Page 60 - Travel Leisure - USA (February 2020)

C A R I B B E A N S P E C I A L something other than construction and
bioluminescence tours.” The distillery, housed
inside a former U.S. Navy firehouse in a rural
green valley, offers tastings in a tent outside, and
will soon feature pop-ups with local chefs. Ortiz
hopes businesses like Crab Island can help brand
Vieques as being about more than just beaches.
“My product will create a lot of jobs, even if
indirectly.” De Marco nodded in agreement as we
sipped a smooth, orange-infused rum.
While Ortiz focuses on lowering
unemployment, others are imagining self-
sufficiency literally from the ground up. We
headed uphill, past the skeletons of once-showy
homes, to La Finca Conciencia (finca conciencia.
com), where De Marco sources produce for her
inn. This organic farm is aimed at improving
food security and reviving local growing
practices. Farmer Jorge Cora greeted us at the
gate, and De Marco proceeded slowly around his
terraced gardens, snipping holy basil, mustard
greens, and flowers, pinching leaves and asking
questions. My attention was divided between the
tiers of hives, home to Vieques’s unique species
of honeybees, and the stunning vista of the sea
beyond. The legacy of weapons testing on
Vieques means farmers sometimes face
Blok Punch, a
cocktail served
at Placita, in
Esperanza’s
El Blok hotel.
The terrace contaminated soil, but Cora’s work is planting
of a suite at the seeds for a nascent food-autonomy
La Finca
movement. As a downpour broke, he packed up
Victoria.
our crate of eggplants, and we departed.
On my last evening, I drove north from Finca
Victoria, past the still-shuttered W, where vines
and saplings are overtaking the whitewashed
walls as nature reasserts its claim. I then cut back
to Esperanza, on the southern shore, and sat on a
fishing pier across from El Blok. Islanders have
come to appreciate this Brutalist behemoth; the
building, with its massive generator, housed relief
workers and displaced locals after the storm, and
became a hub for emergency services. Puerto
El Blok’s Rican–born Carlos Perez, who became executive
Esquina suites chef at El Blok’s restaurant Placita (elblok.com;
have two entrées $20–$35) after Jose Enrique returned to
walls of floor-
to-ceiling San Juan, provided thousands of free meals. El
windows. Blok was also the first hotel to reopen after Maria,
welcoming guests just two months later.
I headed to dinner at my favorite restaurant
on Vieques, El Guayac‡n (fb.com/restelguayacan;
entrées $15–$20), an unassuming place at the
end of Esperanza’s main strip. Its proprietor,
Marcos Vegas Arias, is one of the few restaurant
chefs on the island who serve traditional Puerto
Rican home cooking: stewed chicken, tostones
slathered in garlicky green sauce, vinegary conch
salad. El Guayacán feels both of, and for, Vieques—
a beacon of purpose that has survived both literal
disaster and failed disaster management. I
watched an electric-orange sun sink into the
Caribbean as the musicians in the restaurant
sipped Medalla Lights between sets. A few people,
reunited for another tourist season, greeted one
another in Spanglish—“Hola, welcome back.”