I'm leaving for a long-delayed vacation on Saturday. Going to Puerto Rico. To be precise, I'm going to this little island off the east coast of Puerto Rico called Vieques. The whole point of the vacation is to relax as much as possible. I might log on here if I get bored and internet access is cheap, but I might not. So don't rejoice. I'll be coming back.

But that's not the point of this post. Like I said, the point of the vacation is quiet. But I'd still like to get any don't-miss stuff anyone can think of, if anyone's got an opinion. The only thing already on my list is El Junque, which is the US's only National Forest that's a rain forest. Neat. Actually, that's not true -- there are a number of things that I want to see on Vieques, most notably the bioluminescent bay, but I mean outside where I'm already going. Already dismissed are the Bacardi factory tour in San Juan, which I don't really care that much about, Not to mention that if I find myself in San Juan longer than I expect, there's more than enough stuff to wander around and see in Old San Juan, and Arecibo, which is all the way on the western half of the island and I don't really feel like travelling 3 hours or so each way just to see what's, let's face it, a big concrete dish in the ground.

But I'd be willing to entertain other ideas if anyone's got them.

the Bacardi factory tour in San Juan, which I don't really care that much about

I don't know whether or not you're basing that only on the light, quaffing Bacardi for making cubalibres with, but IMO the dark, sipping Bacardi is plenty nice. Still, I guess I'm not that interested in seeing its factory, unless there's rarer old rums to taste...

Peter

I'm basing that on the fact that I can't imagine that a tour of a ... distillery? ... would be that thrilling and that I don't really enjoy straight rum, light or dark, anyway. (Though I will admit that dark rum is at least more interesting than light rum, but I find both rather cloying.) I do hear they have tastings, but I can't imagine they're going to make me a mixed drink (preferably with a lot of lime in it).

My wife is half Puerto Rican and was born there. I'll ask her. I remember that she said El Morro was pretty cool.

New avatar's tight, yo.

Actually, it's the old avatar that I used for about the first year I was on the forum. I just switched back for a bit of a change.

But thanks...I'll give your complements to my brother, who did the art.

Be sure to go snorkling or take a resort scuba course. Have fun! I'm jealous.

-Zeke

Actually, it's the old avatar that I used for about the first year I was on the forum. I just switched back for a bit of a change.

Ahh... I used to browse the BBS without avatars back then... Look what I was missing.

FWIW, the Hoh Rainforest is in the Olympic penninsula of Washington state. There is another rainforest up there too, forgot the name. Parts of SE Alaska are both National Forest and rainforest. These are all *temperate* rainforests. I suppose the one off of Puerto Rico is a *tropical* rainforest, which is really cool. I'd love to see that. I've been to Hoh and the other one in Olympic National Park as well as some of them in AK and they're pretty incredible. A "jungle" would be awesome.

Please share your pictures!

Vieques is amazing.
Bioluminescent bay is a must. You have to do it. No question.

The Navy base got turned over to the Dept of the interior last May so there are a lot of beaches open that havent been open in years. Rent a 4wd (jeep, tracker, etc.) as a lot of the best beaches are down dirt roads. Theyre not bad roads, but they can be a little bumpy.

If Blue Caribe divers in Esperanza is still open (it was for sale last I checked) take their snorkeling tour out to Blue Tang Reef. Beutiful snorkeling spot.

This site has lots of info:
http://www.enchanted-isle.com/vieques/

And heres a bunch of my photos from when I went there.
http://www.bigblackvan.com/vieques/
the username is: zachs
the password is: photos

Jwtadmin a close friend of mine, and a member here on the board just went there last spring so if he feels like piping up, or if you want to PM him, I'm suree he would probably have a lot of good info as well.

Vieques is OK

I think that Jamaica is better, people thinking about going to Vieques would have a better time elsewhere.

My wife said El Junque was well worth seeing. Make sure you walk to the waterfalls. The city close to El Junque isn't too nice though, so plan on eating/gassing up elsewhere.

She said also you could go to out to the Isle of Culebra, if you like nice beaches.

Also said to try piragua from a street vendor (like a snowcone.)

