Erich Allen Peterson

Siqing (my fiance) and I just returned from another trip to the Puerto Rician islands. We were there for 5 days–one night on the big island and four on the island of Vieques. While on the big island we just walked a lot around Old San Juan (pic 1, pic 2, pic 3) and around Fort San Felipe del Morro (pic), and toured another fort we didn’t see the last time we were there–Fort San Crist√ɬ≥bal.

To get to the island of Vieques we chartered a small propeller plane from Vieques Air Link. Once there we stayed at the Casa de Amistad hotel in the town of Isabel Segunda, which is one or only two “major” towns in Vieques (located on the Northern shore). Almost eveyday we went snorkeling at one of the many secluded beaches (at least when we were there). Several of the beaches are named after colors (i.e. Green Beach, Blue Beach, etc…). To get to the beaches and around the island, we rented a scooter from Extreme Scooters. The highlight of our trip was at Green Beach while snorkeling, we saw a ray of some sort (I like to think it was a Manta Ray), which scared the bejesus out of me since it was so big and came from behind us, a huge puffer fish, and beautiful huge gardens of sea fans that swayed in the current.

Another note worthy thing we did on Vieques, would include the attending the opening of an art exhibit at El Fortin Conde de Mirasol (pic) (one of the last Spanish forts built in the New World), of works done by the two Puerto Rician political prisoners: Oscar Lopez Rivera & Carlos Alberto Torres. In attendance was the governor of Vieques (pic), what appeared to be wives and/or relatives of Oscar and Carlos, and ex-political prisoners.

For all the pics click here!