Wildlife in Vieques

Welcome to Vieques, affectionately known as Crab Island! Nestled off the northeastern corner of Puerto Rico, this charming little island has its own unique vibe that sets it apart. Here, you can soak up the beauty of nature and spot some amazing wildlife, including the wild horses that roam freely. It’s the perfect place to unwind and connect with the great outdoors!

Hermit crabs, land crabs and wild horses at Playa Negra Beach

We arrived in the afternoon didn't have a ton of time (or energy) for snorkeling, but wanted to see some awesome creatures so we decided to walk along Playa Negra. There you can see tons of hermit crabs right under the bridge at the beginning of the trail and land crabs further down the trail closer to the beach. This map is a rough approximation.

You can see hermit crabs and land crabs on the Playa Negra path in Vieques

My glasses nest to two hermit crabs for scale

The biggest surprise though was when we were joined by a family of free range horses! We gave them a wide berth so as to not freak them out but honestly they weren't that interested in us at all. We left them alone and they left us along but we got some amazing pictures.

Playa La Chiva

The next day we headed to the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge to see about snorkeling. For many decades Vieques was a military base. The base has been decommissioned and turned into a wildlife refuge. DO NOT EXPLORE BEYOND THE BOUNDRIES OF THE REFUGE! If you do, you could encounter unexploded ordinances and not to mention be fined thousands of dollars.

The roads in the refuge are not paved and were pretty bumpy from hurricane Ernesto a few weeks earlier. Our first stop was Playa La Chiva which was a bit of a bust. As you drive along the main road of the reserve, you'll see a series of numbered entrances which are gravel and sand driveways that dead end a few meters off the main road. It was pretty windy and the water clarity was poor when we got there. After unloading all of our gear and setting up our beach shade, we swam around for about 10 minutes before we decided to bail. I've read that others have had great snorkeling experiences here but we seemed to hit it during less than ideal conditions. I've learned from traveling with kids that you can either fight it with no guarantee of success or cut your losses. We packed up all our stuff and left.

Playa Caracas

After abandoning Playa la Chiva we drove to nearby Caracas beach, also within the refuge. This beach had a few amenities like sunshade/cabana thingies where you could keep your stuff and get out of the direct sun. We had a great time at this beach. We saw tons of fish and even some cuttlefish along the rocky eastern edge. At one point, I saw a turtle under the water a few meters away from where I was standing but I didn't have my mask with me so I couldn't go under the water to see it. Still, we hung out at this beach for a few hours and really enjoyed ourselves.

Playa Punta Arenas

The next day we went to the other end of the island to Playa Punta Arenas. This beach was very remote and incredible. The road to get there was bumpy and potholed. It was worth the effort. There as only one other group of people there and they were way at the other end of the beach so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The water was calm and clear and there were plenty of fish (and more cuttlefish) to see. My daughter saw a nice sized barracuda. There are some submerged concrete structures from a long since abandoned sugar plantation and the fish like to hang out there. There is also a rocky drop off where you can spot all sorts of amazing creatures. The waves were gentle and we spent hours playing there.

If you go there you will see signs warning about unexploded ordinance, this is an unfortunate hangover from US military operations on the island. Obviously, if you see something suspicious leave the area and report it. There are instructions on the signs.

Mosquito bay (bioluminescence)

Vieques has one of the, if not THE, brightest bioluminescent bay in the world! We went with a tour group and learned all about the dinoflagellates which are the little single-cell organisms that glow when under pressure. Our tour group met up in Esperanza shortly after nightfall and traversed the recently washed out gravel road (using the word 'road' generously here). As we pulled our kayaks out of the boat launch we could already see the water glowing around our ankles. With every paddle stroke the water glowed a fluorescent blueish green. It looked like soft lightning. What I didn't expect was that we could actually make out the blue-green shapes of fish in the water below. When the needlefish skipped along the surface you could see flashing sparks behind them. It felt like we had been transported to another planet. Be sure to use a non-DEET insect repellent. The DEET can harm the dinoflagellates.

Eating and Sleeping

There are two main towns on the island; the larger, with a population of about 10,000 is Isabelle Segunda on the north of the island, and the smaller, with less than 1,000 inhabitants is Esperanza. We stayed at an Airbnb in the central part of the island, a little closer to Esparanza so that's where we spent most of our time.

Coqui in our bathroom

There you can stroll along the Malecon sampling from a number of restaurants (we loved Bili) and snapping pix of the little crabs scrambling down the sidewalk.