Got a ride in the publico to Isabel II at 3, cause they say you should get there at least an hour in advance, to wait in line for a ticket. Waited in line for the ferry for 2 hours, and found out it was full! Waited another half hour for them to open the office, so they’d sell everyone tickets for the next ride (a special 8:00 one they did just for us). Went to william’s pizza to eat and kill time. Called a couple rental car companies in Fajardo, but they were all closed.  Got back to the ferry dock at 8 (they said it could leave at any time between 8 and 8:30).

It’s now 8, no sign of the ferry. I am continuously astounded by PR logistics

The ferry showed up at 8:30, took a while to load, we were underway by 9pm.  Got midly seasick, didn’t vomit.  The ferry landed at 10ish, and started unloading.  Got off the dock, looked for taxis, didn’t see any.  Followed the main crowd of people, but they were just headed to a parking lot.  Asked the parking lot attendant about the phone number of a taxi.  He explained it’d be impossible to obtain a taxi.  Asked about a hotel, he pointed me back towards the dock, and said something about two lefts and a right.  Thought I’d have better luck finding a taxi from the dudes who worked the ferry, so headed that way.  Asked one of them when I got there, he gave me the same news: No taxi, no hotel nearby!

Some people in a car motioned to come closer, and asked if I needed a ride somewhere.  They were just ahead of me in line in Vieques, and took pity on my general cluelessness (like when an announcement would come over the speaker in spanish, and I’d furrow my brow and listen for the words “queso” or “frijoles”, the extent of my spanish vocabulary).  They asked where I was headed, and I said any hotel on the way to where they were going. They were both amused and impressed by my lack of planning .  Turns out the guy is a science teacher at a university in san juan, and the girl is a grad student, studying something about information systems.  But not computer information systems, some kind of social science/humanities thing, which may not have had an exact translation into english.  They were on Vieques because she was doing research in some archives.  The live in San Juan, and offered to drive me to a hotel near the airport (where it’d be easy to get a car tomorrow).  They asked about my trip, and I said I’ve got 3 days left, and all I need to see for sure is the observatory at Arecibo.  They recommended either El Yunke (the rainforest), or another forest on the south west corner, that they called ‘the dry forest’, I can’t recall the name.  Also recommended circumnavigating the island, ’cause there’s a highway that goes all around it.  The girl was from the west end of the island, and the guy was from the north end.  They talked about Puerto Rican politics, the recent strikes at the university (first the students strike, then the university itself does in retaliation.  what if they both strike on the same day?  how do they decide who gets the points?), conservationism (giant sea turtles!), the park system (they like to hike and backpack – my backpack and general griminess was a decisive factor in their offering me a ride ), logistics (the ferry debacle was a prototypical carribean event.  if you’re in the know, the exact same thing happens, you just don’t care as much).  seems like cops are more laid back here, too.  when the dude was driving, someone said something funny and/or distracting, and he briefly drove on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic, which happened to be a police car with it’s blue lights flashing.  pretty sure in the states you’d get tasered if you did that, and then have 100s of $$$ of fines, have to do a sobriety test, etc.

not only did they drive me up to a hotel, but they even recommended i check the price while they waited in the car.  good thing too, because it was $200/night plus 26% tax, because it had a casino.  they drove me to another one, which was $76 total, which is where I’m at now.

the guys showed up, there were two of them (“us?!?!”  “yeah, ‘us’!  I’m not driving the car, talking on the phone, and handling the money all at the same time!”).  neither spoke english, and they appeared unfamiliar with the tourist map i tried to show them the location of the dead car on.  so i gave directions, and we found it.  they checked the oil, then the coolant.  oil was good, coolant was way low (although the car’s temp gauge never indicated overheating yesterday?).  we got back in their car, and i thought were heading to the rental office to get me a new car.  i was a bit confused about how we were getting there, but we were headed in the right general direction, so i assumed they knew shortcuts.  nope, we were headed to the mechanic’s house to get water for the radiator!  I tried to explain that i was not part of a 3-man puerto rican car repair team, but they didn’t understand (or else valued my skills so highly, they didn’t want me to leave our little group).  so back to the dead car we went.  they topped off the radiator, ran the engine a bit until the tstat opened, then topped it off again.  then the mechanic hopped in that one, while the driver and i rode in the nice new air conditioned SUV.  ps: when navigating blind corners on vieques, don’t slow down, and don’t get on your own side of the (narrow!) road.  simply tap your horn.  if another car is there, i assume they will drive into the ditch or immediately reverse direction at 40mph, to avoid an accident.

