FRUGAL TRAVELER; A Quiet Isle With Occasional Rumblings
By DAISANN McLANE
FRUGAL traveling doesn't get much better than this: a deserted
Caribbean beach, and back roads that wind through forests where
wild horses run free and egrets glide above the mangroves edging
the water.
I thought of friends shivering in January weather in New York
as I tooled lazily around a sunny island in a rented Jeep, dodging
careless dogs and dawdling bulls, stopping for a great meal before
returning to a breezy guest house with a view straight out to sea.
I did more than think about my friends; I called several, begging
them to join me in this paradise with a price tag of around $135 a
day, including car, lodging and meals.
I'd planned to stay six nights; that stretched into 10. How did
I manage to find such a sweet deal in the Caribbean in high
season? The answer, or at least part of it, loomed on the distant
horizon, a familiar silhouette of battleship gray: a Navy warship.
This paradise, Vieques, Puerto Rico, is known more for the
controversy surrounding it than for its beaches or restaurants.
Since 1947, the 21-by-4-mile island just off the east coast of
Puerto Rico has been used by the United States Navy as a training
site and bombing range, and Navy bases once took up about
two-thirds of Vieques. But the protests against Navy bombing began
to surge in 1999, after a local man was killed by a stray bomb,
and the Navy has been phasing out its presence.
The base at the western end of the island (home to the wild
horses and the deserted beach, called Green Beach) was returned to
the Puerto Rican government in 2001; by May 1 of this year, the
Navy has pledged to return Camp Garcia, the largest base, which
covers about half of the island, to Puerto Rico. It will remain
undeveloped, as a nature preserve.
I wasn't sure what I'd find in Vieques, but local online
newsletters and community Web sites were encouraging -- the island
is one of the few places left in the Caribbean where you can find
a guest house in high season for around $50 a night. I telephoned
one, Posada Vistamar, and booked a room. I then called Maritza's
Car Rental and reserved a Jeep, also for $50 a day. Finally, I
called Vieques Air Link and booked a round-trip ticket from San
Juan for around $110.
The trip was a gamble, but I hit the trifecta.
Posada Vistamar is in Esperanza, the island's second largest
town, after Isabel Segunda. The guest house, a concrete,
motel-like block of six rooms, faces a little yard with trees,
tables and chairs. Pretty basic was my first thought, but clean
and comfortable enough; it had a bathroom with shower, an
air-conditioner and a ceiling fan. Settling in, I put away my
stuff, then wandered out to see Esperanza.
A tiny settlement that fronts the ocean, it is centered on a
commercial strip -- mostly restaurants -- that's about a 10-minute
walk from end to end. Along part of the strip, there's a concrete
promenade, the Malecón, for strolling. I ambled along, noticing
that the other strollers seemed to be equally divided between
local Puerto Ricans and sun-leathered gringos.
At sunset I stopped at Banana's, one of the strip's open-air
bar-restaurants, for a rum punch. There I met snowbirds from
Canada and New England who told me they've been coming to Vieques
for years and years. I met a retired man from Connecticut who
recently bought a house on the island, and who told me that there
was a sizable community of younger retirees, lured by the
reasonable real estate prices and laid-back, undeveloped
atmosphere.
After a while, I strolled back to the Posada Vistamar for a
delicious dinner that riffed elegantly on Latin Caribbean cuisine
-- tostones (fried green plantains) topped with cream and caviar,
and a whole fish stewed in pepper sauce.
Everything was perfect, or nearly so, and when I crawled into
bed I was looking forward to sleep followed by a lazy morning,
perhaps coffee along the Malecón. But around midnight I was
awakened by an irritable stinging sensation along the side of my
neck. As I turned on the light, I could hear the buzz of diligent
mosquitoes. Despite the ceiling fan, despite the chugging
air-conditioner, despite the window screens, they had zeroed in on
their target, and there was no escape for the rest of the night.
The next morning, realizing that the seaside lowlands of
Esperanza might not be the best location for someone allergic to
mosquito bites, I headed out to find another place to stay.
Driving in the hills, I spotted a sign for La Finca Caribe, a
guest house I'd noticed on a Web site, but had not phoned because
the listed rates seemed too high. I took a chance and drove up the
road leading to a huge, airy, two-story wooden house painted in
tropical blues and greens. There was a woman who looked familiar
-- my waitress the night before.
