Branching Out - The Coconut Chronicles: Two Guys, One Caribbean Dream House - page 227

Base of ceiba tree
Its roots rise up from the ground in flat, wall-like configurations positioned at odd
angles from the trunk.
Although Vieques is delightfully behind the times in many ways, occasionally it's
ahead of the times, particularly in the Green department.
Yes, Green with a capital G.
Consider this. There's a hotel on the island that has been effortlessly integrating nature
and architecture for several decades.
The hotel's architect and his wife reportedly moved to Vieques from Canada to escape
air conditioning (how's that again?) in the late 1970s. They built an eco-friendly house on
a centrally-located hill with good views. Eventually they transformed their house into an
eco-friendly hotel. This was long before Green was The Thing.
Each of the hotel's rooms has three concrete walls, with the fourth completely open to
the outside. Some people love this. I've seldom come across as many rave reviews of a
hotel as I've read of this simple concrete eco-experiment: Changed my life ; once in a life-
time experience ; felt like I was in a dream (all authentic quotes about this property).
Others hate it, complaining of geckos in their shoes, iguanas in their bathtubs and bats
in their beds.