we got back to the rental office, and the chick who worked the desk showed me my ‘new’ car.  it was a vintage geo tracker with the roof torn off and a cracked windshield.  i was disappointed all the body panels were the same color, but figured beggars can’t be choosers.  i tried to get in, and couldn’t find the lever to slide the seat back.  my knees were pressed firmly into the panel under the steering wheel, no way I could operate the clutch .  got out and looked under: there was no lever!  many of the extraneous parts seemed to have been removed (perhaps to save weight for racing?).  i explained the problem to the chick behind the counter, and i could tell she was going to dip one car class lower.  considering the first ‘good’ car only drove for a few miles before leaving me stranded, and the 2nd had no roof and a cracked windshield, i wasn’t anxious to find out what was behind door number 3.  i (politely) asked them to drop me off at the hotel.

Got breakfast at trade winds, right around the corner from the Esperanza Inn.  Got a phone call from mike that he was on the boat heading into Vieques.  He met me at trade winds right when I was finishing breakfast.  He planned to camp, so we headed to Sun Bay so he could set up (1/4 mile walk from downtown Esperanza).  I went back to my room to grab a towel and swim trunks, met him at Sun Bay. He was at the cafe, and had just met a group of 4 from new jersey: emily, john, michelle, mike. Made small talk, drank island drinks, exchanged phone numbers. They took off for the beach, i helped mike set up his tent. Then we started walking down the beach. Mike struck up a conversation with two chicks from massachusettes (who looked like they were 18 (mike is, iirc, 28). Headed farther down the beach, found the new jerseyans. Dropped my backpack there, swam around for an hour (water was very salty, great buoyancy!). The NJs were drinking a lot of beer. Turns out emily’s parents have a place on Vieques (something about making their fortune in hot dog sales?), But the others hadn’t been there before. Couple hours later, we split up again, but arranged to meet up in esparanza. Walked back to my hotel, napped again. Planned to do a biobay tour at 8.

Woke up 7ish, way too tired to do the kayak biobay thing. (And the moon was out in force, so it wouldn’t have been great). Went to bananas, saw michele, mike, john, emily, but was playing with my phone and they left before i said hi. Caught up to them (and boston mike) at lazy jack’s. Bought a round of redheaded sluts, then switched to painkillers. Everyone got pretty tipsy exccept emily, the dd. There was a dj, he was playing pretty relaxed technoey music (trance?). Locals were out cruising the strip, some of them on horseback. They’d make the horses step quick but move slow: looked and sounded like tapdancing!

Hung out for a while, then hopped in their car, went to Azul Mar bar in Isabell II (segundo). Drank some more. Looked over they karaoke list. Eventually they decided on “baby’s got back”, which michelle knew *all* the words to! Emily drove us back to esperanza, mike crashed on the 2nd bed in my room (which was like an apt, it was the only room left at the inn, they gave it to me for 98, regularly 130). Heard tapdancing horses outside, went out on the patio, fell asleep in the hammock. Woke up a bit later because it was cold, headed back in, but couldn’t figure out the sliding door. Tried at 10 minute intervals, got it on the third one (sobering up?).

did both dives from shore.  i needed a refresher on just about everything!  saw a few turtles (3-4′ long, although it’s hard to judge size underwater).  also spotted a gigantic ray lying on the bottom, that chris had swam almost on top of without seeing it.  it had covered itself with sand, so it was barely visible.  looked to be about 5′ wide!  didn’t see it swim anywhere, it hardly moved at all.  chris said he’d never seen that species swimming (although there’s another kind that he had seen move around).

chris dropped me off at a car rental place, that he said had really good deals on cars.  picked up a suzuki vitara (tiny 2-door SUV).  headed to esparanza, stopped at a bar for lunch.  had a grouper sandwich and fries.  asked around about hotels.  went to the esparanza inn, they had an apt that’s normally 130$/night, for 98$.  couldn’t find a nice room anywhere else any cheaper, so came back for the apt.  it’s got a kitchen, living room with futon, bedroom with 2 beds, big patio with a hammock.

