now when we were walking into Bananas a gentelmen looked at me and said "I recognize you". At first I was perplexed because I didn't recognize him and just replied "well...that could be good or bad". It was then that he said that he recognized us from this blog. It was Peter who posted our one and only comment on our blog. It was nice to meet him and we sat and chatted for a while. 

Now...this brings me to the title of this entry. When we mentioned to Peter that we might be going to Puenta Arenas (Green beach), after we left Bananas,  he warned us that it was a long drive and could also be buggy. Well against his advice we headed out west of Esperanza on what I believe was 201, our destination, Puenta Arenas. Now, rather than driving north on 995 and hooking up with 200 to get to Puenta Arenas, I (yes...it was all my doing) took the road north from the turn to Playa Grande. We don't have any video of this drive, I wish we did. I have the road circled in pink on the map below:

Be warned if you take this road it is not very much wider than a sidewalk and large sections of it are gone. Once your into it for more and 1/2 mile or so your committed, because there's no place to turn around. As a matter of fact, there's not enough room to pass another vehicle on it. The vegetation at places has the road narrowed down to what looks like 4 foot or so.  And it's UP over a mountain and DOWN and up over the next mountain and DOWN. It was on one of the DOWNs, not sure which one, that our Jeep died. I mean just quit, electronic coma. I just about sheit. Lorrie looked and me and said "what just happend?" The jeep just died, I said.  I was so rattled that I forgot to put the thing in park and was trying to turn the ignition key, which wouldn't turn. I couldn't even get the damn key out of the ignition. All the while I'm thinking...."I'll have to call Maritzas emergency number...that is IF the phones work in this jungle". Finally I saw I had the damn Jeep in D and not P. I put it in P and it started. Thank gawd!  That road is a bitch...I'm telling ya now.  It took us forever to make it to 200. Always ones to finish what we start, we turned west on 200 and continued to Puenta Arenas, rather than turning right and heading back to Isabel.

   The coconut palms along the road near Puenta Arenas are really something. I had read about how they used to grow along Playa Chivos and how the military cut them down for war games or somthing. Anyway..they were impressive to see. We did take some video of the drive on 200 into Puenta Arenas. We ended meeting a guy walking along the road (again I use that term loosely here). He had managed to get his Jeep buried in one of the  many mud holes in the road. He told me he had called his rental agent 40mins ago and they were on there way. It was at that point that I developed a mental bond with this guy because a mere 30 mins ago I was feeling the same way, only I didn't have to end up making the phone call. We saw his Jeep...and yes...it was burried. Wasn't too many more minutes before their rental car person showed up and they pulled the Jeep out. Here's the video of the drive into Puenta Arenas and our conversation with the guy that got stuck:

If you can't see the video click here

Lorrie and I found a really nice spot on Puenta Arenas. We also found quite a lot of sea glass along the beach. The sand there is totally different than on the Chiovos beaches or Caracas beach, much coarser and not nearly as white. Here's some video of the spot we found:

If you can't see the video click here

 You can see the big island easily from that beach and we watched a storm worked it's way over Puerto Rico. I saw lots of reef not far off the beach to snorkel, but the sun was not cooperating. We waited till nearly dark for maybe some sunset shots...but no luck.

Tomorrow is our last full day on the island. We've not decided where we want to go yet.

Hasta Luego.