Swimming in a dark lagoon

Amy B and I decided that we wanted to go to the other side of the island to the town of Farjardo. Let's just say that it was an adventure to find the hotel. It was pouring rain, and the streets are all potholed, and there are hardly any lights, and we have no idea where we are going. We had to be at the "meeting area" by 8:45 this night, and we finally found our hotel at 8:00. We checked in, and then rushed to the meeting place. Again, after some dark unmarked roads and several twists, turns, and uturns, and pointing in opposite directions, we found the departure area for the bioluminescent bay tours. We met the coordinator, Ceasar, and he told us that the tour would start at 9:30pm. Great.

Amy B and I were starving, so we decided to eat at the only local restaurant/cafe place in the area. We thought we would be able to avoid eating yet another Puerto Rican meal here, but alas, we were hungry and we had 20 minutes to eat something for a halfway decent dinner. So we ordered a dinner, ate as quickly as possible, then met with the coordinator again at 9:30.

Our whole group was about 40 people big. There were 2 people per kayak. We signed our lives away, then received a PFD. Then waited to climb into our kayak. Neither Amy nor I had kayaked before, but they seemed perfectly ok with that. Amy was in front, and I was in back and I was supposed to follow Amy's lead. It's amazing how difficult it is to follow the leader when no one knows what exactly we're supposed to be doing.

The guides eventually got everyone into a kayak, and we headed toward the bio bay. We went through a network on mangrove trees, and ran into several on the way upriver. We also managed to crash into several kayakers who were coming back from the bio bay. The others got fairly mad at us, but we had no idea what we were doing. And Amy was getting tired. But we eventually made to the end of the river, which led to a huge body of open water. We paddled to the group that was waiting for us in the middle of the bay, and noticed that while we paddled, the splashing water lit up. The plankton were lighting up!

We got to jump into the water, which was way warm, and swim with the plankton. It was amazing because it looked as though we were glowing underwater. I wish we could have taken pcitures, but it was impossible because of the low light and the fact that we were in water. But every time we kicked our feet or moved our arms, the surface of our skin would light up, and then slowly fade. But as long as we were moving the water, the plankton would put on their lightshow. It was amazing. And the warm water made it very easy to swim around and admire this natural phenamena.

After about 20 minutes, we beached ourselves back onto the kayaks, and started to paddle back. It was easier to paddle back since we were going with the current, and the plankton lit up the way for about 5 minutes before they disappeared. Amy and I were very happy to have been able to participate in this event, and we wish we could do it every night =)