Caribbean 2014

Mia went diving today, but as the dive site was the same one we had been using earlier me and Timo decided to skip the day dive. Later we will all go to a night dive though.

Me and Timo were (ab)using our scooter and driving around the island spotting geocaches and amusing locals with out slightly overloaded scooter. Two guys, one plush mouse, two camera bags and a big sack of laundry on the scooter.. One of the geocaches was located below the biggest rubber tree of the island.

On the way back we also spotted a meter long iguana next to our house.. and I got hit by iguana tail after photographing it a bit too close. They actually hit fast and hard. :)

Not much was planned for today, so we just headed down to Esperanza town on the southern part of the island. Esperanza is the more touristic town on the island, compared to quiet Isabel where we live.

We snorkeled for a while, spent time on the beach and once again tried to arrange a rental car to visit some remote parts of the island, without luck. Rental cars on the island seem to be all booked and it has been said to be the normal situation here.

As we did not get a car I rented a 125cc scooter just for fun. I guess me and Timo riding that together were a hilarious sight, judging by the faces of the people we passed by. Me and Timo rode the scooter around the island through almost impassable forest roads, and will continue that tomorrow to find some geocaches etc.

We also tried to visit the bioluminescent bay on the island, but due to the weather the bay is not glowing at the moment so didn't actually see anything. Got some nice night photos though.

I also spotted a tarantula, about the size of my fist. I'm not completely sure that I wanted to see that.. As it confirms those creatures exist on the island and the thing that walked on my face the other night might not have been a gecko....

Internet access is exactly not easy on the island. Now me and Mia have local SIM cards in our phones (don't wonder if you cannot reach me by phone as I might not have my phone on, send email or something) but that doesn't help much as GSM coverage at our apartment is basically nonexistant. Outside we have extremely weak signal, inside none.

Also the local data-enabled SIM cards are damn expensive, $80 for SIM, activation and one-month access with unlimited data and calls.

Well, we are on vacation so internet is not that necessary. Makes a lot of things easier to arrange though. Now we are hanging around in a local pizzeria with laptops, just because they have (slow) WiFi. The pizzeria is closing, so we continue this in a nearby park which also has WiFi signal. :P

Second set of dives done, this time from a boat. No sharks so far for us, Mia saw one though but she was diving in a different place doing here Open Water Diver certification dives. We saw just barracudas, eels, lobsters and a million of smaller fishes.

The video below has no picture, but some audio soundtrack from the island. Yep, the roosters.

Like you can see from the pictures our yard is also full of lizards and geckos. They bother us way less than the roosters, although.. Somebody jumped on my face last night waking me up. I have no idea if it was a gecko or a big spider. Haven't seen big spiders in here though but I have a feeling that the thing was hairy and light. Might have been the sticky feet of a gecko though that felt strange. I never saw what it was as I wiped it away when I woke up.

Vieques reached, with relatively limited internet access. The island is great, a small island where everyone knows each other and is friendly. Horses and other animals roam free, unfortunately including roosters. Those damn creatures forces us to buy earplugs before buying a gun.

First two dives were done yesterday, and right now we are again dressing in rubber, preparing for two more boat dives.

By the way, all the friends in Ukraine stay safe and strong. Been following the news as much as possible here.. Damn Russia.

Returned our car, took a taxi to Fajardo and missed the ferry to Vieques by five minutes. Damn. Now waiting a couple of hours for the next one.

I called FAA and scheduled my license interview too. Next Thursday I will meet an FAA inspector in San Juan and hopefully receive my US license. :)

FAA sent the confirmation that the validity of my license has been verified and I should go to visit their office to get my US pilot license. :)

So, next thing.. Call the FAA office to arrange an appointment. Also, we are now packing and will start moving towards Vieques in a moment by the combination of taxi and ferry.

The Isla Grande Flying School people were just as nice and relaxed as people in most small flights schools are. We had a nice one hour flight with Timo and their instructor around the eastern part of Puerto Rico.

We passed the island where the Pirates of Caribbean movies have been filmed and an another one where scientifical studies on monkeys are performed. There are 1200 rhesus monkeys roaming around and some of them could be spotted when we were low-flying around the island at 500 feet altitude. I got nice compliments from the instructor too: "Umm, how many hours do you have?" "About 150" "Flying really good" :)

We will definitely return to rent an aircraft from the school if I get my FAA papers at some point. I'm waiting for US aviation authority FAA to validate my European license, before that I cannot fly an American aircraft as the pilot in command.

After the flight we picked up Mia at our apartment and went swimming and eating via a scuba shop Scuba Dogs. Now I have a mask and a snorkel too. Tomorrow we will be moving to Vieques island where we will be spending a couple of days, diving with a local dive shop.

The flight pictures are by Timo, by the way.

Nature documentary on Caribbean Sea Walrus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaceBuoeJbU&hd=1

Say hi to our kitchen lizard. :)

Today the program will consist of flying. I called a local flight school and asked if we could come to fly with them today, which they had no problem with. So, taking off Isla Grande city airport of San Juan in a couple of hours with a Cessna 172. :)

The swimming video looked so gay that I just had to create a special version of it.. :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVImZXZkMWc&hd=1

Mia was feeling a bit feverish today, so me and Timo went exploring together and left her sleeping at home. We drove one hour out of San Juan to Arecibo Observatory, the largest radio telescope in the world.

The massive telescope is built totally in middle of nowhere on mountains, only small roads passing through countryside villages lead to it. Reflector of the telescope is over 300 meters in diameter and the installation has been used in many movies like 007: Goldfinger.

After the telescope visit we finally got to swim in the Caribbean Ocean, drove back home and prepared some tortillas for dinner. :)

Caribbean waves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqh863RcEUI&hd=1

Driving from the observatory to Arecibo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xaYrwSGxRc&hd=1