Steve and Jackie's Travel Albums: Puerto Rico Vieques 2006

These photos were taken during 2006 winter vacation to Vieques and Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, we visited the Old San Juan and the El Yunque tropical rain forest. But the highlight of the trip is Vieques, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico.

Vieques was so beautiful that my heart skipped a beat when I first laid eyes on the beach in front of the town of Espranza. Compared to some other Caribbean islands, Vieques is a gem devoid of any mass tourism. This is an island where the beaches rival the best in the world, yet there's hardly anybody on the beaches even during the peak travel season. The virgin beaches are full of the bounties from the sea. I found fish fossils and bird bones right near the shore and caught a large conch while snorkling. The island has no traffic light. There's no chain store or chain restaurant on the island. No casinos either. Wild horses roam the streets. Every morning, we were awaken by the vicious chorus of roosters crowing -- boy, did the kids hate the roosters :)

We stayed in a house in Bravos de Boston, a town where the houses have names, but the streets do not. We rented the house from the owner of Casa Amistad, a B&B in the nearby town of Isabel Segunda.