Double Exposure - The Coconut Chronicles: Two Guys, One Caribbean Dream House - page 143

Exposure is a big deal on Vieques.
No, not that kind.
“You guys are on the Atlantic side?” people occasionally ask when we describe the loc-
ation of our house. They seem all too ready to draw the distinction between an Atlantic view
and a Caribbean one, the implication being that those of the Caribbean persuasion are vastly
preferable.
“We can see the Big Island and Culebra from our balcony,” I respond a tad defensively.
“How nice,” the south-favorers reply, their voices trailing off, a pitying smile trembling
across their lips.
The really dumb part of this scenario? For a couple of years I bought it. I honestly be-
lieved that a Caribbean view was superior to ours, simply because so many people said so.
There had been signs that I didn't really believe this, but I ignored them.
Item One: when our air conditioner broke down that first summer and Jane put us up
for a couple of nights in one of her properties in Destino, Michael and I stood by the pool
at sunset one evening and marveled at the view across the wetlands down to the glistening
Caribbean.
“Amazing, huh?” he said.
“Stunning,” I replied. “Although,” and here I struggled to give words to the stray thought
nibbling at the corner of my brain, “it's kind of like looking at an infinity pool. The effect is
amazing but there's not a lot to see.”
Item Two: when we wake up in the morning in our condo in D.C. the first thing we do is
open the bedroom curtains and raise the living room blind. And yet, although the view from
our apartment is breathtaking—one of the largest cathedrals in the world stands foursquare
in front of our building—we rarely pause more than a few seconds to drink it in.
In Vieques, on the other hand, the minute our eyes pop open in the morning we fling
open the bedroom door and rush through the great room onto the balcony to drink in the
view…which includes:
• the mountainous big island looming majestically to the northwest
• a delicious little white sandbar at eleven o-clock, crowned by a toy-like beacon
• Culebra itself, also mountainous but more gently so, to the northeast