Welcome to Vieques Now/Ahora ~ Tourist Information Guide

Vieques Now / Vieques Ahora, Spring 2008 Issue Vieques Now/Ahora is a quarterly tourist magazine, distributed on Vieques and in Puerto Rico.  The latest bilingual issue, Spring/Summer 2008, is available for download below by section in PDF format. Welcome      Having Fun      Pamper Yourself      Weddings      Getting Around      Map      Dining      Shopping      Home Ownership   Accommodations      Phone Directory If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer, please click here to download.  To find out more about placing your ad in the next issue (November 2008-January 2009) or on the website, please click on the Contact Us page.

Vieques Now / Vieques Ahora Website  Para la version del website en Español, por favor oprima: www.ViequesAhora.com.

Vieques Now/Ahora Website contains the same information as the printed edition of the magazine but is updated frequently to reflect any new information.  This website is intended to be a comprehensive guide to all Vieques activities and services, so if you find the information incomplete or the site hard to navigate, please let us know.  We hope that we have fulfilled your Vieques information needs and that you will enjoy immensely your stay on the island!

The sections of this website include Home (giving General Introduction to the island and the magazine as well as its History), Tourist Activities (Beaches, Water Sports, Bio Bay Tours, Hiking and Museums listing), Dining (Restaurants, bars, breakfast and coffee places on the island), Shopping (including fun and food shopping, seafood suppliers, galleries and massage therapists listings), Wedding Planning, Places to Stay, Construction and Real Estate agents, Transportation (to the island as well as around), and Contact Information (which includes an Advertiser section).

Things To Do in Vieques - Calendar

SPECIAL EVENTS - April 18 - 20 XXXI Festival Cultural Viequense / Vieques Cultural Festival at the Fort.Actos artísticos, exhibiciones especiales, feria de artesanía y feria de libros viequenses (Music, crafts, books, special exhibits), 787-741-1717 - May 24 7:00 PM Sandra Reyes Art Exhibit Openning at the Fort, 787-741-1717 - Second Sunday of each month - Pasta Rasta Fair: music, artesans, food and refreshments, at the entrance to the Eastern Wildlife Preserve, 787-234-7099 - Spinning on Demand at Utopia Fitness Studio (at Enchanted Garden Inn in Martineau). Minimum of two persons, any day, any time. Contact: Violet 917-836-5829 For Dining Activities and Special Menus by Day of the Week, please check the Dining section	MONDAYS - 8:00AM Mantra Yoga with Maureen, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-741-2302, $15 - 9:30AM Spinning at Utopia Fitness Studio (at Enchanted Garden Inn in Martineau). Dress in workout gear, bring water and towel. Contact: Pete, 908-499-0122 - 9:30AM Mantra Yoga with Maureen, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-741-2302, $15 - 5:30PM Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book Meeting, attendance limited to those who want to stop drinking, at the Pavillion (back building) at the Vieques Historical Trust, Esperanza - 7:30PM Cinema Paradiso Movie Night, at BBH, Refreshments available, please arrive on time, 787-741-1128, $5	TUESDAYS - 9:30AM Vinyasa Yoga with Jennifer, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-435-6850, $15 - 5-7PM Happy Hour at El Jardin, at The Crow's Nest.  Chance to win free tab.  787-741-0011 - 5:30PM Alcoholics Anonymous Living Sober, open to all, at the Pavillion (back building) at the Vieques Historical Trust, Esperanza	WEDNESDAYS - 9:00AM Yoga with Ángeles, in Sun Bay, 787-435-7510 - 9:30AM Vinyasa Yoga with Jennifer, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-435-6850, $15 - 6:00PM Alcoholics Anonymous As Bill Sees It, open to all, at small building in the back of Catholic Church, Isabel II
THURSDAYS - 8:30AM Alcoholics Anonymous Open Discussion, at Gringo Beach - 9:00AM Yoga with Ángeles, in Sun Bay, 787-435-7510 - 9:30AM Spinning at Utopia Fitness Studio (at Enchanted Garden Inn in Martineau). Dress in workout gear, bring water and towel. Contact: Pete, (908) 499-0122 - 9:30AM Vinyasa Yoga with Jennifer, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-435-6850, $15 - 4:30PM Mantra Yoga with Maureen, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-741-2302, $15	FRIDAYS - 9:00AM Yoga with Ángeles, in Sun Bay, 787-435-7510 - 9:30AM Vinyasa Yoga with Jennifer, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-435-6850, $15 - 6:00PM Alcoholics Anonymous Came to Believe, at small building in the back of Catholic Church, Isabel II - 8:00PM Salsa Lessons, followed by dancing at L'Mirador, Inn on the Blue Horizon, 787-741-3318, Free	SATURDAYS - 9:00AM Yoga with Ángeles, in Sun Bay, 787-435-7510 - 9:30AM Spinning at Utopia Fitness Studio (at Enchanted Garden Inn in Martineau). Dress in workout gear, bring water and towel. Contact: Pete, (908) 499-0122 - 9:30AM Vinyasa Yoga with Jennifer, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-435-6850, $15 - 10:30AM Alcoholics Anonymous Step Tradition Open Meeting, at small building in the back of Catholic Church, Isabel II - 8:00PM Karaoke at Al's Mar Azul, 787-741-3400	SUNDAYS - 9:00AM Yoga with Ángeles, in Sun Bay, 787-435-7510 - 9:30AM Vinyasa Yoga with Jennifer, at La Casona, Hix Island House, 787-435-6850, $15 - 10:30AM Alcoholics Anonymous Open Discussion, at small building in the back of Catholic Church, Isabel II - 8:00PM Sunday Night Football, on big screen TV, at the Inn on the Blue Horizon, 787-741-3318

