San Juan to Vieques

Date: 28. 2. 2014

Today is was time to move our asses to Vieques. On 26th we were surfing on the net and looking for a place where we should move ourselves next. For some reason we stumbled upon Vieques and after some searching, we decided to go there. I found a place to do my open water dives for PADI OWD, and mailed them. It didn't take long I got the dives booked and couple of shore dives for the guys.

First we drove around San Juan - lost, because the rental car agreement didn't really give the correct address, and the site for the rental car company gave a completely wrong address. Fortunately, I found the nearby car company from a tourist map Halen had discovered from the flying school yesterday, and we finally made it.

The idea was that we'd continue the rent and drive the car to Fajardo, but the company didn't have an office there. Next company we asked had only a minivan, which would've cost 70USD + 40USD dropoff fee for leaving the car for another office on the island. That's when we decided to take a taxi, which cost us 91USD (including the tolls) and we got dropped off straight at the ferry terminal.

First we missed the ferry for 15 minutes, and the next one which was leaving in an hour was sold out. The cargo handler said that they'd start selling tickets for 16:30 ferry at 15:30. So off we went to a nearby pub and ordered some food. After eating halen and I had an eerie feeling, and halen went to wait for our tickets around 14:30. I went to look for a geochache by myself, but stumbled upon a guy who was.. uhm.. a bit drunk. And raging to himself. So I decided that it wasn't really a good place for me to be by myself. I got back to stnz and we went to see halen, he was the second in the line and they just opened the ticket selling office. Over 30 minutes earlier than the cargo lady said it would.

We had a long wait at the terminal, and managed to get into the wrong queue after listening one of the terminal workers yelling loudly in Spanish to everyone without us understanding a word, even by asking.

The ferry trip was 1h long, and you couldn't go up on the deck, you had to stay inside the whole time.

When we got to Vieques, everything looked a bit chaotic. Not-so-official taxi drivers were blocking the street and the traffic, and the road was really narrow. I spotted a cabbie, and asked the guys to go to him and as him if he was free. He said that he was picking up his wife, but could take us at the same time with him. After getting lost a bit (in Puerto Rico and on this island, there really aren't street names to navigate with..) we found our place - and it was couple houses away from the taxi driver's and his wife place :D

Local teens move around with horses, you could tell by these two which was the mare and which was the steed.

Because we didn't know how bad the rental car situation was in the island, we were without a car. Our host was kind enough to drive us to a restaurant with her truck - halen sat in the front, and me and stnz sat outside, true banana island -style :D. She also gave us a ride to a local market where we could get some breakfast before getting us back to the apartment. Which doesn't have wifi, which makes it a lot harder to post anything online.

Waiting for our dinner

Day 3 in San Juan: taking it slow, then snorkeling :)

Date: 27. 2. 2014

Yesterday nothing happened for me, the guys went to the observatory and found my soulmate from the parking lot - the guard was very strict that everyone parked their cars by backing up in their places. My OCD-buddy <3

Self-made breakfast omelette: eggs, spinach, bell pepper, spring onions. NomNom.

Today I also felt a little feverish (and was according the thermometer) so I decided to stay inside for the afternoon. Guys went to pick up our clothes from the cleaners and went to the local flying school to make a check flight. Stnz is still waiting for his FAA-papers, so he couldn't fly the plane himself. Fortunately, the papers came on the next day, so he now needs to go to Puerto Rico's FAA office to get interviewed and then we can go flying \o/

When the guys came back at the evening, we headed to a local diving store (ScubaDogs) to get some gear - the people were nice and I got my open-heel fins from them, which seem to be working nicely.

After that we tried to locate a spot what the guys saw on flight, but managed to miss it. But we found an ok shore, where the visibility wasn't too awesome - but I got the chance to test drive my gear, including the Lumix (I bought it just for diving, so it was nice to finally have the chance to test it).

The guys got tired pretty quickly, so we headed out, went to an Applebee's to eat something and then back to the apartment to get some z:s

Oh, and bonus picture of local Mc Pampers:

There was like 10 of these around  us - one managed to kill his bike in the lights, how embarrassing :D

Day 1 in San Juan: El yunque

Date: 25.2.2014

On the first day in San Juan we went to El Yungue, a national forest in northeastern Puerto Rico.
Driving there without a breakfast was a little tense, last night we tried to find something to eat, but we only found a Burger King and a 24/7 gas station, with little to none real food. The gas station was cleaner and newer than any other we've visited during our trip, but the reminder where we were was obvious when we got to the cashier - they are behind a thick glass window, and scan the goods through it. You give the money with a slider, so there's no chance someone could grab the cashier and rob the place. Fun.

Well back to the park. You drive through it by car, and there are parking lots where you can leave your car - there can be a trail of some sort, or something to see near the road. First stop was a long waterfall right beside of the road after we got something to eat from the first place open inside the park. We also spotted one Geocache near it.

