Thursday, September 24 Vieques Island

The kayak trip to Mosquito Bay was fun and very different, though I don’t know if it was worth $60 for the two of us. There was a long, very rutted road to the bay which would be a very soft mud if wet. I doubt that we could have found our way without a guide. When we got there, Verito unloaded the sit on top kayaks and we set off. He had warned us earlier not to use repellents containing DEET since it would kill the little organisms, so we sprayed down with cactus juice. As we set off across the bay, everywhere the water was disturbed glowed bright and the underneath sides of the kayaks looked like they had running lights. There was no one else there, and we kayaked to the darkest part of the bay where Veriito gave us a little presentation on bio-luminescence. Dick and I then jumped off our kayaks into the water- what a trip- everywhere you looked was this greenish blue glow. When you pulled your arm out of the water, you could see the individual drops of water glowing in the dark. We swam for a little while in the warm water then mastered getting back our kayaks and paddled back across the bay. Neat experience. As Verito reloaded the kayaks(he just picks them up and dumps them on top), we were treated to a different type of light show in the sky but no major rain.

I (Nancy)am back on the deck at “Finca de Caribe” watching the last of the morning showers wash the sky. This could become addictive. A good cup of coffee, a hammock on the deck; I am sure we were going to do something today but I don’t remember what it was….

Vernito gave us a ride into Isbella II to use the ATM and then on to Esperanza for some kayaking and snorkeling. We stopped at “Duffy’s” for a cold drink and left our things there while we went for a swim and snorkeling. The water was great but we did not stay in long since all there was to see was sea grass. We returned to “Duffy’s” and had crab cakes, Caribbean style, very good and fried calamari- also very good and not rubbery. We then went to “Blue Caribe Kayaks” and rented a kayak for a couple of hours at $20. We kayaked out to a small island across the bay where we found some good snorkeling. Although there was some damage to the reefs and reef bleaching, there were some beautiful purple fans, branching coral and organ pipes. There were also lots of small to medium fish: the usual tangs, striped snappers, file fish etc. We snorkeled for about an hour and Dick was looking for sea urchins and star fish. I had not seen any star fish but led him back to some beautiful urchins I had seen earlier. When we began looking more closely, we saw many smaller orange and purple urchins in between the rocks. Somehow, in the process of getting out of the rocks both of us ended up getting sea urchin quills in our hands. Mine bled like crazy until I was finally able to get all of the pieces out of my hand.

We returned to shore and began looking for a publico to take us to the market and back to the finca. There was nothing in sight. We finally ran into Judy, our hostess from Finca Caribe, working at the bar. She tried to call a publico for us, unsuccessfully since they were all on the other side of the island waiting for the ferry (or had decided they really didn’t want to work that day). Transportation is definitely a problem on the island, if we had been staying longer we would probably have rented a car, although the roads are very narrow and winding and the driver’s typical crazy drivers. There have been plans to start regular routes but to date it has not been placed into effect and of course, in low season, it is even worse. We walked to the market, bought supplies for dinner, and returned to the bar. One of the men got on his bike and took off for the area where the publicos congregate and we were able to get a ride back, after a fairly potent rum punch.

Verito had agreed to drive us to the airport in the morning so we packed, had dinner on the deck and enjoyed a last drink of rum (we are convinced that the best way to drink good rum is straight out of the bottle), and retired.