The week quickly descended into mind-numbing sameness, with every day essentially the same as the day before. Breakfast at the hotel, the agonizing decision of which beach to go to, then a drive along a rutted dirt road through jungle-like landscape to the all but deserted beach, sit and look at and play around in the perfectly blue and clear Caribbean water, eat the box lunches packed by the hotel, read a book, head back to hotel to sit by the pool looking out to the sea and settle in for a late afternoon nap, get ready for cocktail hour (or two) and then head out for a nice dinner. Mind-numbing yes, but extremely pleasantly so. After a few days, I had no idea what day it was and the only reason to care was to keep our dinner reservations straight.
That was pretty much the story of my family’s recent holiday week on the island of Vieques, a Puerto Rican municipality located 7 miles off the coast of the parent island. Vieques, 21 miles long by 4 miles wide, is perhaps best known for the series of protests against the past use of 2/3rd of the island (both the extreme east and west end of the islands) as a US naval base and bombing range. These protests began after the 1999 death of a local civilian employee of the Navy, and ended with the final military pullout in May of 2003 and the takeover of the land by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which maintains it as the largest wildlife preserve in the Caribbean.
While undoubtedly stressful (“it was like the whole island was shaking,” one villager said of the periods when bombing was taking place) and economically displacing (the US government’s purchase of the land during World War II resulted in many families being forced out of their dwellings and effectively ended the sugar cane industry which had been the island’s economic mainstay), the end result is an island free of high rise hotels and other signs of overdevelopment. In fact, with the population of approximately 10,000 living in the middle 1/3 of the island, most of whom live in or around the capital “city” of Isabel Segunda on the north coast, the great majority of the island feels like the deserted island of fantasy (if you ignore the abandoned naval base and the barbed wire fence that surrounds parts of it).
We flew to Vieques from San Juan on a 9 seater Cessna operated by Cape Air, one of a handful of airlines operating on the 15-minute route (unless you plan on spending time in San Juan, make sure your carrier flies from the international airport). The alternative to flying is to take a 45 minute taxi ride from San Juan to the ferry port in the eastern Puerto Rico city of Fajardo and then take the one hour plus ferry ride over (four departures daily). While I think there is a greater sense of arrival when coming to an island by boat, we opted for speed and convenience on this trip. The small but clean airport is on the north coast of the island and is about 5 minutes by car from Isabel Segunda, home to the island’s two gas stations, one supermarket, atm machine and a host of shops catering to locals and tourists.
The rental car company arrived to pick us up a few minutes after landing (there are many alternatives but we used the Martineau Car Rental agency, which had been arranged by the hotel) and we were soon off to the south coast of the island to Hacienda Tamarindo, our hotel for the week. A rental car is a must to explore the far-flung beaches of Vieques- there are no hotels (and no plans to build any) on the land formerly controlled by the Navy, and the only hotels directly on the water- Bravo Beach Hotel, located just east of Isabel Segunda; Inn on the Blue Horizon, just west of the south coast town of Esperanza (a 10 minute drive from the airport and from Isabel Segunda); and a hotel, originally a Wyndham and reopening in 2009 as a W (at 150 rooms, this hotel will be, by far, the largest hotel on the island), in the upscale Martineau Bay housing development located on the coast between the airport and Isabel- are not on the best beaches.
Hacienda Tamarindo is on a hilltop above the Inn on the Blue Horizon, with unimpeded views of the south coast of the island. The hotel, or more appropriately the B&B, was built by a couple from Vermont- he a restaurant executive, she an interior designer, on the bones of a former nightclub and has 16 rooms, an air-conditioned library with a public computer (wi-fi is also available), an honor bar, a lovely pool (although one with noisy mechanical equipment) and a breakfast area (breakfast is included in the room rate). The interior designer’s touch was apparent throughout with the rooms and public spaces thoughtfully decorated in antiques, art and kitschy bric a brac (the kids and we had rooms with a watermelon motif). Our room (number 23) was on the 2nd floor right next to the breakfast area, as are almost all of the rooms on the 2nd floor. With breakfast starting at 8 and the staff working on setup from before 7, this location made it difficult to sleep with the louvered wood windows open (the rooms all have a/c), but the room, at $200/night, was sizeable and clean- nothing luxurious but quite comfortable. The highlight was the French doors out to the undersized balcony with 180 degree south-facing view of the coast line, the harbor at Esperanza, and the uninhabited islets off the coast. If we had gotten up early enough, I am sure we would have had great views of the sunrise.
Hacienda Tamarindo has a variety of room categories, with the best rooms facing the sea: of those, the best are rooms 2 and 5 (check this)- both are on the first floor, and thus away from the breakfast noise, and both have large private patios, although the patio for room 2 (a suite for 2-6 people), is right next to the public patio.
The very tasty daily breakfast consisted of fresh fruit, juice, coffee or tea, toast and a choice of the special of the day (which ranged from eggs benedict to pancakes to french toast to quiche), eggs cooked to order or hot or cold cereal. The made to order sack lunches (sandwich, fruit, chips, packaged cookies) weren’t up to the standards set by the breakfast, but they were passable and were packed in backpack/coolers that were perfect to take to the beach along with hotel-provided beach towels, chairs and (semi-functional) umbrellas.
