(other pictures this page: a mural in downtown Isabel that translates: The poor man is not the man who doesn't have a penny, but the man who doesn't have a dream. The other picture is of the wild horses who are all over the island - I took this picture from the truck on my way into town - the were on the side of the road!)
It was my first day to take the truck into town, drop off some paperwork to the accountant’s office, go by the grocery store and go to the post office - once again - with high hopes that our box we mailed from Dallas would finally get here. You see, Jim tends to be the one to get into a project and I’m the gopher, which I really don’t mind. You see, I really do think I have the attention span of a flea and would much rather be going off on an errand than remain in the middle of a project. So that, being said, I headed off in our sweet ride (see picture above).
The thing to know about the roads on Vieques is that by any standard of any city they are one lane roads yet two cars are supposed to be able to pass on them. In theory that sounds great but in reality it requires a great deal of ingenuity to maneuver on the shoulder just enough to let the other guy pass you. The other issue that appears to be a regular obstacle on these roads is the vegetation that grows abundantly everywhere. From what I understand, the island has workers that travel the roads and keep the vines and branches in check but personally I think the vegetation is winning. So the morning I’m referring to, I headed out Route 995 which intersects with Route 201 which takes you right into the town of Isabel. Driving down this road, there are vines hanging from the trees that slap the windshield as you go by as well as branches that can really give your arm a whack if you’ve got it hanging out the window too far. On this particular road, there’s a sharp curve at just the point where there is also a fairly sizeable pothole. So the choice comes down to do I want to hit the pothole to avoid the overhanging tree and risk damaging the suspension or go for the green. Since the pothole was more on the oncoming traffic side of things, I opted for the branch and with a solid whack it hit the side of the truck as I went by. Now, as you can see from the truck, there is a hand built wooden frame that sits inside the bed of the pickup whose purpose neither Jim or I can fathom. At any rate, it’s there and it’s too difficult to move so apparently it’s been left there for quite some time. As I passed the overhanging branch, a sizeable section of it got caught in the frame and was torn from the rest of the tree. Since there really wasn’t anywhere to pull over, I just continued on my way with my piece of tree sticking into the wooden frame of unknown purpose.
Fortunately, I remembered how to get to the post office which is right in the “downtown’ section of Isabel as it were. It’s actually conveniently located with the accountant’s office just one block behind it. The only problem is there is just a small section of pull in parking right in front of the post office with the rest being either parallel parking or some version of off street parking if you can find it. Remember, this is a very small, congested town with a fair amount of hills and very narrow streets so not a great place to practice parallel parking for the uninitiated. Therefore, I was determined to get one of the direct parking spots right in front of the post office. Only one problem - as I drove slowly past, there weren’t any spaces available. Apparently, everyone else has the same idea as me. Shouldn’t there be a law that the easy parking has to be reserved for the newbies to the island and the rest for the locals who clearly have the hang of things get to park elsewhere? Hmmm……well, realizing that there wasn’t a convenient space in front, I figured I would just drive back around and try again. After all, surely by the time I looped down the main road, back to the highway and back to the turnoff into town, a space would open up by then. Whether this was good logic or not remains to be seen, but I was determined not to have to parallel park - that was just too much to ask on my first day driving by myself. So I made the loop, headed back into town and as I crawled by, again no spaces….yikes! Now what? Well, I’ll just do it again which is what I did. Now I realized why the former caretakers informed us they never let the gas gauge get below half - it wasn’t because of the periodic gas shortages that hit the island but for times like these when you drive through the city for at least a half hour trying to park. On my third pass by the post office, I was sure that some of the locals who hang out at the outdoor café on the same corner were noticing me. I could only imagine what they were thinking: “why does the gringo with a piece of tree sticking out of his truck keep driving by here looking like a madman???”