After the waterfall we skipped the tower next and went to a trail which leads to a waterfall where you can swim. The hike was only 1,4km long, but it had much descents and ascents. On the trail there were information boards about the nature in Puerto Rico, which told us that there aren't so many animal species around. We heard a lot of noise from different kind of birds, but didn't have the chance to see them. We only saw spiders and the guys saw a lizard I managed to miss.

The waterfall was very crowded and there was somewhere around 20 persons swimming in it for a time, but fortunately in a large area so the waterfall itself was pretty spacious place to go. The guys went there first, I just watched them from a more calmer pool and took photos of them and some random nice stuff I saw with my camera. Using fivefingers was a good idea, so I could really walk in the pool of water without falling and ruining my camera..

After that I also went try the waterfall, it was violent and cold, so I don't know if I won anything by trying it. The most gain I got by fotographing some of the people without them noticing, and getting some good shots of them (the internet in Vieques is bad, so sorry no DSLR-pictures this time :( ).

After that we hiked back, and went to eat some food which was made outside in the grill. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty cold, and using the thermometer back at our apartment told me that I had ~38C fever.

For that reason, the next day (26.2.) I staid inside, resting, while the guys were visiting Arecibo Observatory.

View from the balcony of our San Juan apartment, this came pretty familiar to me on Wednesday  while riding the mystery fever

Day 3: NOLA-MIA-SJU

Date: 24.2.2014

Before we left, we visited a local dive shop because stnz wanted to buy his own diving computer and missed  the store in NYC. The store didn't have the right computer so we left empty handed. We stopped in a nearby gas station (BTW, the gas is annoyingly cheap here). I managed to see the local newspaper and it had a suitable front page for me, on the day of my b-day; Banksy! I had to buy the paper, and I'll frame it at home :).

We got to the airport on time and returning the car was hilarious because we changed the car's units to real ones. The person checking our car asked us where did we drove with it? Then it came clear that she was overwhelmed of the mileage we got into the car in 2 days, she calculated them to be 15 000 :D. We realized that she didn't see that we had changed the car off from the miles and into kilometers so the conversion from the mileage when we got the car and the amount in kilometers afterwards didn't add up.

Time to head out of NOLA and change scenery somewhere even more warmer from the ~20C weather.
Yesterday it rained but today it was beautiful (of course).

The long ass Causeway

New Orleans from the sky

Miami

At San Juan, we waited for our rental car bus to pick us up for 45 minutes, and made 3 phone calls. It felt like the Hertz-people taunted us, because they passed by us 6 times. Stnz rented our car from some small place instead of the big ones we usually use, so this wasn't really a good start.

After a while, the guy picked us up, saying that they didn't know someone was coming. Funny, we called 40 minutes earlier and they said someone was "right there picking us up"..

While driving to the company, there were two big collisions on the highway, fortunately the cars were new, so it seemed that everyone escaped without major injuries.

The car was basic bulk, but it was cheap. Good enough for our purpose. Waiting for the car and problems with their printer I gave up on anything fun happening on my bday. Sucks ass. Well, the weather was nice.

Stnz at the rental car company

Our little four wheeler

Our aparment is really nice, and there are ACs in the bedrooms. I really love it - and it was our home for 4 days (one day more than we planned, because we don't have any flights reserved and paid).

Day 3 in NOLA: Saint Louis Cemetery #2

Date: 24.2.2014

Because of the slow start of the day, we had to skip coffee and Pirate Alley geocache in the French Quarter and head straight to the cemetery. These cemeteries in New Orleans are something really different, they are said to be the cities of the dead, because the bodies have been buried above ground in different types of structures and mausoleums.

The reason why the  bodies are buried above ground is due to old French and Spanish traditions, and in part because it's on old swamp land. What the reason is why this tradition started, it has given birth to beautiful, intriguing places around the city, where you can find interesting things to look at for hours and days.

This Cemetery was consecrated in 1823, as the St. Louis Cemetery #1 is from the year 1789, which is now the oldest and most famous cemeteries in New Orleans. Lots of the graves we saw was from the 1900s, and there was really a lot of signs that they were really old and starting to fall apart. There were also couple of graves where the coffin was visible.

Well yes, that's a coffin

Next to the cemetery was a huge demolition site with high fences - it was the former housing development with 75 buildings, which was being demolished so they can build different kinds of housing instead of a neighborhood full of public housing complexes. Earlier, the cemeteries weren't safe because of the Iberville neighborhood which they were surrounding. Now because Iberville is empty and the "ghetto" is gone, the cemeteries are also safer. Still, driving a car around Iberville gives you a eerie feeling, the huge amount of similar buildings empty, the yard full of mud and some children's play spots still up. More eerie than walking in the cemetery alone.

Iberville