Idyll

I promised a palm tree, and I’m throwing in the swimming pool for free.

I’m writing this from the porch of a finca (doesn’t that sound grand?) high on a ridge on the island of Vieques. When I look up from the screen, I see the Caribbean off to the south. We are four, the first of a party that we hope will reach 10 by this evening, though the weather has one of us trapped in Detroit at the moment. (Flash...just heard she will make it!)

The east and west ends of Vieques used to be bombed by the navy and landed on by the marines, but the military called off the war games in the late ’9os, and the island hasn’t been much developed since. It’s low key and easy going, still run for the locals, not for the tourists. Pretty nice. Don’t come here if you want to shop till you drop. We did find a terrific restaurant last night, though. La Campesina has just been reopened by two young guys from Ohio and a friend whose family has had property on the island for many years. One off them is the talented and inventive chef, another the charming and knowledgeable front man and waiter, and the third the urbane bartender, master of a mean mojito. They offer a small but imaginative menu and just four wines, two reds and two whites...all excellent Chilean and Argentinean offerings last night. It’s a small place set out in the country, covered overhead but otherwise in the open among trees and boulders, some of which are built into the bar. (One of the guys told me they had to “reclaim the place from the jungle” to get it ready for use.) Unique in my experience, and mighty fine. Here endeth my first, and probably last, restaurant review.

In almost every meteorilogical and attitudinal way, Vieques is about as far from Scotland as it’s possible to get, but some Viequans we’ve met, though usually very sociable, sometimes give a great impression of what I expect of Challengers at the end of those long May days.


[Edited 12/21/07 at 12:39 PM]