was tired from diving, took a nap on the hammock.  headed out to go to a beach, but had car trouble along the way.  the oil light came on when the rpm dropped, and it died at a stop sign.  i turned around, and limped half way back to town.  it died still 2 miles away – tried calling the rental shop, no answer.  had to hitchhike back to esparanza.  a couple with 2 kids picked me up in their shiny newer SUV, that only cost them $70/day.  they’re from boston, but the chick had lived in AZ as a kid, still has relatives there (including in prescott!).  they were also fans of boulder (everyone i meet loves boulder!).

took another nap, heading out to dinner soon.

ate at bananas.  bar food, kinda disappointing that i haven’t found much puerto rican food

at this point it was 3ish, so i went back to Da House, picked up my bag, and headed for Isla Grande airport.  looked to be ~2 miles away, so i decided to walk, see what i’d pass along the way.  turned out to be a mistake: it was way too hot, and there was nothing to see but sketchy neighborhoods with bars on windows, surrounded by chain link fences with barbed wire on top.  got to the airport, had a bacon cheeseburger+fries in the cafeteria.  got on the plane, turned out there were only 2 other passengers.  copilot said he’s from california (but had a british accent), and commutes here for work (something like 2/3 of the month).

plane landed after a 20 minute flight.  the other passengers were staying at W (huge fancy resort), and it had a luxurious greeting room right at the (tiny) airport.  i shared a cab with a couple going to an eco lodge, and stayed at the only hotel i found in San Isabel II, which is where blackbeard sports is.  it was right on the ocean, but there wasn’t much of a beach.  it had a pool, so i hung out there for an hour, saw the ferry from fajardo come in.  went to a restaurant, had the catch-of-the-day special (sama, *not* salmon).  pretty tasty, with rice and beans, cajun spices.  turned in early to wake up at 7.5 for scuba diving.

got onto the 767 for the flight to san juan.  dozed intermittently.  i had an aisle seat on one of the outer columns, so there was just one seat next to me.  whenever no one was passing by, i’d hang my legs out along side the seat in front of me, so i did get to stretch out a little.  my neighbor (a bankruptcy lawyer from memphis) got up for the bathroom 4-5 times, but i was never really ‘out’, so it didn’t bother me too much.

arrived in san juan.  as the plane pulled up to the terminal it was noticeably warmer, so while waiting to de-plane, i removed the t-shirt and button-down shirt, so just the polo shirt remained.  eventually got outside, and was pleasantly surprised to see that while there were clouds and it was drizzling lightly, the weather was still gorgeous.  found a tourism center, got a map.  then got a taxi, headed for old san juan.  the driver (Ray) was born in puerto rico, but moved to new york as a kid, and sounded like a new yorker.  he gave me a nice running commentary of everything we passed by.  i explained my plan of taking a bus to fajaradar and the ferry to veiques, and he recommended against it.  rather than taking a taxi to fajaradar ($80) and then the ferry, turns out i can get a flight straight from a little airport next to old san juan directly to veiques, for only $60.  i asked him to recommend me a hotel in old san juan, and that’s how i ended up at the d’Hotel.  very cool place, it’s got art in each room from a different local artist, and really cool architecture too.  hung out on the rooftop terraice while my room was being cleaned, found out there’s a hottub up there

got to the room, made a couple phone calls to black beard sports for a scuba reservation for friday morning, and to seaborne air for a flight to veiques thursday evening.  then went out for a walk around old san juan.  went to both forts, and walked around the edge of the island, along the original protective wall the spanish put up.  took tons of pics.  stopped at a shop, ate an empanada (pretty good, but is it puerto rican?).

plan for tonight is to go to the hotel restaurant, they are having a salsa and rumba night.  gonna eat some good food, get to sleep early, and then explore old san juan more tomorrow.  have to head to the isla grande airport at 4pm for my 20 minute flight to vieques, then i will find a hotel, and lounge on the beach.  need to turn in early tomorrow too, ’cause diving is at 8am friday.

