MORE Iguana Action Today - Iggy Iguana VS Chihuahua Brothers!: Friday, 12/30/11

Do we know how to close out a year?!  Toro was resting on the porch when all of a sudden he's barking at the agave plant.  But wait a minute, there's a big iguana on the grass!  Watch the dog on iguana action!

Merry Christmas TWO: Sunday 12/25

We are caring for Toro & Nemo and they wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas too!

Merry Christmas: Sunday 12/25

MERRY CHRISTMAS & FELIZ NAVIDAD everyone!  Today we celebrate by going to the beach and maybe some snorkeling.  It's our first Christmas where it doesn't feel like it's Christmas.  But that's not to say Puerto Ricans are not into Christmas.  Here are some of the decorations around town.

This is the town square in Isabel Segunda where they have concerts and festivals.

This is the other side of the town square.

Gotta love Vieques, where people can ride their horse in the middle of town!

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Continued #3: Past Week of Sat. 12/3 to Fri. 12/9

It's Tuesday, Dec. 6th, and we head out to Navio beach.  It's one of the beaches on the southern side of the island where the Marines base was located.  It was quite the road trip to get there...but oh so worth it!  Here's a pic of the island and Navio beach is south (bottom of map) just left of the bioluminescent bays.

Here is my inaugural video using Tom's nifty waterproof camer/video recorder...is this thing on?  Check it out at YouTube: http://youtu.be/X0EvA9w-og4

We finally arrive at Navio beach...sooooo worth the whiplash!

So Tom & Chris are snorkling, but only find some interesting shells to take home to the family aquarium.

And what else can you do on a Carribean island?  You reprise the famous beach scene in the movie From Here to Eternity!  But don't try this at home kids!  I had about 4 cups of sand in my bathing suit after this episode...yuk.  From Vieques to Sand in your Pants.  Here is the remake:

Watch the original clip at this link:  http://youtu.be/1W6AGM-LxGY







And here is our version:  From Waukesha to Vieques with Tom as Burt Lancaster and Al as a brunette Deborah Kerr.

After all that excitement, we headed back to Isabel Segunda for dinner at Mar Azul which is just a block away from the ferry.  They have a wonderful small patio in back that overlooks the ocean and offers some of the best views of wonderful sunsets.  Oh and some of the best "carnitas".

Wednesday was the day Chris & Christine return home.  We go back to Cafe Mamasonga for breakfast.  It' right across the street from Mar Azul.  No view, but great food!

One last site to tour before we take our visitors to the ferry.  We stop in at the Fort Conde de Mirasol located in Isabel Segunda on a hill.  The views are breathtaking from the top of the fort.  They have a great display of local artisan items (ceramics and mosaics pictures are below), and historical pieces.  Check out their site at: http://www.enchanted-isle.com/elfortin/.

View from the Fort.  Big island of Puerto Rico in background and
if you look closely, the ferry is coming into port (on the right side of pic).

From the fort we see the ferry pulling into port, so we head out to drop off Chris & Christine.  We say our good byes and send them back to chilly Wisconsin.  They got a rude re-entry into the US though...they got stuck overnight in the layover city due to the snow storm that hit the eastern US coast.  Bummer.

NEXT POST: Hopefully we can post some of our latest out & about pictures and of course our stellar professional quality videos!

BIG Iguana Action Today!: Wednesday, 12/14/11

So we hear the dogs barking, and Tom goes to check out the ruckus.  WOW, they have a HUGE iguana cornered up one of the fence pillars.  Here's Tom's discovery.

We had problems getting the video loaded so we have it posted on youtube.  Just click on the following link to watch all the action!

http://youtu.be/gPGifBhNfug

                

So we called in the "world famous" Tom's Iguana Removal Service.

Mission accomplished!

Continued #2: Past Week of Sat. 12/3 to Fri. 12/9

This is a continuation of our Vieques island tour with Chris & Christine.  After our quick visit to the W Resort we headed south to Esperanza to catch the sunset and a late dinner.  Chris thought he'd catch a ride on one of the local roaming horses, but decided the horse looked a little tired and would take the car instead.  We did make it to Esperanza in time for sunset.

"I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."  Hmm, we
never saw this horse again!

Here's Christine trying to capture yet 

another magnificent sunset on the island.

We stopped at Mucho Gusto for some delicious local cuisine.  But sitting outdoors proved to be more of an adventure than anticipated...see the pic on the right of storm clouds rolling in?

We got a bit wet, but it was fun nonetheless.

We plan to go to Navio beach tomorrow.  It's one of the beaches on the southern side of the island where the Marines base was located.  It was quite the road trip to get there...but oh so worth it!  We'll post it in the next couple of days.

This Past Week of Sat. 12/3 to Fri. 12/9

Our good friends, Chris & Christine Capstran, joined us in Vieques on Sat. 12/3.  We scheduled a tour of the biobay in the southern part of the island.  The ability to see how luminescent the dinoflagelates are depends on how dark it is.  Unfortunately for us, the moon was kind of bright and so the critters were glowing, but not amazingly so.  But "fortunately" for you, our viewers, you can still experience the ride with us via video!

Ok, Youtube has a video that has captured how the water glows when agitated.  See: http://youtu.be/foWeRavzuEs  And for those of you interested in knowing more about the biobay, check out this link: http://gopuertorico.about.com/od/vieques/p/Biobay.htm

The next day we took Chris and Christine to Blue (La Chiva) beach.  It was a wonderful long beach with warm, tranquil waters.  I just floated in the water and tested out my new water camera.  See how tan my toes are?  A LOT darker than Tom's toes haha!

  

Our adventure for the day was a ray sighting!!  Check out Tom's underwater video.  It starts out kinda slow (Tom was trying his hand at underwater video), but midway you see the two sting rays.

And here was the wonderful sunset that God blessed us with!

On Tuesday, we took a break from the beaches and went island touring.  First, we stopped at the cemetery.  I know weird place to visit, but it was located on a hill overlooking the Caribbean sea.





















We found many who had served in the military, such as Mr. Bermudez.

Our next stop was to the island's oldest tree...at least 347 years old - a ceiba tree.  You can get a good perspective with Tom & Chris standing next to the tree and it's roots.

You don't get to be this old without some protection like these massive thorns!



















We head southwest past the old Navy bunkers to the old Sugar Plantation ruins.  Check out this link to get an overview of Vieques Island.

http://www.resortmaps.com/uploads/printable_version/printable_map/449/Viegues_Overview_printable.pdf





















We head back to the north side of the island to check out the W Resort, a very high end, luxury resort.

Here's Tom, Chris & Christine at the fire pit overlooking the sea.

Of course every luxury resort needs a cat!  See him to the right of Tom above?

Chris & Christine checking out the luxury fire pit seating!

The W Resort beach.

The W resort pool & luxury rooms.

Awww, how romantic

So that's it for today.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's post continuing our beach time at Navio beach including a masterful re-creation of South Pacific, and more sights in Vieques!