we went to Belize!<\/a>). It was a great trip and I’m glad we did it, but the whole Honduran election cycle last year wasn’t a great look.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs far as the language goes, there was a surprise in one big way. In the Bay Islands of Honduras, they spoke mostly English, because that’s their heritage, separate from that of Spanish-speaking mainland Honduras. But Puerto Rico is a bit of a reversal. The official languages of this U.S. Territory are English & Spanish, but government documents, announcements, and all official business is done in Spanish. Most locals in Vieques speak English also, but only about 20% of Puertorrique\u00f1os are fully fluent. School kids are taught in Spanish, with English as a second language. So there’s much more Spanish here in our daily lives, in this U.S. Territory. Can you get by here without Spanish? Yes of course, and many people do, but life is easier the more you know. Besides, we enjoy stumbling around in the Spanish language and trying our best; people seem to appreciate the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nCapital City of Vieques \/ Bus Schedule \/ Mayor’s House \/ School<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOnce we arrived in Vieques we had a fun time figuring out yet another new place. This island had been our target for over a year before we retired and the hurricane wasn’t going to kill our curiosity. We had expectations, which were really just guesses, and we feel we did pretty well with those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What did we expect? We expected beautiful beaches, and you know, we got them in spades! We spend so much time at the beach and in the water some days it seems we only come home to shower and grab food. Whether it’s paddleboarding, fishing, swimming, snorkeling, or just standing in the water chatting with friends, we really love the sand and the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We also expected\/wanted\/hoped for at least one idyllic little beachfront “on the sand” Tiki bar, complete with a roof made of palm fronds, but alas we didn’t find one here. The closest thing to it was a very rustic little waterfront bar, right on the sand in the bay. But it’s concrete floor was undercut by the hurricane’s crashing waves, making it unsafe and forcing the owners to close it indefinitely. I see a business opportunity for someone who wants to make money at the beach everyday but that’s not me mind you. I know all you kneedeepers want me to “get back to work” but I’m not ready yet, and may never be!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like silly old Norteamericanos, we expected the trash to be picked up on Tuesdays, because well, Tuesday is our trash day. Now hold that thought, because it will become important. Let’s talk about the rooster that tried to muscle his way in to the neighborhood. He was obnoxious as he tried to carve out territory from the friendly neighborhood roosters. Let’s call him Bugsy, OK? Now, Bugsy was loud. I mean he was “stop your conversation and wait till he’s done” loud. “Turn up the radio so you can actually hear it” loud. “Wait for the train to go by” loud. And he wanted everyone to know his greatness, so he went on and on all day long and half the night with the cock-a-doodle thing. The whole neighborhood knew about Bugsy. And Bugsy was making inroads, strutting around like the big bad cock he was, terrorizing us all with his vocal chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then one day, just like that, all was silent in the neighborhood. We came home to a dead rooster in the street in front of our house. It was Bugsy, and nobody was sad about it. Nobody wanted to talk about it either. It was the code of silence in the barrio. So we didn’t talk about it, but we had to do something about it, because the prevailing wind was taking that smell right across the street and through our house. The smell wasn’t bad right away, but this is the tropics after all. I knew how it was going to go, so I grabbed that carcass, double bagged it, and tossed it in the trash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The smell grew of course, and the double-bagging didn’t stop it. In fact, it really hardly slowed it down at all. Our trash is out front so that aroma kept wafting through the house, but it was Tuesday, so the problem would take care of itself, right? But Tuesday night came and went, and then it was Wednesday. The problem was growing dramatically and still there was no garbage truck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, on Thursday, we’d had enough, we were getting nauseous just sitting in our living room; forget about preparing food in the kitchen! So I went out with gloves, grabbed that bag, and held it out the car window while Deb drove me a mile down the road to a commercial property where we knew they were picking up trash. I’m sure we were a sight driving down the street with a mysterious black trash bag hanging out the car window, but I did NOT want that bag leaking in my car! That big bird was getting heavier as we went and worse with every bump, but we made it without dropping the damn thing, and the problem was finally solved. Bugsy got what he deserved, that’s just how trouble gets dealt with in the mean streets of Vieques. \ud83d\ude42 And the trash truck came Friday night at 8pm, just as you would expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were lots of things we found that we didn’t<\/em> expect. We didn’t expect the island to look as good as it did when we arrived just four months past that devastating storm. It was certainly down but not out. We’d heard of the wild horses but we didn’t expect to babble like fools every time we saw a baby horse! We didn’t expect two-lane roads that are really only one lane wide. We didn’t expect the friendly faces that greeted us when we walked into the local bar that first day, carrying our little white doggies. We didn’t expect the absolute dearth of draft beer on this island. I should say I’ve recently found a couple of places with draft beer, so things are looking up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nBaby horse out our front door – time to babble like idiots!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We didn’t expect to find and join a disc golf club and meet a bunch of cool people there. We didn’t expect so many friendly Statesiders, as we’re called here, to help us join the community. We knew coming in that this is a small island with less than 9000 people. From that, we should have expected, but didn’t, to see people we know almost everywhere we go. But that’s Vieques. One guy, Bill, told me “you don’t choose the island, the island chooses you”. He’s right, but we didn’t expect that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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We did expect to do some volunteering and we’ve been able to do a bit of that. We’ve helped out on a couple of beach cleanups with a local group named Ticatove (tee-cah-toh-vay), a sea turtle conservation group. Ticatove is named for the Spanish names of turtles – TInglar (Leatherback), CArey (Hawksbill), TOrtuga (Turtle), VErde (Green). There are great people there, as are the folks at the Vieques Humane Society where Deb is currently volunteering, helping with scared puppies found on the street. There is another group called Our Big Fat Caribbean Rescue who gets strays shipped to forever homes in the States. These two groups were a motivating factor for us to come here, knowing there are real efforts to keep the stray pet population in check. We expect to do more volunteer work over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nTICATOVE – Grupo de Conservaci\u00f3n de Vieques<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could imagine that moving to a place without having been there, well, that might result in at least some of it not turning out as planned. And you would be right, but after all what did we expect? So far it’s turned out very well thank you, knock on driftwood. Sometimes it’s planning, sometimes it’s luck, but we’ve found the better we plan, the luckier we get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TODAY’S SPECIAL: “Calma<\/a>“, by Pedro Cap\u00f3 – Vamos pa’ la playa, Pa’ curarte el alma, Cierra la pantalla, Abre la medalla, Todo el mar caribe<\/em> – “Let’s go to the beach, to cure your soul. Close the device, open a Medalla, the whole Caribbean Sea<\/strong>“. This is pretty hard to argue with, wouldn’t you say?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taking a look at all those expectations we had before moving to Vieques, Puerto Rico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67,73,68],"yoast_head":"\n
What Did We Expect? – Knee Deep In It<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n