Spring Break in Vieques

Our Spring Break has started! It started with us meeting Rick and Cathy Dill and leaving for Vieques bright and early Thursday morning. We thought we were doing so good leaving early (6:30 am) to make it to Fajardo to get our ferry tickets. We under-estimated the number of people that would be heading to Vieques for Easter weekend. Katie and Rick stood in line to get tickets and called us and said we weren't going to make the 9:30 ferry because they were stopping selling tickets because there were so many people. This would mean we couldn't leave until 1:00! Then Brent stood in line and we kept gradually moving our stuff closer to the doorway to the ferry. Rick and Katie went to check in with Brent at about 9:35 and Brent said to be ready if he came running. Next thing you know, Brent's running towards us. We grabbed everything and ran! The lady said she had 3 tickets and Brent said he needed 6...she got on her walkie talkie and sold us the tickets. Unfortunately people take up at least 2 seats per person so we had to stand for part of the ride. Once we got there we called for our rental car which Katie and Courtney went to pick up and took 2 hours to return. While they were doing that Brent called about our apartments we had rented. Those fell through so they put us up in their hotel. Not bad actually - we got the whole top floor to ourselves which was basically an apartment with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a living room area. Pretty nice actually! Here's some pictures of the front of our "hotel" and our car. For those of you who know me really well can probably guess I was stoked about driving a 2006 Durango...a vehicle I've wanted for a long time!

The rest of the day Thursday was spent eating at a place called "Bananas", finding a few beaches, and then hitting the hay pretty early because the men needed to get up early to go fishing. Friday at 7:00 the men headed to the dock to catch their fishing trip with Franco. Katie came back (isn't she sweet getting up early to take them?!) and waited for Cathy and I to get up. We weren't as eager to get up and face the day as Kate was! We did eventually get up, caught breakfast at Roy's, did a little shopping for some rings that started at $6.50 and ended at $20.00 (LONG story!), and headed to Green Beach. This is the beach where they say you can find tons of conch shells and that's just what Katie and I wanted to do. We started snorkeling right away and ended up bringing 6 shells to the shore to sit with Cathy. We were pretty proud of ourselves because we actually had to go a long way out and dive deep for the shells. Not as easy as it sounds people! Here's some pictures of our shells and the master snorkelers.

On our way back from Green Beach we came across a group of wild horses. Believe it or not they are everywhere on Vieques! In Kansas we have to worry about hitting a deer at night, here, wild horses. We saw the group on the way out there and on the way back. I counted on the way there and counted 17, on the way back they picked up another buddy and there were 18. Here are some pictures of some of the wild horses we saw in our 3 days there. I would guess we saw at least 40 total.

After leaving Green Beach we went to eat a place called "Belly Buttons" - such a cute place! Then we decided we didn't have enough time to go to the hotel so we went and sat at the dock waiting for our fishermen. They had a somewhat successful fishing trip. Each of them caught 1 while they fished from the boat (apparently called spin fishing). They spent the morning fly fishing which had no success for them. Once they got on the boat the hits came pretty quickly. Courtney didn't even get seasick! We bought some seasick bracelets for him (actually Sharon and Wilbur did before they came down because I can't find them here) called Sea Bands and they work! Enough of a shameless plug - Brent caught a tarpon, Rick caught a baracuda (yes, I'm serious), and Courtney caught a yellow tailed snapper. They way it was explained to us: Brent caught the biggest and toughest, Rick caught the smallest with the most teeth, and Courtney caught the prettiest and tastiest. Here's a picture of the Belly Buttons sign (too cute!) and some pictures of their fishing trip. Thankfully Rick had his camera and captured the trip for us all.

Once the men got back it was time to get ready for the bio bay tour. Courtney and I had decided we wouldn't go to save money and because we were so excited about the one in Fajardo we didn't think we needed to go. Unfortunately Brent wasn't feeling well and they would have had to have paid for him anyway so I went in his place. I am so happy I did! It was so amazing! In Fajardo it's amazing but it's different in Vieques. In Vieques the glowing is a bright blue - and I mean bright. There were fish everywhere, jumping out of the water and glowing. Everything that the micro organisms touch glows which is why you glow when you swim in it. When we got in to swim it was the most amazing thing! We lifted our arms out of the water and the glowing water trickled down our arms and then it looked like you had glitter all over because you just sparkled. It was amazing! Here's a picture of us getting ready to board the bus to take us there and a picture of Rick, Kate, and I in the water. You can't really see the glowing so I took a picture from the website for the bay. You might not believe this but that is really what it looked like! I could not believe it! If you'd like to see more pictures and read up on it go to www.biobay.com.

We got home around 9:00 and it was off to bed. Courtney and Brent were already asleep but I woke Courtney up because I was so excited! I bought one of their shirts that glows and was just reeling from the experience! I know Courtney was really thrilled I did that. We got up Saturday morning and went back to Green Beach to try to find some conch shells for Rick. The sea was a little rough that morning so we didn't do a lot of snorkeling. When you go to Vieques or Culebra and buy your ferry tickets you have to purchase your trip back at the same time as your trip there. We had marked ours to return at 4:30 on Saturday because we didn't think we'd get back in time. We had to return the Durango (tears!) at 1:00 and their was a ferry trip back at 1:00. Courtney and I returned it and got back to the dock at 1:05. The ferry was still there so Courtney and Brent went to check to see if it would be possible to hop on. We thought for sure it wouldn't happy but once again - Brent came running! We packed up and ran again! This time Courtney and I had to stand for the entire hour boat ride. It was a bit of a pain in the butt but at least we got home early. We came home last night, took showers, went shopping for our Easter lunch today, got some pinchos for dinner, and went to bed. Today was spent cooking up an Easter feast and then taking the dogs to the beach to get some exercise. Courtney and I found 2 jellyfish on the shore at the beach today which we've never seen before. Katie took pictures with her underwater camera so we'll have to get that developed. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our nephew, Nicolas. He's the big 8 today! We miss you, Peanut, and can't wait to see you in June! We love you and Anna VERY, VERY, VERY, MUCH! Here's one last picture of our Vieques trip...we called it our Sports Illustrated picture...or you could say a ruined picnic!