puerto rico - day 6 - rincon to vieques

we wake early. barry adamson again. coffee and granola, furious packing. we need to make our way to the other side of the island to catch the 1pm ferry from fajardo to vieques. we pull out of villa orleans at 9 am  vowing to one day return. au revoir rincon.

it is a long day of driving. many legs. we choose to take the southern route versus northern since the latter we just took up to arecibo and it is putrid. plus the northern takes us straight into san juan and all attendant chaos/squalor. southern route has lots of legs, lots of uncertainty. we can't bear to listen to hall & oates again so we put in the other cd we bought at wal-mart, a collection of early hip-hop songs, or else we drive in silence. time tick-tocks. at one point it looks like we won't make the 1pm and will have to take the next ferry, the 4pm, but things break our way and we make it to fajardo w/ about 10 minutes to spare. we park the car in a shady-looking lot. we buy tickets. we're on the ocean, en route.

an hour later, we're stepping off the boat. we take a publico to the other side of the island, to the town of esperanza. publico drops us at acacia guest house. douglas, the co-owner, shows us our room, gives us a quick run-down of all the available amenities on the island. we are bone-tired but humming w/ excitement to be here. it is quite beautiful. we walk into town, check out the main drag, head toward sun bay, walk around the bay to the far side, lay in the sun, swim in the ocean.

we head back to the room. decide to splurge on restaurant douglas mentions. pricey but "you portland foodies will love it". we dress up and head down and i have the distinct sensation that we're about to run into michael & jen - the town is so small. few dining opportunities. and there, sitting in the window as we enter are michael and jen. m is adamant that we don't say anything to them since they're honeymooning and all, so we cross to a table at the back. later jen stops by our table en route to the washroom and says 'we saw you guys come in'. we make plans to have a drink the next night. later we see douglas eating at a table near michael and jen.

we sleep. or try to. there are dogs having barking wars and roosters crowing. all night. but it doesn't matter. b/c we're in vieques and it is like nowhere we've been.