Vieques II
Johnny Jones, February 1999

continued from Vieques I
While the rest of the world was watching the Super Bowl, Chip and I were on the plane headed for San Juan. On our descent we saw what looked like a lot of--well--trash. Hmmm--none of the guidebooks mentioned that. But we would be in the airport just long enough to change planes, anyway. I was sure Vieques would be pristine.

Part of the reason I thought that was because of what I had read. One of the realtors, Jane Sabin, sent us a sheet. It said, "The island offers the rare beauty and slow pace of a bygone era. However, not being a tourist-oriented island, it does not offer many services. If you have difficulty accepting life's imperfections, DON'T come to Vieques. It is casual life in its simplest form and will not respond to your demands. The water goes off occasionally with no advance warning, as does the electricity; usually not for long and not in a predictable fashion. If you can't survive without a telephone, Vieques could be unbearable for you. Think of our lovely island as a third-world country."

Well, hey. We live in Viburnum. We're used to "accepting life's imperfections," right? There's no bagel shop, no Starbucks, not even a McDonald's nearby. We thought we were good to go.

We waited just a few minutes in the airport in San Juan for Vieques Air Link to board us onto the small plane. It's a good thing we were tired of sitting, because in the row of seats near us at the gate, we could not have sat; each of them had the upholstery split so that you could see through the gouged-out foam to several square inches of bare board beneath.

We flew in a small plane from the big airport. When I saw "small," I mean they asked us our body weight before we boarded. And this was not a time I underestimated my size.

They had a little footstool for us to use in climbing up into the plane, and they held the seat in front of us forward so we could crawl to the one behind it. I had to laugh to think of all the safety regulations of the jet we had flown down on, as I sat there trying to untangle my seat belt, and realized that in case of an emergency, we would have to somehow get over or around the people in front of us. They were next to a door. We weren't.

None of the six passengers talked very much; the engines were too loud for that. But the short hop was lovely, over verdant green hills and sparkling blue-green water fringed with white sand and coconut palms. A short hop over the Atlantic brought us to Vieques.

Our landlord said to call him when we arrived. While we waited for him to come, a Puerto Rican family arrived in a pick-up truck and asked if we needed a taxi. They were friendly and conversational. They asked us if we were cold, and said, "We are freezing!" The temperature was in the 70's.

Juergen greeted us warmly and took us across the island. As we drove on the narrow, curving roads, I was reminded of the information about Vieques: "Vieques is eight miles from the east coast of the main island of Puerto Rico, 21 miles long and 9 miles wide with a population of less than 9000. Two-thirds of the island is owned by the U. S. military, but few personnel are stationed on the island. The middle of the island, running north and south, is a residential section; the people there are primarily cattlemen and fishermen. There is little industry or tourism. Most of the land remains uninhabited and preserved for grazing of Brahman cattle. Vieques is an extremely lush and fertile island with an abundance of fruit trees, flowers, butterflies, birds, roaming horses and beautiful beaches."

We drove that 9-mile span, from the Atlantic side on the north to the Caribbean side where we were staying in the little town of Esperanza. I realized we had eaten breakfast in St. Louis, lunch on the plane, and now dinner in a restaurant just across the street from the Caribbean. And, unlike breakfast and lunch, when we were in long sleeves and long pants, now we were comfortable in shorts. But our day had proved that, while lovely, not everything was the way we expected. Hmmmmm---
continued at Vieques III