Today we started off the day by going out to lunch to an almost strip mall like area of food stands. With around 50 food places lined up side by side we had a lot to pick from. I ended up going to a nice sit down restaurant that included authentic Puerto Rican food as well as food I was accustom to seeing in the states such as different types of pastas, sandwiches, salads, and chicken. I had a great fettuccine alfredo with chicken. After lunch we went out to a local beach until it was nearing sunset. Then we hopped on the bus and went over to Las Croabas in the northeastern part of the island. With about thirty minutes before sunset we went off in Tandem Kayaks to go to the Bioluminescent Bay in the city of Fajardo. After a roughly 25 minute kayak through a mangrove river connected to the bay, we arrived just in time to watch the sunset. What makes this bay so unique are the microorganisms called dinoflagellates that light up in the water when they are moved. They use this as a kind of defensive mechanism. As we kayaked around the bay we were in awe of the beauty of these microorganisms lighting up our hands and paddles as we moved through the water. After we had some time to wonder in the natural beauty we were visiting, we then set our course back down the river in which we came. By this time it was pitch dark so it was much harder to see. All we had to go off of was a slight illumination of the moon through the mangroves braches above and the small lights of the kayak in front of us. There was lots of colliding amongst our kayaks but no one was hurt and we returned safe to the shoreline in which we had started our journey.
The bioluminescent bay was of the most unique and awe inspiring things I have had the pleasure of doing here in Puerto Rico. It was a peculiar thing to see those tiny organisms glowing as you moved. If you ran your arm in the water and lifted it up they would slide down your arm almost like little glowing stars. After reading up on the history of the bay it appears that the Spanish had discovered it in the seventeenth century and called it a “devil” area and in turn prevented the bay water from entering the rest of the ocean. I can understand this kind of thinking because at times I have been afraid of things that I thought to be strange. For example my first day in the country my impression of all the bars on the windows, doors, and surrounding areas of most buildings I thought it looked, for lack of a better terms, ghetto and unsafe. As I have come to better understand the culture here I now know that the bars originate from Spanish culture and is a common practice for buildings throughout South America. It’s understandable that at the time the Spanish thought such a thing and it turned out by doing that they helped save the bay for the future when we could discover the real cause of the glow and enjoy it. The bioluminescent bay was a great site to see and I would recommend anyone visiting Puerto Rico to explore one of these natural wonders.
