Vieques #3: Cartin' Around
Intro
There are five common ways to get around on Vieques: Car, golf cart, bicycle, walking, taxi. We rented a golf cart.
By the time I called Vieques Car Rental outside of Isabel II in June, all the cars for the weekend in July when we would be there were rented out. I wanted to cover a decent amount of ground on the island on our own schedule, which meant that relying on any of the other three methods wouldn't be ideal.
Honestly, the golf cart is the way to go. It goes at "island pace." (It went 35-30 mph maximum if I remember correctly.) Plus, there is so much on the island to look at, which is better on the golf cart than from inside a car.
Gracias, Vieques Car Rental
Isabel II "Afueras"
Vieques Car Rental is in the "suburbs" of Isabel II.
El Fortín de Conde Mirasol
Vieques, as part of Puerto Rico, technically belonged to the Spanish empire, so of course they had to build a fort here. The inside is closed, so we could only view the outside of it from the grounds.
Island Interior
In the northcentral area of the island--what you see identified by the red circle in the picture below--are a bunch of barriadas, or "sub-barrios" (sections within neighborhoods)--where many Viequenses live. We figured that if we had the golf cart and were in nearby Isabell II, we might as well drive through and check them out.
The first three pictures show names of some of these barriadas: Pozo Prieto, Monte Santo, and Barriada Fuerte. According to the third sign, Bda. must be the abbreviation of barriada.
After that are pictures that I took while driving around.
El Flamboyán
You will see these trees everywhere on Vieques. In fact, they are typical of mainland Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands as well.
You will often see these trees lining roadsides because they were planted to provide shade for travelers on horseback.
Each tree grows red, orange, or yellow flowers. The red one (Delonix Regia) is Puerto Rico's national flower.
The trees shed their flowers in the winter before re-growing them the next year.
Route 200
Next, we took 200, which runs east-west along the northern coast of the island to Mosquito, another barriada where there are a pier and old U.S. military bunkers.
Viequense Horses
There are wild horses roaming the island all over Vieques. The Spanish brought them obviously.
One of the funniest things is how many horses seem to be friends with an egret (the white bird that you can see standing alongside the horse in the third picture). You will often find one horse and one egret hanging out together. Sometimes, the egret will stand on the horses back. (I can't believe I didn't get a picture of this, though...)
Mosquito Pier
U.S. Military Bunkers
This island technically belongs to the United States, so of course we had to put military bases here and use the island as a military playground. Next, of course, we had to leave our trash behind.
The map below shows how if you keep driving west on Route 200, you will eventually have the option to turn left onto Bunkers Road. You can drive N-S on this narrow road and see all the old United States military bunkers.
The U.S. Navy operated on the island throughout the 20th century until 2001, when it ceased activity. On 2003, the Navy left Vieques.
Sugar Mill Ruins
On the map, where the red line ends is where the Vieques Sugar Mill Ruins are.
During the late 19th and earlier 20th centuries, Vieques was a center for sugar production in the Americas.. Many Puerto Ricans and Virgin Islanders came to Vieques to work in the mills. In the 1940s', after the United States Navy began to expropriate Vieques, the sugar mills were closed.
We found the entrance, but could not find the actual ruins! We walked into the forest for 20 minutes before giving up and turning around....
But, this writer found them and wrote an awesome review on her website: https://vagrantsoftheworld.com...
Rain Storm
After that, I thought that we could continue on to the Playa Negra, which is close to the Ruins, but I didn't zoom in close enough on the map to see that the road in the picture above leads to a dead end at a military base, so we had to turn around and go back where we came from. During this time, we got caught in a downpour, so we cancelled the rest of the golf cart tour and drove back to our room, very slowly in the golf cart.
Adiós
I love public art, so I had to include these last two displays of beauty.
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