Which brings us to Vieques’ best features- the beaches. Vieques renowned beaches are distributed across the Caribbean facing south, east and west coasts of the island and the majority are on the former Navy base land. Our favorite was Green Beach, located on the west coast and made up of a collection of basically deserted small crescent beaches with good snorkeling right off shore and great views of the Puerto Rico mainland. We also visited Red, Silver, Blue (these not terribly creative names were assigned by the Navy), Media Luna, Navio and Sun Bay beaches, and each had something to recommend it. Since nothing is that far on Vieques, explore as many as you can during a visit. This “explore them all” approach may not work forever - large swaths of beach remain closed (especially on the eastern coast) and if the remaining Navy cleanup is ever completed and the Park Service can manage it, the number of open and deserted beaches will surpass one’s ability to take them all in during a weeklong vacation.
In addition to the beaches Vieques is notable for a few other features. First is the bioluminescent bay, one of the largest in the Caribbean. Our early evening excursion (see www.biobay.com) took us on a 15 minute bus ride from the tour operator’s office next door to the Hacienda Tamarindo, through Esperanza and down a dirt road past Sun Bay beach to an electric powered boat on the bay (there are also a number of operators offering nightly kayak tours). The science behind the bay is too complicated for me to explain, but the single cell organisms which live in this bay give off a light when disturbed (by the boat or by a swimmer)- a very intriguing phenomenon but one that is compromised by lights of the homes that have been built on the hills above the shore of the bay.
Another feature is the number of “wild” horses wandering around the island. Supposedly descended from horses left behind by early Spanish settlers, these horses are either feral or owned by locals who let them go where they please to forage for food. We saw a number of these smallish horses with unusual gaits being ridden by locals, invariably without saddles, and it looked very uncomfortable.
A final side note concerns the large number of gay men, both tourists and second homeowners, on Vieques. It is not clear how or why this came to be, but the island, which has no gay bars or nude beaches, has gained a reputation as a favorite gay destination in the Caribbean (see www.gayvieques.net). In keeping with the ultra relaxed nature of Vieques, there is nothing in your face (a la Provincetown) about the gay presence on the island.
Apart from the beauty and solitude of the beaches, perhaps the most surprising thing about Vieques was the restaurants. Having been to the nearby Puerto Rican island of Culebra for the turn of the millennium and having found no truly good restaurants on that island (about ¼ the population of Vieques), our expectations were pretty low despite the good reviews found in travel books. We were wrong- we ate well every night and very well on a few occasions.
For the most part, the restaurants are located either in the commercial portion of Isabel Segunda or on the malecon (“boardwalk”) across from the sea in Esperanza. In Isabel, we ate at Blue Macaw (which, despite billing itself as having “intriguing cuisine”, was pretty straightforward, albeit tasty), Uva (the most expensive place on the island- with good fresh fish, actually intriguing dishes like a wonderful sashimi presentation of local fish- and perhaps the emptiest: the waiter said that the closure of the old Wyndham has done great damage to their business); Café Media Luna (excellent salads, appetizers and pizzas); and a local’s place off the central square (pretty good lobster, seafood salad and flan- can’t believe I have forgotten the name). We also ate at two other restaurants on the northern part of the island but not in the town of Isabel: first was the Island Steakhouse, an open air room with a tree house feel- great local lobster, excellent steaks, a very good drink and a reasonable wine selection; second was Coqui Fire, a two nights a week Mexican restaurant run by the makers of the local (and very good) hot sauce of the same name- excellent burritos, carnitas and cold beer served in a casual setting in a residential neighborhood near the airport. Both of these last two will be must returns for our next trip.
Unlike Isabel Segunda, which is seemingly deserted at night except for diners, Esperanza was buzzing with activity. The strip of bars, restaurants and tourist shops, all open to the street and the sea beyond, did great business during the holiday week and locals from around the island cruised slowly by with reggaeton music thumping from their car stereos. Eateries that we liked ranged from the aggressively divey Bananas (home to the self-proclaimed best burger in the Caribbean along with cold beer and good tropical drinks), the modern Puerto Rican cuisine (whatever that is) of Bili (don’t miss their version of the local rum drink of the same name), to Quenepo, our favorite spot on the island.
Someone who had been to Vieques a year earlier had warned us off of Quenepo- too local, too funky and too loud for “gringos”- the not derogatory term used by locals for North Americans. When we arrived on the island, the restaurant was highly recommended by everyone we spoke to and it turned out that it was taken over in early 2007 by a couple from North Carolina (Scott the chef and Kate in charge of the front of the house) who have transformed Quenepo into a stylish and hip hangout with fabulous food. I really need to get my hands on the menu to give a better description of what we ate during our two visits, but with the exception of a heavy hand with the salt on one of my appetizers, everything at Quenepo was pitch perfect. An excellent martini, a nice and reasonably priced wine selection, and superb service accompanied food that married local ingredients and dishes with classical technique. The best dish was probably their version of mofongo, a Puerto Rican dish typically made of fried green plantains typically served seasoned with garlic, olive oil and pork cracklings, then mashed and usually served with a fried meat and a fish broth soup. Chef Scott substitutes local breadfruit for the plantains and fries them up into a bowl shape into which he ladles an excellent braised meat concoction - an excellent interplay of flavors and textures. Quenepo will be a regular feature of our next visit to Vieques.
And we will return to Vieques. It is a relaxed, uncrowded and underdeveloped place and its history seems sure to keep it that way.
