Monday morning and off we set with just a backpack each to Isla Nena (Little Girl Island) or otherwise known as Vieques.
Geoff and I have been wanting to go for ages, but we thought we'd wait until Mum got here so we could all enjoy it together for the first time.
A cheap ferry ride over from Fajardo ($2 each) and we were in Vieques just over an hour. A few rounds of Uno always kills the time!
Eddie, our host picked us up and he was great - pointed helpful things out to us along the way back to Casa Del Parque (http://www.viequestravelguide.com/casa-del-parque.html) until we finally arrived at what would be our home for the next three days. It was so cute - a brightly painted house up in the hills of the center of the island with beautiful views of Esperanza. It had two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen as well as balcony with a hammock. You can guess where I spent most of my time!
The rest of our first day was spent gorging on Puerto Rican cuisine, visiting beaches (and the water was beautiful!) and ending the afternoon with a long kayaking trip in the Bioluminescent Bay (Mosquito Bay). We decided to go with Aqua Frenzy Kayaks, a tour company that not only did the world-famous biobay tour, but took it that one step further to add a mangrove exploration before the biobay experience. Our guide was very friendly and knew a lot about the area, and took us through a tunnel of mangroves, around some protected areas and to a little secluded beach were we had yummy sandwiches and fresh grapefruit that he'd brought from his garden.
Then - the Biobay experience! We kayaked back into Mosquito Bay (the biobay) and were amazed by all the tiny little dynoflagilights that glowed when we moved in the water. Sarah, mum and I jumped in - the only unfortunate thing was that werent there long enough!
Apart from one other boat, were the only ones there - it was just magical.
Day two and we did a lot of exploring today! Sarah was horribely sunburnt from the first day, so Geoff, Mum and I headed off in the Jeep we borrowed from Eddie and I think we covered every square inch of Vieques that day!!
We saw the oldest tree on the island - 375 year old Ceiba tree, lots of beautiful beaches, museums, forts and stopped at a beachside restaurant for lunch called Duffy's. The cocktails and salads were great! (Have to balance myself out somehow with all the cocktails :-)
The third and last day, we hit up Navio Beach and Media Luna. These are the two most beautiful and rustic beaches that I've seen in a very long time. Little did we know they were turtle nesting sights and that a mummy had just laid her eggs the night before! We were asked to leave as they needed to rope it off, but the short time spent there was a lot of fun.
Cinco de Mayo (5th May) is a big Mexican holiday, so what better way to join in than have a mexican lunch and margheritas?
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