Puerto Rico - Day 3

Vieques is a slow island with not too much to do. On our agenda today was... nothing really. "Relaxation" if I had to really choose something. We had breakfast rather late, as usual. I think it was this day, or actually the day before, that we were introduced to cashew fruit. The caretaker of the inn's little restaurant asked us if any of us had ever tried cashew fruit. All of us shook our heads with puzzlement, not knowing that cashews had fruit. She boasted about its power to heal (it apparently has a lot of vitamin C and antioxidants), the deliciousness of it, and that she ate a few every single day. To satisfy our curiosity, she retreated to the kitchen and brought back this pear/bell pepper-shaped fruit with a cashew stuck to the end of it. The nut reminded me of another type of nut...

Image borrowed from www.artsnuts.com.

She asked us if we wanted to try it. Of course! Why pass up the chance to sample something new?! We each got two or three thin, juicy slices of the fruit. Mmm. After the first mouthful, none of felt it warranted a "m-m-m". It was more like "eck-eck-eck". Tart. Rubbery. Waxy. Weird. NOT good. I ate most of mine because I'd feel bad for wasting the woman's efforts, but a couple of others in our group couldn't get themselves to take another bite. Eating that wasn't easy. Deep breaths preceded every bite.

The fruit wasn't great, but our surroundings certainly delighted us. We sat outdoors every morning, next to the huge tamarind tree that the inn was named after. Our tableware was colorful and cute. Paintings of shutters and planter boxes full of colorful blooms were found on almost every window. Beyond the inn, we could see tiny but lush islands sitting on the waters of the Caribbean.


After breakfast, we wandered back to our suite to nap, read, and hang out. I tried out the hammock, but flipped over and scratched up my elbow. :( Reverting back to something less adventurous, I just sat and read by the pool and the beautiful tropical flowers. The view was beautiful and the weather was perfect. This looks like the backyard of a drug lord or something... So nice.


And my stylish amphibious shoes were still a great hit with my sisters.


Once we had our fill of doing almost nothing, we wanted to get some good Puerto Rican food. Tom, our kayak guide, suggested this one place on what we named "Santana Row", a short row of open-air restaurants and bars facing the beach with strands of colorful lights hanging from the street lamps. This was considered to be the hip part of the island, and we were staying close by.

"Mucho Gusto" was the name of the restaurant. We were seated promptly in the indoor dining area. We ordered Medalla (beer), Puerto Rican gumbo (sooooo freakin' yummy), squid salad (absolutely delicious), some sort of deep fried seafood with lots of batter (much better than the ones we tried our first night in Vieques), and grilled salmon with fried plantains (yum). We were all so grateful for Tom's suggestion. This was the first great meal we've had since landing.


After we devoured our meal, we headed out in search of nicer beaches. But first, we snapped some pics along Santana Row. Couldn't resist. It was rather pretty out there.


The main roadways in Vieques are paved and just wide enough for two cars. But there are roads that snake throughout the island that aren't as nicely maintained because of lighter traffic, fortunately. These are nothing but dirt paths making their way up and down steep grades, with massive potholes that can do major damage if you're not careful. And passing other vehicles is always a bit exciting. Imagine if the car had died on one of those roads. I think we'd still be in Vieques!! Driving on these roads was like a little adventure - out in the middle of the jungle on these perilous roads (OK, exaggerating a bit), and no one knew where we were. FUN! And I was so happy to have driven on these the next day. So fun!!


Plant life in the tropics is very different from what we'd see in the Bay Area, as you would already suspect. We saw these trees that looked a little eerie. Very cool.


After quite a lengthy search for a nice beach, we finally came upon something that was on the side of a highway; don't even know if it was a marked beach. The water looked peaceful, the sand clean, and the presence of a family of foreigners made us feel safe. Here, we unpacked all of our gear again and continued our newly found lifestyle of living as if all worries have evaporated into the warm tropical air.


There, my little sister was interested in improving upon her photography. OK. So I asked her to take a photo of me with the beach and skies in the background. She snapped a photo and asked me how it looked. I laughed and told her it was horrible!!

To the left of us lay a bunch of rocks that looked like beached sea monsters, very pointy and rough monsters.


A couple hours have passed, and the foreign family had already packed their bags and left. The four of us were the only ones left on the beach. It was nice to be in solitude but our wary eyes continually scanned our surroundings to avoid any potential trouble. Inevitably, a while later, a small group of locals stopped at the parking area. A couple were lingering while the rest started to make their way down to the beach. I'm sure they were harmless, but we couldn't shake off the feeling of vulnerability, so we agreed to gather our belongings. Within 60 seconds, we were done. The speed at which we packed merited an award. After we climbed back up the short trail and into the car, we all burst into laughter. We were ridiculous.

On our way back, we stopped for some ice cream!


We hung out at the Tamarindo for a while. By the time our tummies started growling, it was already sort of late. It was like night no.1 all over again. Restaurants that looked good were already closed. We came upon a ceviche bar. I love ceviche! We went in and were told that they're out of ceviche. How can a ceviche bar be out of ceviche?! That was funny yet frustrating. A few buildings down, we finally found someplace that looked decent and was still open. Here, we were introduced to "mofongo". From what I remember, mofongo is made by frying plantains, then mashing it up, put into a mold, and fried again. First couple of bites were good, but it became too sweet and starchy after a while. Maybe it's because I'm Chinese, but I'd much prefer regular ol' steamed white rice.


As we were driving back to Tamarindo through Santana Row, we noticed a lot of people milling around the bars. Why not get a drink too? We chose a lively bar with a lot of outdoor seating, ordered some drinks and got really flushed. :(