Trip: Puerto Rico – Day 4
Attraction: Bioluminescent Bay
Date: March 1st, 2022

Jill and I thought we would see if the Snorkel Rental Place would only charge us for one day instead of two if we were there before they opened at 8:00. I mean, we picked the stuff up as they were closing, so if it were returned it all first thing in the morning, we really only had it for a day, right? We timed it perfectly and arrived minutes before the clerk opened the store. I had to turn on a little bit of my charm, but she only charged us for one day.

Since we were already in town, we picked up some groceries for the next couple of days, and while we were doing that, Lisa jumped online and purchased tomorrow’s day passes for El Yunque National Forest. We had some leftover steak from supper and warmed it up along with some eggs for a delicious breakfast. The rest of the morning, we just relaxed. We chilled by the pool listening to music and sipping on rum drinks. Some of us tried to soak in the sun, while others (me) tried to hide from it so not to get burnt.

We admired the trees and crazy fruits growing on the grounds of the Airbnb. I love to simply appreciate the plant and animal life and how different it is from back home while I’m traveling. An iguana climbed a palm tree right next to the pool and sprawled out on a branch to sun itself as we relaxed. There weren’t only palm trees, but crazy-looking pine trees and banana trees and even a Soursop tree that had weird spikey green fruit on its branches. Some of us thought they looked a little like a cold nut sack :).

We grilled up pork steaks and broccoli for lunch and I took a solid nap after. We were going to be swimming in the bioluminescent bay later and I figured a nap would put me in good shape to be more awake for that. Besides, I was on vacation and in relax-mode. What is more relaxing than a nap in paradise?

We knew we had to be at the boat dock for our bioluminescent bay excursion by 8:30 so we figured we would wing it for dinner. We started driving towards La Parguera (around an hour from Rincón) where the bioluminescent bay was and pulled off at a place that was right next to the ocean and seemed to be the perfect place to watch the sunset while having some drinks and food. Pa’l 22 didn’t disappoint. We had a couple drinks before we ate since we were there a bit early. I watched some baby chickens play around below the patio as some bonus entertainment while the sun set over the ocean. Our food was good. I shared the fried sampler, Lisa and Jason shared their nachos and fried fish, and Jill shared her seafood mofongo which is stuffed, fried plantains. Let me tell you about the joy my tastebuds experienced when that hit my tongue! Creamy garlic sauce with seafood and a flaky crust. It was so good.

When it was time to go, we hopped back in our rental vehicle and headed to La Parguera. We were a bit early and there was no one working at the dock we were leaving from so we walked around the plaza for a bit to kill time. It was a nice area with bars and shops but many were closing or getting ready to close. We finally found a worker from the place that was taking us out to the bioluminescent bay and got fitted for our life jackets.

It was pretty intense driving out into the ocean in the pitch-black dark. Our guide assured us that our eyes would adjust and we would be able to see more, but that didn’t help the fact that we couldn’t see more than 20 feet in front of us at the moment. We arrived at the bay safely and the first sign of the glowing algae that causes this phenomenon was at the back of the boat. The algae light up when disturbed so the boat propeller was glowing and so was its wake. The guide told us to put our hands in the water and as we did tiny specks of light shimmered all around our hands where the water was disrupted. The light was probably white in color, but the water made it look cool blue. The brightness reminded me of the only other bioluminescence I’m familiar with, lightning bugs (or fireflies) from back in the midwest but so much smaller. It was like glitter, but actual lights instead of reflections of light.

Once we stopped, we all jumped in and were surrounded by the bright glitter with every move. I had my GoPro with me, but none of the footage turned out. I did paste someone else’s video below that I found so you can get at least some idea of what we experienced. As we swam, it felt like there were stars all around us, below and above. The guide pointed out some constellations in the stars and mentioned that in PR they call Orion’s Belt the Three Kings. Some of the constellations he pointed out were wrong but I didn’t make a big deal about it. He seemed to feel pretty proud that he was sharing knowledge with our group and I didn’t want to piss on his parade.

At one point, my life jacket strap floated in front of where I was looking in the water with my goggles and it freaked me out. It was about then that I realized that if anything swam even remotely near me I’d see it and it kind of freaked me out! We swam in the warm water under the stars for about 30 minutes without any bright invasions. The ride back was warm and peaceful. After being in the dark for so long our eyes had adjusted and we could see a lot more in the dark as we cruised back.

We changed out of our wet clothes for dry ones in the parking lot and headed back to our Airbnb for some sleep. We knew tomorrow was the Rainforest trip and we wanted to rest up for some hiking.