Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In Vieques, no one seems to like (or hate) the roosters except tourists. The locals barely
seem to notice them at all except when they're participating in cock fights. But let's not go
there.
Having spent part of my childhood on my grandparents' farm, I'm not particularly
fazed by chickens, even of the feral variety. Yes, I admit it's highly annoying when they
crow so loudly they wake you up from a deep sleep in the middle of the night. But I'd
rather be roused from my slumbers by a rooster than a garbage truck. Call me provincial if
you like.
Michael has a slightly less
laissez-faire
attitude towards our feathered friends. For
starters, he thoroughly despises trespassers of any sort—don't set foot on his property un-
less you've been invited. Even worse, he suspects the roosters of having collaborated with
the island's wild horses to eat our garden.
During our first couple of years in Vieques, Michael's enmity towards the roosters es-
calated from mild irritation to a state of guerilla warfare. He bought a slingshot, which I
didn't consider a particularly inspired idea. Our neighbors, I suspected, weren't likely to
enjoy the sight of Michael taking potshots at the local fauna.
But he was determined.
Luckily, every time he became agitated enough to strike, he had trouble finding his
slingshot. This suited me fine. When he began leaving the slingshot on the balcony ledge,
to make sure he was armed the next time an opportunity presented itself, I routinely tipped
it into the garden or brought it inside and placed it somewhere he might accidentally have
put it himself.
The occasional curse word ensued, but our neighborhood roosters remained unscathed.
I found myself coping with the situation through home décor. It is surprising how many
rooster-themed decorative items there are out there. I found a handsome rooster poster and
hung it in one of the bedrooms. We stumbled across a carved plaque of a rooster at a flea
market in D.C. and bought it for the downstairs kitchenette. A friend, picking up on the
general theme, gave us a set of rooster-topped swizzle sticks.
Lesson of the day: if you can't destroy your enemy, you can at least make fun of him
through home accessories.
☼ ☼ ☼
Please bear with me while I ramble on a bit more about the critters of Vieques.
One of the things we love about the island is that nature is “in your face” every day.
It's never far away. Even when you're walking up Isabel's main street, the ocean is right in
front of you.
Colorful birds swoop overhead. Big, irritable-looking iguanas loll in the viaduct nearby.
We once saw a man leading two goat-kids on leashes down a side street.
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