Why unspoilt, laidback Vieques should be the island for your next Caribbean holiday

By Deborah Arthurs From Metro.co.uk

It’s not the best known of the Caribbean islands, nor is it the most luxe. But that is exactly what gives Vieques its seductive charm.

Nowhere else in the Caribbean can you find an island so unspoilt and uncrowded.

If you want to sail on a turquoise ocean on a vintage boat with your own captain, fresh, homecooked food and rum cocktails on board, you have it, two minutes walk along a white sandy beach to a small pier.

You will find beaches with no one else on them, reached by bike along sandy roads, the only other traffic wild ponies and itinerant hermit crabs.

A bioluminescent bay, the brightest in the world, explored by kayak at night, the glittering water set alight by your oar.

Horses that roam free, grazing by the beach and running in groups between grasslands.
Vieques feels like your own personal paradise.

Paradise is found at Navio beach, a place the locals call ‘church’; at the Beach With No Name, a bay so remote that it is scattered with bleached sea urchin skeletons, vast fans of purple coral and conch shells; or Playa Negra, a volcanic beach with glittering black sand that creates photogenic perfection as the waves break white on the shore.

There are countless reasons why Vieques should be the island for your next Caribbean holiday – here are just a handful.

It is the least busy of all the Caribbean islands
Vieques is 21 miles long by 4 miles wide, 69 sq mi, has 9,300 permanent residents and just 70,000 tourists per year, yet it is the same size as nearby Saint Martin, which at 34 sq mi has 77,000 permanent residents and 1 million tourists annually.

In contrast, the (admittedly much larger) Dominican Republic has 4 million tourists per year, Jamaica has 2 million.

What does that mean? Deserted beaches, quiet roads shared with more horses than cars, zero high rise buildings, no seething metropolis and not a single traffic jam – or even a traffic light.

Just a peaceful, green, laidback, palm-fringed, rum-tinged way of life.

This is pretty much a guarantee. It is not difficult to find yourself on white sandy beach with only yourself for company. There are 40 beaches on the island, each with its own charm and allure. La Chiva is a broad bay with islands dotted off the coast that makes it perfect for paddle boarding, snorkelling or swimming.

Welcome to your own personal Caribbean beach
Navio is a small bay with rocks for snorkelling, white sand and some of the bigger waves on the island.

Playa Prieta, in the Nature Reserve on the east of the island, is a turquoise, sheltered bay with sand even whiter than Navio (it is possible) and plenty of natural shade from forest and conveniently placed palm trees.

The diversity of each bay makes Vieques even harder to leave – and infinitely easier to return to.

It’s chic
Vieques may have strict building regulations in place protect the beaches and the environment, but it does not adhere to the usual architectural norms of the Caribbean.

We stayed at El Blok, a stylish, laidback, boutique hotel designed to draw in the golden Caribbean light through amorphous holes in the walls that cast mirror-ball-style pools of sunlight across floors and walls.

Designed by fuster + architects, the undulating concrete structure has three floors set in a circular design with a sunset bar on the terrace complete with plunge pool (with now-famous flamingos).

A restaurant run by Puerto Rican wunderkind chef Carlos Perez is fast becoming a must-visit on the island.

Perez, who has a successful restaurant on mainland Puerto Rico in addition to the hotel restaurant, sources everything as locally as possible – and serves many of his dishes with beautifully flavoursome local greens, grown on the island.

He welcomed us on night one with delicate, homemade pumpkin soup and a local leaf salad simply dressed with citrus, which wowed every bit as much as the 5-course tasting menu the following night.

There’s a beach in Thailand filled with friendly monkeys
Breakfast is served buffet style, with fresh watermelon and hot homemade pastelillos or tortilla with coffee in the sunny restaurant area open along its length to the blue skies beyond.

You may have to drag yourself away with a reminder that the beach beckons.

Sailing with a difference
If you’ve had boat trips on holiday and been left feeling a little machine-farmed, this is the antidote. Charter a sailboat and head out with your own charismatic captain, Sebastian Watt, and first mate, Paul, for an unforgettable day sailing in his vintage yawl vessel on the Caribbean ocean.

