Bio Bay Essay Part I (June 10th, 2007): Bright Ideas

Don’t want you to think that I am constantly abandoning my family to ramble about the globe…only including the more exotic adventures to reinforce that the world is wide open with or without diabetes.  My wife and I share a love of travel that we desire to pass on to our daughter, which led to the three of us venturing to Puerto Rico in the summer of 2007 to check out the bioluminescent bays of Vieques.

I think most folks who have been out on a boat at night have witnessed a fascinating phosphorescent glow in the water.  This strange light is emitted by dinoflagellates, half-plant, half-animal creatures who have evolved the ability to beam light as a defense mechanism (the flashes are a response to water movement and chases off predators). The phenomenon occurs world-wide, but many believe the most spectacular light shows occur at Vieques, where two inland bays receive the creatures from tidal activity and permit them to thrive due to the shelter they provide.

Once again new travels taught me how much I didn’t know.  Fortunate enough to have visited the Caribbean several times, I can boast familiarity with the British and US Virgin Islands, but was astonished to learn that along with its sister island, Vieques and Culebra make up the Spanish Virgin Islands.  Who knew?

Both islands are part of Puerto Rico and we took a quick propeller plane flight from San Juan to reach Vieques.   We sketched the north-eastern coast of Puerto Rico from a low elevation that afforded great views of the beautiful beaches and only 25 minutes later we touched down on Vieques.  A new adventure was on!

We had booked Martineau Bay for our time on Vieques, the only “resort” lodging there (I think the property has been leveled and completely re-constructed as a W Hotel since our stay).  The rates were reasonable because we were visiting Puerto Rico off-season, as in hurricane season.  We had experience with this weather from our time in Corpus Christi – we had to evacuate when Rita hit – and felt June was early enough in the nasty times to take advantage of lower rates without exposing ourselves to serious jeopardy.

So let me share a brief history of Vieques.  This small island about seven miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico has remained unheralded because of circumstance.  Virtually uninhabited for most of its existence, it is a petite destination, quite dry as it lacks the high peaks necessary to grab clouds and rainfall.  However, it drew US attention during WWII because of its similarity to Japanese targets in the Pacific Theater.  The US military would occupy two-thirds of the island and use the site to train pilots for bombing missions long after WWII had been concluded.  That run would end when a stray missile was discharged in 1998 and killed a local inhabitant.  This led to an outcry for ousting the troops and the push was successful, resulting in the US abandoning operations here in 2003.

Today the island is slowly being resuscitated into a tourist attraction from the twin attributes of natural beauty and the natural wonder of its bio bays.  Progress has been slowed because there remains quite a lot of ordinance scattered about.  Poverty was evident during our visit and I hope the situation has improved since we dropped in.  As much as I enjoy roughing it to get closer with local cultures, this trip was a simple family vacation and beyond experiencing the bio-bay our scope was limited to idling on the gorgeous private beaches of the resort.

May appear relaxing, but I had to abandon that lounge chair to snap this picture of Kim & Spencer!

Martineau Bay offered two separate beaches, both exquisite, and we trekked to the one a little farther away that would serve as our private beach for our days here in paradise.  It was gorgeous beyond words, offering expansive water views and tantalizing visions of the Puerto Rican mainland. 

Another glimpse of our ‘private beach’…with Puerto Rico rising in the distance