My week with my friends was awesome and utterly exhausting at the same time. We packed a lot of action into a week and got very little rest because of it! We laughed a bunch, fought a little, drank a little more, and enjoyed the general idiosyncrasies of each member of our group. I got a lesson in patience and observance of emotion, they got a lesson in relaxation and spontaneity. We were seven over sized human beings packed into a rental van ( that got a flat on the hottest possible day ) chugging along the dangerous curves of Caribbean highways! It was fantastic! I miss them already and they only left this morning.
A few days ago we took the cargo ferry to Vieques, a 20 by 7 mile long island just off the east coast of Puerto Rico. We pitched about in big seas for at least 45 minutes of the hour or so journey. Ten minutes into the $2 boat ride the captain kicked everyone off of the top deck and made us all descend to the overly air conditioned depths of the bulky craft. It was a gray, nasty hellion of a sea storm and you would have thought we were in the middle of a big dark ocean instead of a 7 mile channel that on a normal day looks like you could easily swim across. We made it of course, and I being the salty dog that I am, couldn't help but stand up and watch the tempest through the small bulkhead window on the side of the ship.
The Vieques scenery was awesome as always, except for one thing.... GRINGOS!!!! Gringos were everywhere, like cockroaches infesting everything! Esperanza, the sea side village that only a few years ago had but a few guest house/bar/restaurant establishments and a breakfast shack, was now a burgeoning Gringopolis of boutiques, sports bars that offered Wii challenges, and more hemp jewelry than you could find at a Phish concert! Ok, maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit, but the place has been found and it won't be long before it is St. Thomas or Kauai... over run by fucking yoga instructors and Reike healers and all too many white people who either have way too much money or way too little, but all share the same bad white attitude. You know who you are whiteys!!! I'm one of them too. Damn!
That being said, most travelers will find Vieques to be exactly what they want out of an island. It is quaint, friendly, beautiful, has great beaches and snorkeling, and is very relaxing. You cannot help but love it and want to move there, but please don't whitey... haven't we done enough! Ha ha. The island's best attraction is done at night and is a staggering testament to our planet's amazing and unfathomable beauty. Mosquito Bay, or known in the gringo world as "Bio Bay", is host to a natural phenomenon that is rumored here to be the best on Earth of its kind. The shallow, mangrove fringed bay is home to a millions per gallon niche of bio luminescent microorganisms called dinoflagellates, whose only defense mechanism is to emit a Sapphire blue bio luminescence when disturbed. They look like stars in the water twinkling and glittering in the dark night sky.
As a matter of fact, I often say it is like swimming in stars. When you look up, and see the vastness of space above you while swimming in the glistening water, you feel absolutely magical. No other way to describe it. If you haven't gone, go. We were treated to perhaps the best night possible. We had no moon in the visible sky and the constellations had come to play. Plus our tour guides were well equipped with laser pointers that seemed to touch the stars in space as they showed us our astrological deities. I got to see my sign, Leo lounging in the sky in all his Lion mightiness for the first time in my life and a host of others that I haven't ever been able to identify at home due to the light pollution. Everyone agreed that it was one of the best experiences in our lives.
My friends have returned home safely, and my grandmother has checked in for a 10 day visit. I am getting some work done around here and for myself as well. I am sitting up in the jungle, as always, listening to the Coqui frogs whistle into the night. I hope you are warm, well, and enjoying wherever it is you may be!
Love,
Jeremy
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