Well, after three round trips I began to realize this may not be a very productive way to go about this so I finally succeeded in finding some decent off street parking so, sticky and frustrated, I hopped out of the truck and headed to the post office. Apparently, the routine as we were told is that you leave the windows rolled down and take any valuables with you as this deters thieves from trying to break into cars. So that is what I did and off I went to the post office. After eagerly opening the P.O. box I found a yellow card - yay! Our box arrived! So I stood in line and finally got the box - yippee!! Of course the condition it was in was a bit of a different story……..
The thing to know about the roads on Vieques is that by any standard of any city they are one lane roads yet two cars are supposed to be able to pass on them. In theory that sounds great but in reality it requires a great deal of ingenuity to maneuver on the shoulder just enough to let the other guy pass you. The other issue that appears to be a regular obstacle on these roads is the vegetation that grows abundantly everywhere. From what I understand, the island has workers that travel the roads and keep the vines and branches in check but personally I think the vegetation is winning. So the morning I’m referring to, I headed out Route 995 which intersects with Route 201 which takes you right into the town of Isabel. Driving down this road, there are vines hanging from the trees that slap the windshield as you go by as well as branches that can really give your arm a whack if you’ve got it hanging out the window too far. On this particular road, there’s a sharp curve at just the point where there is also a fairly sizeable pothole. So the choice comes down to do I want to hit the pothole to avoid the overhanging tree and risk damaging the suspension or go for the green. Since the pothole was more on the oncoming traffic side of things, I opted for the branch and with a solid whack it hit the side of the truck as I went by. Now, as you can see from the truck, there is a hand built wooden frame that sits inside the bed of the pickup whose purpose neither Jim or I can fathom. At any rate, it’s there and it’s too difficult to move so apparently it’s been left there for quite some time. As I passed the overhanging branch, a sizeable section of it got caught in the frame and was torn from the rest of the tree. Since there really wasn’t anywhere to pull over, I just continued on my way with my piece of tree sticking into the wooden frame of unknown purpose.
Fortunately, I remembered how to get to the post office which is right in the “downtown’ section of Isabel as it were. It’s actually conveniently located with the accountant’s office just one block behind it. The only problem is there is just a small section of pull in parking right in front of the post office with the rest being either parallel parking or some version of off street parking if you can find it. Remember, this is a very small, congested town with a fair amount of hills and very narrow streets so not a great place to practice parallel parking for the uninitiated. Therefore, I was determined to get one of the direct parking spots right in front of the post office. Only one problem - as I drove slowly past, there weren’t any spaces available. Apparently, everyone else has the same idea as me. Shouldn’t there be a law that the easy parking has to be reserved for the newbies to the island and the rest for the locals who clearly have the hang of things get to park elsewhere? Hmmm……well, realizing that there wasn’t a convenient space in front, I figured I would just drive back around and try again. After all, surely by the time I looped down the main road, back to the highway and back to the turnoff into town, a space would open up by then. Whether this was good logic or not remains to be seen, but I was determined not to have to parallel park - that was just too much to ask on my first day driving by myself. So I made the loop, headed back into town and as I crawled by, again no spaces….yikes! Now what? Well, I’ll just do it again which is what I did. Now I realized why the former caretakers informed us they never let the gas gauge get below half - it wasn’t because of the periodic gas shortages that hit the island but for times like these when you drive through the city for at least a half hour trying to park. On my third pass by the post office, I was sure that some of the locals who hang out at the outdoor café on the same corner were noticing me. I could only imagine what they were thinking: “why does the gringo with a piece of tree sticking out of his truck keep driving by here looking like a madman???”
Well, after three round trips I began to realize this may not be a very productive way to go about this so I finally succeeded in finding some decent off street parking so, sticky and frustrated, I hopped out of the truck and headed to the post office. Apparently, the routine as we were told is that you leave the windows rolled down and take any valuables with you as this deters thieves from trying to break into cars. So that is what I did and off I went to the post office. After eagerly opening the P.O. box I found a yellow card - yay! Our box arrived! So I stood in line and finally got the box - yippee!! Of course the condition it was in was a bit of a different story……..
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