The Vieques Ferry or Lancha de Vieques, is a ferry system that carries passengers and cargo from

Ceiba, Puerto Rico Ceiba () is both a small Ceiba barrio-pueblo, town and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in northeast Puerto Rico. It is named after the famous Ceiba tree. Ceiba is located in the north-east coast of the island, bordering the Atlantic ...

Vieques, Puerto Rico Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island, Culebra barrio-pueblo, town and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality of Puerto Rico, and together with Culebra, Puerto Rico, Culebra, it is geographically part of the Spanish Virgin ...

and vice versa, both complementing and competing with commercial air service available from

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

to the island of Vieques. A typical ticket from Ceiba to Vieques (or from Vieques to Fajardo) costs US$2 one-way and US$4 round-trip. The Vieques Ferry system runs services from and to Ceiba each day of the week for passengers, and from Mondays to Fridays for cargo-only travel. There is a similar ferry service from Ceiba to Culebra, an island located slightly northwest of Vieques. That service is named

Culebra Ferry The Culebra Ferry, or Lancha de Culebra, also referred to by locals simply as La Lancha, is a ferry service that links the cities of Culebra, Puerto Rico, Culebra and Ceiba, Puerto Rico, Ceiba, Puerto Rico. It is used by Culebra locals and touris ...

, or ''Lancha de Culebra''.

History

On January 1, 2000, the Puerto Rican Government passed ownership of all legal passenger ship services to the Puerto Rican Maritime Transport Authority. This was made mostly to enhance service between Culebra, Fajardo and Vieques. On October 16, 2013,

Ceiba ''Ceiba'' is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae, native to Tropics, tropical and Subtropics, subtropical areas of the Americas (from Mexico and the Caribbean to northern Argentina) and tropical West Africa. Some species can grow to tall ...

mayor Angelo Cruz Ramos requested that the Fajardo-Vieques ferry service go from Ceiba to Vieques instead, alleging that it would only take 25 minutes to get from Ceiba to Vieques and vice versa by boat, cutting the travel time between Vieques and mainland Puerto Rico by more than one hour. The stop was later moved to Ceiba. On November 8, 2013, the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

made allegations that diabetic people were not being allowed to eat inside the ferries during the trips between Fajardo and Vieques. On January 16, 2014, 10 passengers interrupted a trip from Fajardo to Vieques because they thought the boat named ''Cayo Largo'', was leaving for Culebra instead of Vieques. Police intervened and the boat was able to leave two hours later. On September 19, 2023, it was announced that the Puerto Rican government had signed contracts worth $70 million with the Conrad Shipyards company to build new ships for the services to Vieques and to Culebra.https://www.elnuevodia.com/negocios/empresas-comercios/notas/contratan-empresa-por-70-millones-para-construir-nuevas-lanchas-para-vieques-y-culebra/

References

{{Reflist Boats Ferries of Puerto Rico Transportation in Puerto Rico

History

See also

References