The beautiful 47ft yacht offers a unique sailing experience

Sebastian’s boat is the beautiful wooden 47ft yacht Shalamar, designed by Philip Rhodes and built in 1941 in Massachusetts before being commandeered by the US Navy to look for magnetic mines placed by German U-boats in US harbours.

Any non-steel-hulled boats were put to use in those years of battle – and Shalamar spent years clearing the waters, potentially saving thousands of lives, before being brought back home.

Captain Sebastian Watt at the helm of beautiful 1941 sailing boat Shalamar on a trip to Sun Bay where we moored to swim, each freshly made lunch and drink rum cocktails (Picture: Farah Yaqub)
Captain Sebastian Watt at the helm of beautiful 1941 sailing boat Shalamar on a trip to Sun Bay where we moored to swim, each freshly made lunch and drink rum cocktails (Picture: Farah Yaqub)

Sebastian bought Shalamar in 2006, restored her to authentic perfection and sailed her down to Vieques. You can take the wheel, get drenched by 6ft waves while riding the prow or just relax on the uncluttered decks with a rum punch while Sebastian shares his impressive knowledge of the waves and the world. Find him (and Shalamar) at Vieques Classic Charters.

Wild Caribbean ponies

Casually just grazing by the beach. Most are actually not wild – they have a marking on their hindquarters that says who their owner is – but to the untrained eye, they seem that way.

And, according to island talk, some of the horses – descended from ponies introduced by the Spanish in colonial times – are not claimed and it’s a coming-of-age ritual for young Viequenses to tame a feral pony.

I was told by a local that you will occasionally see children chasing them, trying to leap on their backs and ride them, barefoot and bareback. If they succeed, they (it is said) lasso the horse and take it home. Mostly though, you’ll see the peaceful horse grazing peacefully by the roadside or trotting between grasslands without a lasso in sight.

The horse festival
On one Saturday every month, everyone in Vieques with a horse gathers on the Malecon, the southern strip of the island where 2 of the main hotels – the striking El Blok and Malecon House – book-end a strip of bars and restaurants.

Then, amid shouts and ululations, hundreds of beautiful Viequense men, women and children gallop the length of the strip on horseback, lassos twirling above their heads.

Horse riding at sunset

On an island known for its equine residents it wouldn’t be right to return home without experiencing the view from the saddle.

Elizabeth Buyrn, a cowgirl from Virginia who has made her home on a beautiful ranch on the south side of Vieques, will take you on a 2-hour trek through rolling hills, dried river beds and black sandy beaches before a perfectly timed ascent to watch the setting sun disappear into the ocean.

You might think once you’ve seen a week’s worth of Caribbean sunsets you needn’t make a special trip to see another – you’d be wrong.

Elizabeth is at Esperanzaridingcompany.org.

Island time
Everything slows down. And that’s fine. Expect to slow down with it. Particularly hard for Londoners to grasp is the fact that mini-cabs seem to observe island time too. You’ll get used to it. And if you don’t, a local will probably give you a ride.

Pastelillos
These crispy, layered filled pastries are traditional and available all over the island, along with arepas (filled meat pies) and tacos. They look like pasties but they are a whole lot lighter than their appearance suggests.

El Blok serves them hot with home made chilli sauce for breakfast (phone to check they’re on the changing menu that day).

Two is never enough.

Rum punch
Everywhere you go you’ll be welcomed with one of these, and everyone’s recipe is slightly different. Captain Sebastian Watt serves lime-heavy rum cocktails with a wedge of fresh lime on his boat. El Blok hotel have their own version, which uses spiced rum and fresh fruit.

You know what we said about the pastelillos? Same applies.

Nature at every turn
Iguanas, baby lizards, hermit crabs – during colonial times the British called it Crab Island – feral ponies, parrot fish, manatee.

With next to no one on the beaches to disturb the fauna and barely any traffic close to the shoreline, it’s a nature-lover’s paradise.