<edit>went to the hotel restaurant, it was more of a bar.  there were 2-3 people dancing salsa, and the menu looked like generic bar food.  they had some mexican stuff that looked good, and if the same item was labelled ‘puerto rican’, i probably would have ordered it.  but instead i left, looking for something more authentic.  i had expected that since the streets were all narrow cobblestone alleys between 3-4 story brightly colored buildings, and labelled “calle”, everything would be open as late as barcelona (old san juan reminds me of the old part of barcelona, east of la rambla).  such was not the case, restaurants here shut down at 10pm.  asked a concierge what’s open, he said told me of a sports bar around the corner.  went there, ordered a ‘puerto rican burrito’, which fulfills the goal of being labelled puerto rican.  and, it did taste different than mexican, tex-mex, or california style burritos i’ve had in the states (although i’m not sure that’s a regional difference as just something this particular bar did).

walking around, i ran into a ‘helpful american’.  first time this happened in costa rica i freaked out, thought the guy would lead me around a corner and mug me, but it turns out in both cases that he just wanted to earn a few bucks giving directions and advice.  this guy had lived on vieques, told me about the ‘hotel relaxion’(sp?), niceish place with rooms for $35/night.  also recommended i do the bio-bay night kayak thing, but said i should use one of the smaller outfits – the big one in vieques gets like 30 people in kayaks, and it ruins the experience.  he also validated my plan of flying to vieques, told me about a festival starting in old san juan tomorrow (hope i don’t miss it before i have to leave!), and gave info on the 4 ‘scenes’ in old san juan nightlife.  one is a row of bars where people just drink and play darts.  2 is near the dock where the cruise ship comes in.  3 is a big club with salsa dancing, and 4 is little bars with live music near my hotel.<edit>

4/20/10 – got to DIA an hour early.  all the stores and restaurants were closed, so i just read a GPS book.  Thought I got lucky by having a exit row seat, but the copious legroom was made up for by a seat back that didn’t recline (is that true of all a320s?).  couldn’t sleep the whole 4 hour flight to charlotte.

Finished up my final report for the AFRL APT thing, so other than learning how a GPS works (which’ll take me a year), I have no work priorities right now.  Gonna take a couple GPS books to read on the beach, maybe I can figure out how the correlators for each channel can all operate on the same signal *after* it’s been digitized.  I could almost see how it would work if it was still analog, or at least a high-res digital waveform, but if it’s been through a 1-bit ADC, I am flummoxed.

Anyway, enough of work, I will post again when I am in hot, humid, cloudy, rainy Puerto Rico!

Stayed in bed until 11am today, ventured out to get food.  Took the traditional shortcut into the gym restaurant (step over a bush and across a tiny ditch, instead of going all the way down and then walking up stairs), got a bit dizzy, almost lost my footing.  Ate some chicken with basil (tasty!  I haven’t lost my appetite like happened to Joel and William when they were sick).  Was cold sitting at the table, and even though it was rainy and cloudy, I’m sure it wasn’t actually cold out.

Just returned my scooter.  Very exciting ride down to town (dizzyness helps for that ), and an even more exciting ride back up the hill on the back of Nik’s bike.  Scooters handle squirrelly with too much weight – I think I weigh 1.5 thais, Nik probably weighs 1.3.  It’s not that uncommon to see 2-3 people on 1 bike, but in the cases with two the 2nd is usually a thai girl, and in the cases with 3, at least one is usually a little kid.

Think I’m gonna hole up in my room again until it’s time to go to the airport, drinking water and orange juice.  Really wish I could have sparred, but today is not the time to try it.

Can’t wait to get back to CO!  It’ll be great to see all my friends again!  Hopefully I’ll recover from whatever I’ve got by this weekend, in time to go skiing.  I’m working my new job Th and Fr, I’m excited about that, too.

After afternoon training I ate at the gym’s restaurant, and talked with a new guy named Will, who’s friend works at Seduction, a club in Patong.  They were saying a famous DJ, David Morales, was coming to Patong and was going to be a beach party before he went back to the club.  Will’s friend gave a couple of us free passes.  Joel works at a night club back in Switzerland, he said Morales DJ’d there, for like $15k.

Took a shower and a short nap, then headed to the beach with Joel, John, Nik, Peter.  Had a couple drinks, saw people playing with fire (need to upload videos!), listened to the music.  It started to pour and they handed out plastic ponchos, but it was much more fun without one – dancing in the rain to blaring music with a couple vodka redbulls in me .  Headed home early (11ish) so I could train in the morning, but it’s now morning when I’m righting this, and no way I’m gonna train.  Not hungover, just sore all over – more a symptom of training hard all this week than anything to do with last night, I think.

http://picasaweb.google.com/miles.gazic/2009_11_13BeachParty#