{"id":2901,"date":"2018-06-18T10:06:58","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T14:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kneedeepinit.com\/?p=2901"},"modified":"2019-09-01T09:52:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T13:52:15","slug":"new-world-explorers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kneedeepinit.com\/new-world-explorers\/","title":{"rendered":"New World Explorers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Five centuries ago (that’s before I was born!), Christopher Columbus was exploring the islands of the Caribbean, thinking all along that he was in Asia. Looking for a sea route to China and Japan, and enormous riches from trade, he mapped and named every place he found. Of course he was off by about 10,000 miles, so obviously his knowledge of this sphere was pretty limited. Within 10 years or so, Amerigo Vespucci was already calling it the “New World” in his writings, knowing Columbus was way off and probably embarrassing him in the process. But you can’t argue with Columbus’ bravery and sense of adventure, he was a real pioneer.<\/p>\n
During all this exploring, he came across a place he named “San Juan Bautista” in honor of Saint John the Baptist. The area was inhabited by tens of thousands of Ta\u00edno people who beat him to the place by a few hundred years, having migrated northward up the island chain from South America. Still, a Spanish settlement was started there, as Columbus continued naming and claiming these lands for Spain, so San Juan Bautista it was. One theory had him landing on Vieques but even if not, records show he certainly sailed by on his second journey. Almost all of the islands around here are close enough to easily see from the water. Later, during the voyages of Juan Ponce de Leon, the original Spanish settlement was abandoned for a better one, and the island was renamed “Puerto Rico”, the Rich Port. That new harbor is now known as San Juan, Puerto Rico, the most popular sea and air hub in all of the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\tColumbus’ Second Voyage (Credit: Wikipedia.org)\n\t
And now, all these centuries later, a pair of brave and intrepid adventurers are exploring anew, sure to reveal new discoveries and new riches. Haha, just kidding, it’s just Deb and I hiking, biking, and driving around another island! But we have been discovering lots of things for ourselves on this little rock called Vieques!<\/p>\n
As we’ve mentioned, one of our favorite beaches is Playa Caracas – it’s just a gorgeous place to spend a few hours swimming or snorkeling in the cyan colored water and chilling on the white sand. But on the road to Caracas, if you turn early and are willing to hike a half mile or so, there is a beach called Playuela that is in a much more natural state. Less popular because it’s location and shape causes it to catch a lot more of the Sargassum seaweed (lots and lots of it this year!) from the trade currents, it is an adventure and beautiful in its own right. We took the dogs that day and they had a ball. There was one woman on the whole beach and since she was at one end, we went to the other. That’s the kind of busyness we’ve come to expect on Vieques anywhere away from the biggest, most popular beaches.<\/p>\n\t
Another day we took the dogs to the Puerto Ferro Lighthouse. It’s an easy drive down a gravel road in the wildlife preserve and an easy walk after the gate. A stone building on the south shore of Vieques, it was built by the Spanish government to aid navigation from St. Thomas to Cuba. It was almost a carbon copy of the Punta Mulas Light on the opposite side of the island in the town of Isabel Segunda (we’ll explore it another time), and was first lit in 1899 after being delayed a bit by the Spanish American War. Situated on sea cliffs without any need for greater elevation, these minor lighthouses are built more like a dwelling with a turret in the middle, than the classic tall tower lighthouses. Because of ground stability issues caused by earthquakes in the 1920s, the Puerto Ferro light only stayed in service for 27 years and was decommissioned in 1926.<\/p>\n
The structure today looks like this 2009 image, but now it is crumbling even more so the feds have surrounded it with a chain link fence due to safety concerns. I didn’t bother photographing it in this decrepit state. Still, the views across the water from there are spectacular and worth the short drive and easy walk.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\tPuerto Ferro Light, 1905 (photo courtesy of the U.S.C.G.)\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\tPuerto Ferro Light, 2009 (photo courtesy of lighthousefriends.com)\n\t