Vieques

The Yamadas spent four nights on Vieques, a small island that is only a short (and very choppy) ferry ride away from the main island of Puerto Rico. The U.S. Navy used Vieques as a bombing range for many years until leaving a few years ago. You can see vestiges of the naval presence all over the island.

Abandoned bunkers:



Old military equipment:



Mosquito Pier (or "Rompeolas" in Spanish) was supposed to be seventeen miles long, linking Vieques with the main island. It didn't quite turn out that way. Today it is a one-mile-long pier with beautiful views of the ocean:



Although tourism has a growing presence in Vieques, the island is relatively undeveloped compared to other Caribbean destinations. At this point more than half of Vieques is off-limits (either nature reserves or old bombing ranges that are being cleaned up). Wild horses wander the island, and the bumpy dirt roads are not for the faint of heart.




One distinctive thing about Vieques is the presence of a bioluminescent bay. This photo doesn't do it justice (go to http://www.biobay.com/ for better pictures). Single-cell organisms live in the bay. At night, they emit a bluish light when they are jostled. We swam through the bay at night and watched everything light up around us -- highly recommended!