Tuesday 9/18/07

Breakfast: Gelo's Bagel Bakery

Ok, I told you they were good, and cheap. We went here several days in a row. Unfortunately we had to get up at 6:30, because we had to make it to a ferry boat ride @ 9:30 in Fajardo, PR. We ate and hit the road. Thanks to one of the waitresses, we found a great toll road, Rte. 66 which skipped many of the traffic lights on highway 3. 

Now the embarcado in Fajardo is what you would call a place not to hang out at. From the looks of it at night, your rims don't stand a chance!

In fact, I found this jewel sitting across from where we just parked...

Nothing says you are glad you bought the rental car insurance more than a picture like this...

At any rate, you see some interesting sites around the ferry boat waiting area thats for sure. We ended up having to cram on the automotive ferry, as the passenger ferry boat was having issues. At least it was air conditioned. There weren't too many pluses about this boat ride!

At any rate, we arrived in Puerta Diablo. For those that don't know or are superstitious, this is the Southern point of the Bermuda triangle. Yay! The natural features in this area are beautiful. The man made stuff - not so much.

We rented a Jeep Liberty 4x4, which was a good call considering the terrain this place has to offer. We passed several wild horses just hanging out and eating vegetation along the highway. Talk about beautiful animals, wow!

Trade Winds Guest House

The place we stayed at was called the Trade Winds Guest House. It was a very modest but nice place to stay. It was also close to where we had to meet to go on the Bioluminescent Bay trip. 

Lunch: Banana's

We stopped at one of the only places open down the street from our hotel for lunch. Ana enjoyed tostones and a fish cakes, I had a Cuban sandwich. It wasn't the best of food but it sure hit the spot. Apparently due to hurricane season most places are closed in September, so if you want the place to yourself, September is a great time to visit!

After lunch we took the Jeep down to a Blue Flag beach called Bahia de la Chiva. Here is a Google map looking at the same place. The water and sand here were amazing. Pure white sand was the norm on Vieques. 

There is much controversy and hard feelings toward the US down here. It seems that the US Navy used this beautiful place as a bombing range for many years, leaving a great portion of the Eastern side of the island full of ordinance and thus unusable. 

Here is a picture of our Jeep and adventures to the south western end of Vieques. We were looking for some ruins that were noted to be out this trail, but apparently a storm took out the bridge you needed to take to get to them. What can you do! Ana wanted a wild coconut but unfortunately none of them were ripe enough to drink.

Bioluminescent Bay excursion:

This was the highlight of the trip for me. Check out www.biobay.com. This was the group that took us to Mosquito Bay, the Bioluminescent bay. Basically the plankton in the water in this bay contain phosphorescent cells that when agitated glow, very similar to lightning bugs. So this meant that anytime you moved the water it would glow the color of a green lightstick. The link I referenced above has some much better pictures, but I took some with the digital camera and kicked up the EV levels enough to where you can see the water glow coming off the bow of the boat:

Please keep in mind, there is no magic here, this is the water glowing because of the plankton that lives in the water. I highly suggest if you EVER have the chance to visit a Bio Bay you take it, you will not believe your eyes. The man running the boat would stomp on the metal hull, and when he did you would see zigzags of light in the water from where the fish got scared and would dart through the water. It was amazing.

We finished off the day at Banana's, had a drink a piece and headed home for a showed and to go to bed. What a long day!

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