Part 2: Veiques, Puerto Rico

It took us two tries but we made it to Veiques, an island–municipality of Puerto Rico in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands.

Vieques is definitely a place I would want to stay for a couple of days, to do more exploring and visit the amazing beaches.

We rented a Wrangler for the day, my dream car when I was in high school.

 

OMG... We truly had an adventure visiting this Black Sand Beach. First, there were no signs to show exactly where the beach was from the road. We noticed three other Jeeps parked on the side of the road and stopped to inquire. Sure enough the beach was down below, or so we thought. Let me tell you the drama that ensued. We figured it would be a short trail leading to the beach. Chile!! It was a 20 minute walk/HIKE through the wilderness with no directional signs. I made D carry our carryon suitcase because I  didn't want to leave it in the SUV. After about fifteen minutes of walking/hiking we both were frustrated and wondering where the hell was the beach. Low and behold we finally reached the beach and what a magnificent sight it was. We were in stunned awe of the seascape before us. Less than five minutes of us arriving on the beach D was like "Look!" {in a hurried, panicked voice}, he was pointing to the horizon. The sky had turned gray, storm clouds were moving towards us, and the ocean was getting violent. We hauled ass back toward the wilderness for our hike back. The only difference was the sky opened up and it we got a first hand experience of a torrential rain storm. It was horrible! We were slipping, sliding, and cussing. D's flip flop broke and SJ's water shoe fell off without us noticing, so D had to trek back for it. D was carrying SJ and the suitcase. I had CC so I ran the whole way to the Jeep. Once I made it to the road I saw a man coming towards me. I immediately went on alert. Then I noticed his family in the Jeep behind him. He asked me if I needed help and asked where my husband was. I pointed behind me and he was off to assist D. He told me to wait in the car with his family, so I did. Forgot to mention the cute little Jeep we rented had the roof panels off, so the entire interior got wet. :-/

We where the talk of this beach . . . between me being Mommy and SJ with only a PullUp on the Latinas on the beach felt it necessary to let D know they had issues. SMH . . .

 

Part Two: Summer Vacay in Puerto Rico

More pictures from our vacay . . .

A part of visiting Puerto Rico is going to each and everything family members house! OMG. . . it's a must and I can't stand it.

Manati, Puerto Rico 

 

Everyone got an extreme tan! Lil D is a little toasted almond baby, check out her picture above.

Ganips

  More Videos . . .

Part One: Summer Vacay in Puerto Rico

We spent two weeks in Puerto Rico, with a two day stint in St. Thomas U.S.V.I. and I'm bushed. Between 7 hour jaunts on the beach, visiting family, and exploring the islands we didn't have much downtime. We visited the following places in Puerto Rico-  Barceloneta, Arecibo, Carolina, Isla Verde {where we stayed}, Fajardo, Manati, Santurce, Florida, Luquillo, and Loiza. We visited the following places in St. Thomas- Bolongo Bay {where we stayed}, Charolette Amalie, Magen's Bay Beach (Amazingly beautiful), Peterborg, Ritz Carlton, Sapphire Beach Resort, and Red Hook. 

After a long flight we arrived on the island and needed to rent a car. The condo we leased had three car rental agencies within walking distance, but we figured since we were already at the airport we could rent from a vendor there. Wrong Answer! No one had compact cars. After 3 hours we finally when to Charlie's, a block from condo, and rented a small car from them.

Once we got the keys to the condo we were beach bound immediately. With the beach less then 30 feet from our temporary residence we made quick work of putting on sunscreen and bathing suits.

After spending close to $100 a day to eat we decided to hit up the super market, Pueblo, and buy groceries. First we tried in vain to find a market that sold organic whole milk. Needless to say we the island doesn't sell it because its too expensive to import it and their are no organic milk producers on the island. What does that mean? Lil D has been drinking none organic whole milk for two weeks. I know shocking! We'll get her back on the organic track once we return to NJ. 

Anything organic on the island is twice as much as on the mainland.

Besides going to the beach daily we took enough pictures to fill three photo albums.

It took Lil D about two days to get used to walking on sand without holding anyone's hand. She took to it well along with eating the sand. SMH . . . Obviously she wanted to experience sand with all of her senses. 

Every evening we took a stroll around the various neighborhoods of San Juan. The pictures above show us in Condado {which has become to major hot spot since the last time we were on the island}.

Everyone told us the best beach in Puerto Rico is the Flamingo Beach of Culebra. We were sold on the idea of taking a ferry to the island and enjoying the beach. We drove to Fajardo to find out more information about the ferry and was told the wait is extremely long to get to Culebra. If we were interested in the 6:00 a.m. ferry we needed to get in line to purchase ferry tickets before 3:00 a.m. People get in line as early as 1:00 a.m. After hearing this I was like it's not that serious, so we decided to forget about the whole Culebra idea. Maybe next time. {Forgot to mention you can't purchase tickets for the ferry prior to the day of your trip}