One of many hermit crabs we saw roaming the quiet beach roads (Picture: Eternal Adventurers/Instagram)

The world’s brightest bio luminescent bay
Bio Bay is in the south-west of the island, tucked in behind Navio beach, Media Luna and Sun Bay. It has the largest concentration of bioluminescence per gallon in the world. Levels fluctuate between around 500,000 and 1million bioluminescent organisms (dinoflagellates) per gallon, and have even been recorded higher.

WHAT IS A BIO BAY?
To be considered a permanent bioluminescent bay, water has to have been recorded at over 40,000 dinoflagellates per gallon every day for 365 days. This bay has way over that – it was measured at its highest at over 1m.

Widely known as Bio Bay, to locals it is Mosquito Bay, not because there are mosquitos – we did not see even one on our trip there – but because of a ship named Mosquito that landed there during a storm, thanks to the fact that the sheltered offers protection from the sea – and from marauding pirates.

Tour groups are not allowed to use motor boats and only the occasional sailor brings one in to look for bait (there are small sardines and needlefish among the mangrove roots), so the lines of glass-bottomed kayaks gliding silently through the glittering black water, leaving sparkling silvery streams in their wake, makes for a serene and magical experience.

We went with Taino Aqua Adventures, who meet on the Malecon after dark to drive to the bay.

The weather
What can we say? January in Vieques is sunnier and hotter than most of our hottest summer days. And it’s like this 365 days of the year.

As a Brit I felt compelled to say ‘nice day today!’ to Viequenses as a greeting. ‘It’s always a nice day’, is their reply. It gets more humid during the summer months of July and September.

It’s affordable
Seriously. If you thought you needed thousands of pounds saved up to come to the Caribbean, you are in for a pleasant surprise. Norwegian Airlines flies to the Caribbean for £139 one way and you’ll fly on one of the quite fancy Dreamliner planes, with the fancy big windows that you can tint yourself to mimic different times of day – instead of blocking out the sunlight entirely.

The theory is that, plus the added oxygen in the planes, reduces jetlag.

GETTING THERE
To book visit www.norwegian.com/uk or call 0330 828 0854. Fares start from £139 one-way in economy and £499 one-way in Premium including all taxes and charges.

Norwegian operates a twice-weekly seasonal flight (until end of March) direct from Gatwick to Puerto Rico
Norwegian is the only airline in the UK to offer a direct service between London Gatwick and Puerto Rico
Alternatively, indirect flights are available via NYC or Fort Lauderdale
Whether that’s true for everyone, we certainly did not suffer from jetlag in either direction – and as a bonus, the larger windows make for a very picturesque descent into Puerto Rico’s San Juan, where the airline flies into. A 20-minute flight with the tiny 6-seater Cape Air plane took us the rest of the way.

El Blok hotel – – starts at $100 (£81) a night, and the hotel offers special late summer rates.

There are countless incredible food options and, with no shops on the beaches at all, you won’t burn through the cash you would elsewhere in the Caribbean, or even in Europe. Plus if a 4×4 is not your thing, you can explore the island by bike, which you’ll find at Vieques Adventure Company.

Be prepared to bring your own towels and mats, if you want them, unless you hire from Made In The Shade, who will take a mini-gazebo, full-size sun beds and cooler full of ice and water to your chosen beach – or a secret spot they will find for you that is guaranteed people-free. You just turn up and supply the beer.

Outdoor living
With few chi-chi restaurants and nothing open beyond midnight, life is lived very much by day. The nature of the island lends itself to being outdoors – and that means snorkelling, paddle boarding, cycling and kayaks.

Vieques Adventure Company will deliver paddle boards to your chosen bay and pick them up at the end – so you can just cycle there and hit the waves, or you can join them on a historical tour of the island – which may sound superfluous when you have a white sandy beach calling your name – but trust us, on the tour you’ll get to discover the side of Vieques you need to see.

VAC’s Rick’s extensive knowledge of the island and its history and politics (picked up playing dominoes with the locals, he tells us) means there’s not a question you can ask him he won’t know the answer to.