Like many Americans transplanted to the island, Rebecca
Wheaton, La Finca's co-manager, juggles several jobs (she's also a
massage therapist, and her boyfriend, Seth, is La Finca's
co-manager and the chef at Posada Vistamar). When I asked her
about a room, she got enthusiastic -- things have been slow at La
Finca, and on Vieques in general. La Finca, in fact, was in the
process of being sold. It was built as a women's retreat in the
early 1990's, then was sold to some dot-commers from Seattle in
1997, who turned it into a commercial guest house and now want to
sell.
By now I have a sixth sense for hotels, and La Finca was
pushing all the right buttons, with its large, breezy wooden deck
and lovely, rolling property studded with palm trees and hibiscus.
A big communal kitchen dominated the ground floor, which was
filled with funky old furniture and walls of heavily thumbed
paperbacks. When Ms. Wheaton offered me a room for $50 a night, I
said yes without hesitation. (Regular rates are $50 to $70.)
The bathroom was down the hall, and the shower was about 200
feet away, in separate stalls outside the building, which at first
gave me pause. But I grew to love taking a shower in the neat,
roofless wooden stall, under the sun and stars (and after a few
days on the sandy beaches, I understood the logic of showering far
from the bedrooms). Just outside my bedroom, which had a double
bed with a mosquito net and a single loft bed, an upper wooden
deck offered a view clear out to Esperanza, about two and a half
miles away, and the ocean.
There was a hammock on that deck, and for the next several days
I spent most of my time there, swaying in the sun and reading
Gabriel Garcia Márquez's memoirs, ''Vivir Para Contarla,'' which
I'd bought at the San Juan airport. I read Spanish more slowly
than English, but in Vieques I wound down to the point where
half-speed seemed perfect.
And so it was especially alarming when early one morning I
awakened to a series of loud explosions: ''BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!''
Running to the deck, I spotted a warship far out at sea, and
noticed two fighter jets zooming through the sky in tight
formation.
At a bodega in Esperanza later that morning, I picked up a copy
of El Nuevo Día. The booms, based on what I read, were probably
from Navy ships far out at sea. These were to be the last weeks of
maneuvers. Because the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt was
soon moving to the Middle East, the article speculated these
maneuvers might be the last ones in Vieques before the planned
Navy pullout May 1.
The explosions ended with as little warning as they had begun
with. Exploring Vieques, from the small seaside town of Isabel
Segunda, where the ferry from Fajardo on Puerto Rico pulls in, to
the deserted Navy base on the west coast, where storage huts have
been overrun by cattle and beautiful wild horses, it was easy to
forget about the Navy, until one stopped to think about why such a
beautiful, accessible Caribbean island still looked like a rural
backwater.
Once I'd adjusted to the heat and the slow pace, I began
leaving my aerie at La Finca more often, assigning myself the
serious task of choosing my favorite among the island's many
restaurants. The winners: La Sirena, a classic French bistro in
Esperanza run by François Feynerol, who used to own Dix et Sept
in Greenwich Village; Posada Vistamar, where you'd never know the
Caribbean cuisine was being cooked by a Bostonian; and Taverna
Española, a cheap and cheerful homestyle seafood place in Isabel
Segunda.
One evening I signed up to paddle a kayak through Vieques's
natural wonder, the Bioluminescent Bay. The narrow-necked bay is
home to a concentrated population of a microorganism that glows in
the dark when disturbed; every dip of the paddle, every startled
stingray illuminates a neon trail. As I jumped into the warm water
in the darkness, my body was surrounded by an eerie glow, my
cupped hands filled with miniature sparkles.
Another day I went scuba diving. I didn't expect reefs so close
to the populous mainland, and within shouting distance of a
testing range, to be especially lush, and they weren't, but I did
see barracudas, enormous lobsters, fan corals and thousands of
tiny iridescent fish. I saw most of the same corals and fish
simply snorkeling offshore at Green Beach, the string of sandy
coves where I returned, day after day, to the same deserted
crescent of sand (but only between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., while the
sand flies took their break).
From my spot on Green Beach, at 10:30 every morning, I watched
a gray warship slowly cross the horizon, heading toward Puerto
Rico. The Navy has said that its exercises in early February would
be the last regularly scheduled shellings of the island, so I may
have been witnessing the end of an era in Vieques.
