Follow along as we prepare for our Round The World (RTW) trip, and focus on traveling around our home state of Wisconsin
It’s easy to think that any one Caribbean island is going to look more or less the same as any other Caribbean island: hilly to mountainous, with clear turquoise waters and loads of lush green foliage. Such generalizations are hard to avoid sometimes, and transforming to a jaded tourist can quickly change from outlandish concept [...]
Just a little ways South of the Florida keys is the island that Christopher Columbus first landed on after sailing across the Atlantic. A lot of people don’t know the history of the island, but Puerto Rico has plenty.
As you may know by now, we love… and I mean love Vieques. It was especially nice to go back for our wedding to spend more time on the island. Vieques is 21 miles east to west and 4 miles north to south; with it being so small, you think you would have enough time [...]
That’s right, I said it. The Upper Penninsula of Michigan – the thing that isn’t actually connected to regular Michigan in any way – is really an extension of Wisconsin, and should be treated as such. Those that live in the U.P. might disagree with me. Many people that live there really don’t consider themselves [...]
It’s just about March now, and we’re covered in fresh snow fall. I always find it funny that people expect March to be the end of winter – this is Wisconsin after all, and it happens again and again that we get dumped on late in the season – especially if you’re close to either [...]
“….I don’t think we are going to get on that boat, it’s leaving the dock… NOW!”
This is how our journey back to Puerto Rico’s mainland started after our week on a beautiful tropical island for our wedding & honeymoon. This is also how we learned that Vieques’ island life is not what we were used to back in the States. Things move more slowly, processes take longer, people are laid back — but for some reason, our ferry was in ‘Let’s get the ‘F’ out of here’ mode!
It’s Sunday morning — our last full day on Vieques, and we wanted to explore and take it all in before we had to go back to dreary, winterlike Wisconsin. We were staying at Tradewinds in Esperanza and checked out of our room early, since we had to be up at 6:00AM the next day to make sure we caught the ferry back to Fajardo. My parents had overheard that passengers were not allowed on the cargo ferry, so we just wanted to double check if that was true or not. Passengers are allowed, but we learned that it is just better to take the passenger ferry – things just work smoother.
300 feet below the road that circles the little ‘burgs around Cape Town, a steep slope leads to prime beachfront upon which a score of vacation homes lie abandoned. The way I heard it, they were built when an Englishman came to town and decided to build, unaware of the dangers of the area.
To get to the homes, you’d have to park your car in the middle of baboon territory. Baboons are intelligent, incredibly strong, and have huge teeth. They’ve been seen chasing down and killing full-grown zebra’s, as though they were lions. They also have lots of fun destroying people’s cars.
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