Rick met us at El Blok hotel armed with water and towels, and gave us hidden beaches, Indiana Jones-style sugar plant ruins in the jungle, a tarantula hunt at Playa Negra, a beach covered in colourful, water-softened sea glass and snorkelling at the old pier, where a giant leatherback turtle joined us for a swim. A must-do – and if you do it upfront, you can revisit the places you loved.

The ease
This is a tiny island and everyone here knows everyone. If you want anything, the person you are with will know someone who can help you out. No taxis? The Maitre d’s brother will pick you up. You want bikes? Paddleboards? Scooter? Kayaks? A quick call and they’re here. Viequenses are family and they will welcome you like one too.

It’s unspoilt
Vieques was a military base for 40 years, meaning that it has been kept relatively undeveloped for decades. A military test area to the east of the island has been made into a nature reserve – though signs warning of the dangers unexploded devices hint at its past.

Now the island trade off its peace. Regulations on the island prevent any buildings over 3 floors being built, allowing the island to maintain its lowslung, boutique vibe. There are no shops, bars or even toilets on beaches and the local government plan to keep it that way.

PLACES TO EAT IN VIEQUES

El Blok – Chef Carlos Perez runs one of Puerto Rico’s best restaurants – and now he’s brought his genius to Vieques. Carlos uses all local ingredients – whatever catch the fishermen bring straight from the water goes on the menu. Even his green salad – using 5 leaves grown locally, including mustard greens, with a simple citrus dressing – is something to behold. Also try: pumpkin soup with locally grown achiote, steak.

Yellowtail with salad at El Blok hotel, by Carlos Perez

Tin box – barbecue and sushi. Try the lion fish sashimi.

Next Course – one of the more expensive options on the island, but the meat is sensational. Try the pork rib chop – 3 days soaked in brine, cooked over a grill with hickory chips – it’s over an inch thick but you will still want more at the end of it.

Shack for burgers – Outside El Blok in the small car park you’ll find a taco van and burger van selling roadside food worth coming for the beach for.

IMAGES:
Pata Prieta beach, look at all the people (Picture: Deborah Arthurs)
Playa Negra beach, on the southern coast of the island – which you’ll visit on Esperanza ranch’s riding tours (Picture: Deborah Arthurs)
Won’t you just look at that sea…
From sunrise to sunset, the views from the terrace at El Blok are always spectacular (Picture: Deborah Arthurs)
You will have own personal Caribbean beach
The reception area and restaurant-bar of boutique hotel El Blok, which is designed to be a relaxing, sociable space (Picture: Deborah Arthurs)
El Blok’s brutalist architecture contrasts with the cerulean blue skies (Picture: Deborah Arthurs)
The now-famous flamingos on the roof terrace of El Blok during a sunset party
El Blok from above (Picture: El Blok)
Yellowtail with local greens salad and flowers at El Blok hotel, by executive chef Carlos Perez
Biking is one of the best ways to get around the island (Picture: Deborah Arthurs)
One of many hermit crabs we saw roaming the quiet beach roads (Picture: Eternal Adventurers/Instagram)
Pastelillos at El Blok hotel – crispy, layered pastries filled with scrambled egg served with homemade chilli sauce (Picture: Deborah Arthurs)
Riding into the sunset at Playa Negra with Elizabeth of Esperanza riding stables (Picture: Farah Yaqub)
Viequense ponies grazing on grasslands by the beach (Picture: Eternaladventurers/Instagram)
The beautiful 47ft yacht offers a unique sailing experience (Picture: Eternal Adventurers)
One of the more risqué works of art on the walls of one of the back corridors of El Blok (Picture: Deborah Arthurs) [Note: Writing omitted]
Monkey beach (Shutterstock) THAILAND, PHI PHI ISLANDS – NOVEMBER 1, 2014: Koh Phi Phi, Monkey Beach, where monkeys waiting for tourists and food from them, top attraction of Phi Phi Islands, Monkey Bay (Ao Ling), Thailand ; Shutterstock ID 235631221

For more on this story go to: http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/02/deserted-beaches-and-boutique-hotels-why-unspoilt-laidback-vieques-should-be-the-island-for-your-next-caribbean-holiday-6479285/#ixzz4aNwQziEP