Vacation Worship

CATHOLIC CHURCH Parroquia Immaculada Concepcion Isabel II Saturdays 7PM and Sundays 11AM (787) 741-2241

EPISCOPAL CHURCH Todos los Santos Episcipal Church Isabel II Sunday Mass 9AM (787) 741-2668

METHODIST CHURCH Isabel II Saturdays 7:30PM and Sundays 7PM (787) 741-1473 and (787) 741-8643 Esperanza Sundays 10AM, Wednesdays PM (ENGLISH) (787) 741-8520

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST AND LATTER DAY SAINTS Near the ferry dock, Isabel II Sundays 10AM (787) 553-4440

Vieques General Information

Location

Vieques is an island municipality of Puerto Rico and together with its sister island, Culebra, is affectionately called the Spanish Virgin Islands.  Puerto Rico is located in the northern Caribbean and is part of the Greater Antilles group of islands, together with Cuba and Dominican Republic.  Puerto Rico's neighboring islands include Dominican Republic to the East and US Virgin Islands to the West.  Puerto Rico is within easy reach from US East Coast, being only 3.5 hr flight from New York.  You can be in Vieques in late afternoon.  Puerto Rico also has direct flights to Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, Houston, Miami and Orlando, among others, as well as Spain.  For more information on traveling to Puerto Rico, please go to the Transportation page.

Vieques History

Vieques lies at the boundary between the Greater and Lesser Antilles and has always been a crossroads, a place where people and cultures have met and mixed. The first humans arrived here at least 4,000 years ago, apparently coming from northern South America by way of the Lesser Antilles. Archeological findings from various parts of Vieques have demonstrated that the island was a major population center and was in contact with places as distant as Central America and even the central Andes more than 2,000 years ago.

As lands formerly used by the U.S. Navy are opened for investigation, archaeological studies will certainly clarify and enrich our understanding of the diverse pre-Columbian cultures of Vieques. What is known now from the historic record is that the final Amerindian culture in Vieques, as on the main island of Puerto Rico, was the Taino/Arawak.

Two of the last rulers of the Vieques Taino were the brothers Cacimar and Yaureibo, who led their people in efforts to expel the early Spanish settlers from Puerto Rico. By 1514, both brothers had been killed by the Spanish, and the Taino population of the island was wiped out.
For the next 300 years, Vieques remained deserted. The Spanish government on Puerto Rico put a stop to any efforts by other European powers to establish a base here but did not attempt to impose a Spanish settlement. British maps of the period show Vieques as Crab Island, but the Spanish forcefully ousted British encroachments in 1688 and 1718.

A new era for Vieques began in 1811 when the government in San Juan decided to establish a permanent settlement here. Eventually the Spanish government contracted out the effort to another outsider, the Frenchman Teophile J.J. Maria Le Guillou, who was appointed military and political governor of the island. Le Guillou governed from 1832 to 1843 and helped initiate the sugar industry on Vieques.

From the 1830s to the 1930s, sugar cane was king in Vieques as it was on the main island. Workers came from all over the Caribbean to labor in the industry, helping to account for the prevalence of French, Danish and English last names among the local population.

While sugar cane brought population and new wealth to the island and pulled it firmly into the international economy, extreme inequities between labor and owners/management led to serious tensions. In 1874, the workers at Hacienda Playa Grande rebelled and 70 of them were subsequently jailed at Fort Conde de Mirasol. In 1915, a strike ended in the deaths of several workers and the jailing of about 100 others.

The Spanish American War of 1898 brought Cuba and the Philippines as well as Puerto Rico under the official control of the United States. The immediate impact in Vieques, however, seems to have been minimal. Life continued as before on the sugar plantations and in the small towns that had developed around the sugar mills.

Much more of an impact was felt with the collapse of the sugar industry after 1930. Unemployment soared and many workers left the island in search of opportunities elsewhere.

Economic collapse was followed a decade later by the outbreak of WWII and major changes in land-use patterns. When the U.S. Navy took over 26,000 acres (or about 70 percent) of Vieques’ land, payments were made to the few owners of large expanses of land. In many cases, though, workers who lived on small parcels of the great plantations did not receive any compensation at all. Many residents of both eastern and western sectors moved to other islands, especially Saint Croix, or to newly developed areas in the central part of Vieques.

During succeeding decades, remaining residents and visitors were limited to a small central part of the island and were subjected to repeated rounds of military exercises. Protests against this state of affairs were sporadic until David Sanes, a local employee of the Navy, was killed by a stray bomb in 1999. This event brought national and international attention to the use of Vieques as a live firing range and galvanized local opposition.

An escalating round of protests, encampments, and negotiations with the Federal government followed, culminating with the Navy’s exit from the western sector in 2002 and from the eastern sector on May 1, 2003. The entire eastern sector and about half the western end were turned over to the U.S. Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service to become the largest nature preserve in the Caribbean. Most of the eastern end is still off-limits while a clean-up takes place.

Note: Text of Vieques History article contributed by Glenn Curry, 11-15-07