Cape & Islands News

Siting out the recession on on island paradise

“A Cape Codder in the Carib”

Vieques is in the Atlantic to the right above. Below is Sun Bay on the island.

Orleans lad spends a year in a former bombing range & discovers Paradise instead

By Scott Abbotts of Resolute IT

As I’m soaring over the El Yunque rain forest on the main island of Puerto Rico, I look down and say to myself, “I’m not in Cape Cod anymore.” But the small aircraft is operated by none other than our own Cape Air!  And sitting behind me is a couple from – Cape Cod.  Where else?

The view from Bananas and Duffy’s along the Malécon.

Hector's near my house.

Mia casa.

I was on my way to Vieques, a small island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, better known for its toxic bombing ranges and ongoing cleanup efforts, as well as it’s known for its rare and fabulous bioluminescent bays and the efforts to preserve them by the Vieques Conservation & Historical Trust, which remains as one of my few pro bono accounts.  But I was headed there for its pristine beaches, funky bars, and an awaiting apartment.  The prospect of work also loomed promising as I was foretold of pent up demand for my services as an IT consultant, which thankfully became true.   And, I thought, if I’m going to have to sit out a recession, why not in Paradise?

Word of my skills spread across the island’s coconut telegraph.  I found paying jobs immediately, working for various individuals on Macs and PC’s, but also for businesses:  a waterfront inn, a gallery, an architect, a caterer (originally a restaurateur from Provincetown), a few real estate offices, and a funky open-air restaurant and guesthouse called Bananas, where I expanded their Point-of-Sale system and installed new IP security cameras.

Island pirates

Now the funny thing about the security cameras represents one of the darker, but somewhat humorous, sides of Vieques – petty thieves abound and will go to unusual efforts to accomplish their thievery.  We weren’t quite done with the security camera project – there were a few loose ends in terms of physical installation and the configuration of its respective software program.  But we decided to leave the devices in place overnight. 

Of course, thieves of the night scaled the adjoining rooftops and vaulted over a wire fence onto the rooftop patio bar – three cameras gone the next morning, but without their respective power cables – not very technically savvy thieves.

Another incident of thievery was a bit more amusing.  A friend came to visit, so we drove my ratty old Jeep out to Blue Beach, a favorite of the local crowd – imagine hundreds of acres of chest-deep, soft-sand-bottomed, crystal clear waters lined by white sand beaches and swaying palms against a mountain backdrop – not a sign that a human being had ever been there before. 

Stealing with a fishing pole on horseback

We left our t-shirts, sandals, camera and prescription sunglasses on the sand at the water’s edge.  After an hour or so of lolling about the secluded bay, we returned to shore to find our belongings mostly gone – the t-shirts were oddly hanging from the brush about 50 yards in from the water’s edge, but the camera and glasses were gone.   Never was there a sign of another human being, not by sight of people, the sound of cars or by evidence of footprints. 

We eventually found out their method – they would arrive on horseback (horses run wild across the island), use a rod and reel with a treble hook, and stand just out of sight within the brambles.  They would then cast and drag, reeling in camera strap and cotton T’s wrapped around the glasses.  The t-shirts became tangled in the briars and the glasses likely fell out while the angler fought the mighty battle.  Either that or there’s a thief out there wearing very blurry sunglasses.

"Are you from Cape Cod?"

Back at Duffey’s, which is next door to Banana’s in the waterfront village of Esperanza, I’m sitting having a cool Red Stripe at the bar while looking out over the Caribbean.  A pretty blonde waitress walks behind me and she comments, “Are you from Cape Cod?” How did she know? 

Well, she noticed that I was wearing one of those canvas belts with little images of the Cape Cod peninsula emblazoned along the length of the belt.  It turns out that she was from Orleans, from whence I’d come, but we’d never met before.  When her family arrived to visit from Cape Cod, we all talked of familiar people and places.  I was just sitting at the Barleyneck Inn in Orleans the other day – the bartender and she are childhood friends.

Not only did I find numerous other connections to Cape Cod, but there was a Key West contingent on Vieques, as well.  You see, I moved to Cape Cod from Key West in 1998.  Mr. Duffy of Duffy’s in Vieques started Duffy’s in Key West, as well as he started other Duffy establishments in the Caribbean and New Orleans. He’s a scruffy old salt with a thousand stories to tell, as well as he still has an eye for the ladies, so ladies beware…  He’s a character that might well have walked right off the movie screen.  And the owner of Bananas is a descendant of the ship-wrecking Curry family, one of the original settlers of Key West.

Pirates still thrive in this peculiar piece of paradise.

Scott Abbotts owns resolute-it.com. He is a Orleans resident. He is a Microsoft Certified Small Business Specialist offering predictable Information Technology (IT) costs and results for small businesses from Vieques and Cape Cod to Florida and Mexico. Scott was doing business on Cape Cod since 2000 as pleasantbay.NET, as he operated from his South Orleans location next to the post office. He has a long background in carpentry and construction, as well as real estate sales experience, but finally found his true passion in technology services.