And I wondered if its future would look like the sight I passed
daily on my way to Isabel Segunda, east of the entrance to Green
Beach: a gated property of compact cottages spread along a seaside
rise, like so many elsewhere in the Caribbean.
This 156-room resort, called Martineau Bay, had been under
construction for several years, and on Feb. 24, it opened as part
of the Wyndham chain. It is Vieques's first luxury resort, with
room prices topping $300 a night.
Changes, certainly, were coming to Vieques.
The bottom line
I spent $134 a day for 10 days on Vieques, covering food,
hotel, Jeep rental and activities like diving and nature tours.
Transportation
My round-trip ticket from Kennedy to San Juan on American
Airlines cost $338.49.
Vieques Air Link, (888) 901-9247, www.vieques-island.com/val,
runs small single-prop planes from San Juan to Vieques. The trip,
30 minutes each way, costs $135 round trip.
A Jeep Wrangler from Maritza's Car Rental, (787) 741-0078, Web
site www.islavieques.com/maritzas.html, cost $50 a day, with tax.
Filling the tank several times cost $40 total.
Lodging
My basic but clean room at Posada Vistamar, a guest house one
block from Esperanza's promenade, the Malecón, (787) 741-8716,
had a private bath with shower. It cost $55 with tax. Next time I
would take a mosquito net; after sunset, the bugs can be nasty in
Esperanza.
La Finca Caribe, in the hilly center of the island about 2.5
miles from Esperanza, (787) 741-0495, online at www.lafinca.com,
consists of a large two-story house with six guest rooms and two
smaller cottages, one that sleeps up to five. It was built with
large, friendly groups in mind -- there's a well-equipped communal
kitchen, a large wraparound deck and a pool. Showers are in a
separate area down the hill, and two bathrooms -- one upstairs and
another downstairs -- are shared by the six guest rooms. My room
had a double and a single bed (the single was in a loft) with an
electric fan that I never needed. The rate, with tax, was $55. The
owners are talking with a few potential buyers.
Dining
La Sirena, facing the beach in Esperanza, (787) 741-4462, is a
pretty, airy waterfront French-Caribbean restaurant. A typical
dinner of avocado-yogurt cold soup, whole red snapper cooked in a
sweet-sour sauce, and a perfect crème brûlée cost $33,
including a glass of excellent Spanish red wine.
I also enjoyed my Latin Caribbean meals at Posada Vistamar, in
the same complex as the guest house. The chef turns out elegant
interpretations of Puerto Rican staples. A meal of sautéed
octopus, followed by pan-fried steak with garlic, cost around $30,
including two glasses of red wine and dessert.
In Isabel Segunda, about two miles from La Finca Caribe, I
found two excellent restaurants. Café Media Luna, 351 A.G.
Mellado, (787) 741-2594, in a pretty yellow two-story colonial
house, is run by a former New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent and
his Bombay-born wife, who has created the menu, a fusion of Latin
and South Asian cuisines. A dinner of several courses (presented
tapas style), plus two glasses of wine and coffee, came to around
$50.
Also in Isabel Segunda, Taverna Española, an unpretentious
place on Carlos Lebron one block from the town square, (787)
741-1175, serves dishes like shrimps in garlic and olive oil, and
fried chorizo, with generous sides of rice and beans. Dinner was
$14.50 with a glass of wine.
In Esperanza, a well-provisioned deli, Chef Michael's, 134
Calle Flamboyan, (787) 741-0490, sells freshly sliced Serrano ham
and good cheeses for alfresco lunches.
Activities
Blue Caribe Dive Center, (787) 741-2522, a PADI-certified shop
in Esperanza, is the only dive shop on the island. A two-tank dive
plus equipment rental was $90; the company runs a nighttime kayak
tour to the Bioluminescent Bay for $23.
Island Adventures, (787) 741-0720, runs nightly excursions to
the bay from just west of Esperanza on a pontoon boat for $23.
I took a group yoga class with Jennifer Dehner, (787) 741-4453,
at Hix Island House guest house in Pilón; she charges $15 for 1
hour 45 minutes. DAISANN McLANE
Correction: April 6, 2003, Sunday The Frugal Traveler
column on March 9, about the island of Vieques off Puerto Rico,
misidentified the agency that will take over the Camp Garcia base
from the Navy and maintain it as a wildlife refuge. It is the Fish
and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior, not the
Puerto Rican government.
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