Puerto Rico Day 5 - Flight to Vieques, Beach Time, Bio Bay Kayak

On Friday morning we left our AirBNB in La Parguera and drove 2.5 hours to Ceiba to get on a puddle jumper flight to the island of Vieques, which is only about 10 miles from Puerto Rico. We knew it would be a small plane but we weren't expecting it to be this small...

At maximum capacity, the plane seats 10 people, including the pilot. It was a little scary for me, since small airplanes make me nervous, but with the plane in the air for just over 7 minutes, the anxiety didn't last long.

The view from the window was amazing.
The blurred curvy lines are the propellars under the wings.

At the airport in Vieques.

We picked up our rental car at the airport. There are a limited number of rental cars available on this little island but we found the best option available: an old Jeep Wrangler which technically seated 5 but luckily our kids are on the smaller end of the spectrum. The car was not in good shape and in addition to funny noises and ridiculous heat on the floor of the driver's side, my seatbelt didn't work. But we got around the island just fine, and didn't get into any accidents. 

The lady from the rental car company warned us about possibly hitting a wild horse, and when I asked where we could go to see wild horses, she said, "They're everywhere. You'll see them." And she didn't exaggerate. We saw tons of horses wandering all over the island, but we were told that they all had owners taking care of them. So I think of them more as free-range horses than wild.

We drove straight from the airport to our hotel, which is a generous word for the run-down little complex owned by a 60ish-year-old former sailor who's bare chest and flip flops would make Jimmy Buffett proud. (And we saw several horses on the way.) We checked into our room early, changed into swimsuits, and headed right for Sun Bay, the beach where Robert's family had set up camp. There was a lot of sand and water play, including a big game of Marco Polo that was lots of fun.

Ben, Jack, and I went on a walk to a neighboring island that was connected by a sand bar. On the way, we saw several horses walking through a large puddle, then some of them stopped to roll around in the sand like dogs. It was the craziest thing.

As we crossed to the neighboring island, the deepest water was at about knee-level.

We walked to a local restaurant someone recommended, and while it was tasty, it took a very long time. We entertained ourselves by playing the Therapist game, and just as the last person was taking their turn, our food was ready. We missed the Christmas boat parade on the water across from the malecón but when we arrived for our bio bay kayak tour, some of the boats were still lit up.

And there were some Christmas fireworks...

One of the main activities that brought us to Puerto Rico was seeing Mosquito Bay, the place that the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes as the brightest bioluminescent bay in the world. National Geographic makes regular trips to study this ecosystem.

Mosquito Bay (named for a pirate's ship) is even more protected than the one in La Parguera and swimming is not allowed, so we experienced this one by glass-bottomed kayak, which was also super cool. There were benefits to both experiences. Mosquito Bay was noticeably brighter than the one we swam in the night before, but we all agreed that being in the water in La Parguera was a more magical experience.

Because of the kayaks at Mosquito Bay, we got a better view of the individual lights of the dinoflagellates, which are reminiscent of flickers that fall off of sparklers on the Fourth of July. In this bay, we were also able to see animals moving through and even above the water; streaks of fish swimming and jumping over the surface. That was really cool. The sky was dark enough there for a full astronomy tour too.

After the tour, we made the kids uncomfortable by insisting we stop for something to eat as soon as we saw a place that was open that late at night, which of course was a bar. We got our food to go because Liza wasn't feeling great, then we walked back to the hotel to eat our late-night snack.

Bonus Scenic Pics:

(all from Sun Bay)