Isla de Vieques

I wish that we had spent at least one night on Culebra, so I was happy that we had been "forced" to stay a night on Vieques during our six nights in Puerto Rico.

We had flown on the small airplane to Culebra the day before on a "day trip" to Culebra and looked forward to flying out of the same Ceiba airport (with same Vieques Air Link pilot!) to Vieques.

Although we had been able to rent a Jeep on "mainland" Puerto Rico and on Culebra, we were not able to rent a Jeep or any passenger vehicle that would hold our party of five. Fortunately, the owner of the two apartments that we were renting for the night in the Isabel II neighborhood also had a Jeep that we could opt to rent. We were happy to do so, but still needed a way to get from Vieques's airport (Antonio Rivera Rodríguez Airport) to the apartments (where the Jeep could be picked up as well).

There were no taxis waiting at the small airport on Vieques, but they had printed pages attached to the inside of the wall next to the airport's main external door that listed local publicos with telephone numbers.

We had a Spanish speaker with us and he called and arranged for a woman to pick us up at the airport with her large van that could easily hold five people and five pieces of luggage (we could only bring a carry-on bag per person on the small airplane). She arrived promptly and delivered us to Isabel II. We made arrangements with her to pick us up the next day and take us to the airport.

After dropping off our bags at the two Isabel II apartments we were renting and getting the keys to the Jeep we were renting from the VRBO property owner, we decided to eat lunch at the the nearby Bieke's Bistro.

Their extensive menu was written on chalkboards near the main entrance and in the patio area. We enjoyed the selection and the local items we ordered.

We had planned to visit multiple Vieques beaches, but the first one we tried to visit (Playa Caracas) was closed.

Fortunately, Playa La Chiva was nearby, so we drove to it. The road turned to a dirt road and while a regular car could have traversed it on that dry day, it was nice to have the Jeep.

We could see more people parked further down the road, but we parked in the first small parking lot we came across and had it to ourselves. The next photographs show the rented Jeep parked in this small parking area and the path to walk from this small parking lot to the beach.

Storms had rolled into the Puerto Rico island and to Culebra while were were landing in Vieques and we were happy to have avoided them. However, we had enough wind that the conditions were not great for snorkeling while on Playa La Chiva. However, this same brewing storm weather is what would make the excellent thick cloud cover that evening for our kayaking on the bioluminiscent bay, so it wasn't all bad.

Although it was too windy for ideal snorkeling, it was great for walking and splashing in the water and enjoy a gorgeous beach that we had to ourselves.

This rocky area provided a little scenic variety.

We think this area was likely roped off for turtle nests.

We ended up staying at this beach instead of trying other beaches because it was so fabulous and we had it to ourselves.

We finally tore ourselves away from Playa La Chiva because we needed to make sure we had enough time for dinner before meeting up for the bioluminiscent kayak tour. The meeting place for that tour was in the more touristy Esperanza area of Vieques.

There are some beautiful views from Esperanza.

We ate at Banana's with a view of the water.

After dinner, we met in the field near the main street in Esperanza for the Vieques Mosquito Bioluminiscent Bay tour, which was spectacular and is descibed in an earlier post.

We noticed a bakery (Panadería La Viequense) in Isabel II near the apartments we rented and waited in line the next morning to order breakfast there. It was worth the wait.

Panadería La Viequense was not seating anyone due to COVID-19 protocols and they were already out of a small number of items by mid-morning. Because they were out of desserts, we walked after breakfast to nearby Panadería Lydia for that.

It was fun to walk around the "town square" are of Isabel II on Vieques.

We also walked to the coastline off of Isabel II and it presented another gorgeous island view.

We walked along some of the side streets in Isabel II as well and found various types of beauty there.

We wish we would have stayed on Vieques for a second or even third night, but we enjoyed the time we did have on that island tremendously.

Isla Culebra

We only spent a day (and no nights) on Culebra during our six nights in Puerto Rico, so we opted to take advantage of the airplane to get to and from Culebra. Flying to and from Culebra was part of the fun of visiting that island and is described in more detail in a different post.

We rented a Jeep from Jerry's Jeep Rental and fortunately their facility is directly across from the Culebra airport (Benjamín Rivera Noriega Airport, shown in the photograph above).

Carlos Jeep Rental appears to be the other significant source of rental Jeeps on Culebra. They have a desk at the Culebra airport, but their main facility is further down the street.

We had prearranged for a kayaking tour of Playa Flamenco and Playa Tamarindo, but the tour company had to cancel because the tour guides could not get a ride on the ferry (the risk of not making the ferry was a primary driver for us choosing to fly to Culebra). We used the description of that tour to help us choose to visit Playa Flamenco and Playa Tamarindo from among all of Culebra's beaches.

Culebra is a small island and it doesn't take long to get to any points on that island and it would be difficult to get lost given that there are only a few significant roads to get to most key points. We made the short drive from Jerry's Jeep Rental to the acclaimed Playa Flamenco using Puerto Rico Highway 251.

This beached lived up to the hype.

Because we had taken an early flight from Ceiba to Culebra and the ferry had not yet arrived, there were not many people on Playa Flamenco.

One of the unique characteristics of Playa Flamenco is the presence of tanks.

The island of Culebra is small enough that we decided to go from Playa Flamenco to the Culebra barrio-pueblo neighborhood for lunch.

Parking was scarce, but we found a spot and parked the Jeep.

The streets were on some steep hills in this section that declined quickly to the coastline.

While walking around looking at the strets and looking for a place to eat, we started talking to a guy from Wisconsin who has settled on Culebra. He recommended multiple restaurants (because several were still closed temporarily due to COVID-19) and we tried Moncho's based on his recommendation.

We were glad we took him up on the Moncho's recommendation. We needed to wait outside the small restaurant because they were strictly enforcing how many customers could be in that small area at one time, but it was worth the wait as we enjoyed an excellent and locally-oriented lunch.

There was no seating avaiable in Moncho's (part of the effort to keep the number of people small inside the restaurant), but a short walk took us to seating areas near where the ferry arrives and departs on Culebra.

There were no people there at mid-day and we had the ocean view to ourselves.

The other beach mentioned on our canceled Culebra tour was Playa Tamarindo and we headed there after lunch. The largest parking space was full, but we found another, smaller parking space just down the street.

We had to brave a flock of aggressive-looking chickens to park and start walking to the beach.

Playa Tamarindo was less sandy and had more rocks than other beaches on the island, but this meant clearer water.

There were multiple turtles here and even though I tried to give them space, they seemed to not be bothered by me and often swam toward me rather than away from me (probably because I wasn't chasing them and was floating calmly).

The ray and friend fish was also fun to see, but, unlike the turtles, they wanted nothing to do with us.

There was also a starfish among the grasses.

We had this section of Playa Tamarindo completely to ourselves and it was one of the best experiences I've had snorkeling from the beach.

We needed to fill our Jeep with gas before returning it and there was a short line of other Jeeps whose renters needed to do the same thing. We also drove by a couple other interesting locations on our way to return the Jeep and walk across the street and parking lot to the airport to fly back to Ceiba. The short low-flying flight back to Ceiba was a great way to top off a rewarding day on Culebra, but I wished we would have spent at least one night on that charming island.

Although "Culebra" may be Spanish for "snake," I will now always associate the Spanish word "culebra" with a fantastic little island with fantastic beaches, excellent snorkeling, a fun little downtown, and excellent local food.