Honeymoon: Day 5

After falling asleep to the sounds of the coqui, we woke up to the sound of rain, which was very peaceful, but disappointing knowing that the sun wasn't out. We took advantage of all the stocked items in our room by making coffee, toast and scrambled eggs. We decided that since it had stopped raining to try to find one of the famed beaches and settled on Green beach at the NW tip of the island. For years, up until 2003, the US Navy occupied most of the island using it for military storage and bomb testing. Green beach is in the wildlife refuge near the old military base.

The roads were par to course for the island until we got onto the wildlife refuge. The next five miles were spent avoiding potholes and puddles. When we finally came to the fork in the road where we could either go to green beach swimming area or green beach snorkel area there were giant puddles in either direction. After contemplating the beach route with the bigger puddles I chose the path with lesser resistance and we headed towards the snorkel beach. Five puddles later we reached the beach, which was rocky with coral reefs right off the shore. Great for snorkeling, not so great for swimming. We packed back up and re-traversed the puddles, but I chickened out when we got the the even bigger puddles going toward the beach and we turned back and went to Esparanza instead.

Esparanza is the perfect little beach town. Theres not much of a sun bathing beach, but you can layout it you want to, then there is a nice ocean side boardwalk where you can admire the crystal clear water and boats mooring off shore, complimented by the local shops and houses lining the other side of the street. All the restaurants had open front patios so you could look over the water, fabulous. After looking for seashells, since it was still overcast, we landed at Belly Buttons for lunch who to my delight had fried pickles on the menu!

I had signed us up for an all in one kayak, snorkeling, bioluminescence bay tour which started at 2:00 p.m. S we made our way back to the hotel to change and put the underwater camera case together. This thing is so cool, it really looks like a clear time capsule. Wile Jason was doing that I went to ask for a late check out. Joann at the front desk knew who I was when I walked in ( we had not met before) asked how Jason and I were enjoying our trip (his name wasn't on the reservation ), and when I asked about a late check out said sure no problem we should have a great time fishing with Jay ( the fishing guide we had booked less than an hour ago ). Word travels fast and this woman knows everything.

Back in Esparanza we met the tour group and the other three couples we would be spending the rest of the day with. They were from NY, MI, and CA. It's amazing how many people from all over are learning about this little place. We went through Abe's Snorkeling and our tour guide was Abe Jr. We all loaded into their "new" van and took off for mosquito bay. I'm just glad they were driving, because I never would have made it through to the launch site.

Jason and I loaded into our two person kayak and we took off for the mangrove forests. It was a beautiful sight, all the roots grow into the water and intertwine with each other. We were able to get some great pictures and videos going through the forests. After the mangroves we paddled out to the mouth of the bay and beached our kayaks on a beach that's only accessible via kayak. The sand was pure white and we were able to walk around the shore looking for fossils. Because Vieques was a bomb test site there were signs up discouraging people from going inland due to the possibility of random undetonated bomb material. We took to their warning and stayed in the beach.

Next activity was snorkeling. We went right off shore and we able to see hundreds of fish swimming in and out of the sea grass and hiding in the coral shelf. Thanks to our handy dandy waterproof camera case we we're able to get some of the fishes on film! After we had enough of swimming wit the fishes we took to shore where our guides had made a camp fire and we had Dinner on the beach while watching the sun set.

Our last experience was kayaking back into the bay to experience the denophilles. Thousands of tiny micro organisms that live in the highly concentrated salt water that light up when touched. We were able to get in the water and swim around with them! It was amazing! When you move the water around you glows. I felt like a marvel comic super hero! Unfortunately it was too dark out for us to get any good pictures or video, but it's something that I will never forget. After getting back in our kayaks we paddled around the bay trying to spook fish because their fast retreat would leave a bright light trail underwater, like lightening.

Unfortunately our tour had to come to an end at some point and we beached our kayaks and loaded back into the van. Once back in Esparanza we went back to Duffy's for a few piña coladas before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.