Today was our last day in Vieques! We woke up early, but still had time to sip coffee on the back patio. The roosters did keep us up overnight yet again, but I was able to roll over and go back to sleep. It’s amazing how their cock-a-doodle-doo makes its way past the noisemaker and earplugs! We had to check out of our Airbnb today, so everything had to go into the back of the Jeep before we locked up and headed off for the day.
Today was an exciting day though because we were going to make our way to Green Beach, which is known for the best snorkeling on the island! And this adventure was the reason why we rented the Jeep because you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get there. The road was long and incredibly bumpy with lots of potholes, but there were also lots of beautiful horses along the way. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how amazing it is to see wild horses on every single drive! And for some reason, there were a lot of babies this time so we got to see so many sweet little families.
When we first got to Green Beach, we went the wrong way and parked at the end of the road. We hopped out onto the beach and could generally tell that it wasn’t the right spot. However, the area was stunning! The water was crystal blue and the palm trees lined the sandy beach. We eventually went back to the jeep and drove to the other side and parked. We carried our stuff out to some rocks along the edge of the beach and immediately jumped in into the water to do some snorkeling. There was a dive boat anchored offshore and a snorkeling group getting ready to go into the water, almost the same time as us, so we knew that we were in the right spot.
The snorkeling was definitely different than any of the other places we had been! At first, I was a little disappointed because the water was sort of deep, but it ended up being perfect because we got to see so many different things. The reef was really rocky, but there were lots of fans and a lot of different wildlife. We saw a really huge puffer fish, three different sea turtles, a huge stingray, and a spotted eagle ray!
It’s so amazing to swim with the sea turtles and watch them take a breath above the water. Several times we were able to just swim right along with them and watch their heads pop out above the waves. Another time we had what look like a mom and a baby just munching on seagrass beneath us. Kaia was determined to see an eagle right and she sort of swam away from us for a little bit and all of a sudden she yelled “eagle ray!” We all swam over and got to spend at least 15 minutes swimming and watching this eagle ray just swirl around. He was also eating the seagrass from the bottom of the ocean floor. He was so beautiful and majestic swimming through the water. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen an eagle right before, so this was really exciting!
Just as we were getting out of the water, we heard one of the dive guides say that he saw an octopus. We immediately put our masks back on and jumped back in and spent a few minutes searching where he told us to look, but the octopus had already hidden too far away. We’ll have to save our octopus sighting for another day!
We took turns putting our dry clothes on in the parking lot at the Jeep and then hopped in just as it started sprinkling. It was now time to head away from Green Beach and over to Black Sand Beach. Here we had to walk about a half a mile to get to the shoreline, but it was a pretty easy and relatively flat trail. When we got there, the sand wasn’t really that black. Instead, it sort of had black-ish patches speckling the shoreline. It was neat to see, but nothing like the black sand beach that Owen and I had recently seen in Hawaii! What was amazing, however, were the cliffs along the shoreline. This was the first beach that we had seen that had this type of structure and it was really gorgeous!
We stayed for a little while, but it was getting time to get back to town and have Mark take the Jeep back. We wound our way through the streets all the way to the center of town and we unloaded everything by this bench. We took turns sitting with our stuff and shopping before heading down to a little dive bar right by the ferry landing where we got some frozen daiquiris and an early dinner. I got mahi over salad, Kaia and Owen both got smash-burgers and Mark got a nacho plate. It was very yummy, but mostly because we were starving!
We waited for a while for the ferry and the ride back to the mainland was a little bit rocky, but not too bad. We hopped in the car, did another quick stop at Walmart to pick supplies and headed back to the condo. After a late dinner and a couple loads of laundry, we were ready to crash in our comfy beds with no roosters outside!
Vieques was really beautiful and I’m so glad that we chose to spend a couple nights out there so that we could really explore the island! It’s a totally different landscape and living situation than what we’ve seen on the mainland. Having those beached mostly to ourselves, the wild horses around every turn, and the laid-back lifestyle of the residents really made our stay magical.