Okay. I'm back.

I started my vacation by missing my flight. So I got a new flight that sent me from Raleigh to Chicago to San Juan. At least there wasn't an additional charge. Then the flight from Chicago got delayed by two hours, so I missed both the last ferry and the last flight to my final destination. So I got to spend the night in San Juan, in a crappy motel, since everyone else on that flight from Chicago got stuck there, too. When the wife and I went out to find some dinner, sans car, we had to walk over a junkie convulsing in the street. On the way back, I'm pretty sure he was dead. (Writing this down, I feel like an Evil Samaritan, but there were cops right there and they weren't doing anything -- what could I do?)

So the next morning, we got a taxi to the ferry and got to our final destination without incident. On our first visit to a beach, I managed to get the rental car stuck in the sand when I misjudged where the sand started after the dirt road. It took half a dozen guys to get us out, and the car was slightly damaged by a low-hanging tree branch in the effort, which I have to pay for.

So, after having lost, basically, at this point, a day and a half of our vacation, we decided to go take a nap.

That evening, we went to the bioluminescent bay, which was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. You get to swim in the bay while these single-celled organisms that you agitate with movement glow. It's like your body is filled with neon. On the way out, we saw a bunch of fish leaving trails as they zipped through the water. I even saw a pair of manta rays glide off, leaving a trail at their tails and wing tips. Very cool stuff.

The next day we went to some beaches and went snorkeling. Again, very cool. Most of the beaches were deserted, and we spent much of our time at this one beach where there were no other beachgoers except for a small family of three that were there for about an hour who didn't come within 100 yards of us. Another very cool day.

The next day we went to El Yunque. Bad idea. First, we had to catch the early ferry out because we were told by the car rental place that if we took the 11AM ferry, we wouldn't arrive 'til noon, which meant we couldn't get our car until 1PM, since she'd be on her lunch break. The early ferry, by the way, left at 6AM. So we got up before dawn on our vacation. Nice. We get to El Yunque and the first thing we notice is that there's little there that isn't on our little island. There were some waterfalls. We decided to walk the short trail that leads to a waterfall. As it turns out, the short trail isn't really very short, and it's not a flat trail at all. This didn't work too well with the wife's asthma, especially after having come up into the mountain from sea level within an hour or so. So she got seriously out of breath, and the going was very slow. Once we arrived at the waterfall, it turned out that it was, at best, little more impressive than the one we could see from the road. On the way back out, the wife stubled and fell, wrenching a knee pretty well and contracting a rash on her lower legs that no one could recognize. At least the rash didn't hurt or itch.

On the way back to the ferry, we got lost in the town the ferry is in. We were on a numbered road when suddenly signs would tell us that we were no longer on that road, without turning or signs telling us to turn. We managed to find the ferry with less than ten minutes to spare, which was especially nerve-wracking, considering everyone told us we should be there at least half an hour beforehand, and that was the last ferry of the day. We got on, though. So that was another day lost.

The next day, we just took it easy, staying at the hotel and doing some reading. The wife got a massage, which was her first, and which she now wants to do as often as possible. Can't say I blame her.

The next day was our day to come back. I almost missed the flight off the island, as I took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at a dead end on another numbered highway. But we made it, and had a fairly uneventful flight back, other than the pilot who flying us to Miami apparently thought that he was landing on an aircraft carrier and smacked the ground quite hard on touchdown and somehow didn't bounce back off the tarmack. I wouldn't be surprised if the landing gears were bent.

So we had some good times and some bad times. I think I got fairly rested though. The food was excellent. Oh -- the hotel was deserted except for us. Even the staff (of one) left at about 5PM. Skinny-dipping ensued. (Since few of you know what I look like, I can say that without much chance of inducing nausea.)

Oh, and I left my digital camera at home, for which I had purchased a larger memory card expressly for this trip. Good work.

My wife got her new Mini Cooper the day after we got back, though, somewhat alleviating her displeasure at leaving so early. Despite all the tribulations, she loved it, and wants to go back as soon as possible. I was somewhat indifferent, but I'm just that way anyway.