Puerto Rico--Day 23: Bahía Bioluminiscente

So, today I was able to check off the last of my Top Three Things To Do In Puerto Rico: The Bioluminescent Bay.

Puerto Rico is home to three of the seven bioluminescent bays (or biobays, as they call them) in the world. Two of them are on the main island of Puerto Rico, and one of them, Mosquito Bay, is on Vieques, a smaller island just off of Puerto Rico. Mosquito Bay just happens to be the brightest one in the world, and has been declared as such by the Guiness Book of World Records. It also happens to be the only one in Puerto Rico that you can swim in, the other two are too fragile for swimming.

The link above is to the Wikipedia article about Vieques, and this link is more information about bioluminescence in general.

We booked a reservation with a tour company (you have to go with a tour company, you can't just go there yourself, they're very protective of the bio bays and they're really hard to get to, on purpose, I think) and arranged for them to pick us up at the condo, but they gave us conflicting information on transportation pricing and when they called an hour before pick-up time with a new price that was higher than the last one, I decided to just drive us up to the marina myself and we just canceled the transportation. John’s co-worker Steve had picked up another car since we’re leaving soon, so John could ride with him and leave us the car.

Which actually went off without a hitch. We got right to Puerto del Rey Marina in Fajardo an hour early. So we sat in the car and listened to the audiobook we’re listening to and put on our DEET-free bug repellent (DEET kills the biobay’s glowing microorganisms, and some tour groups will not even let you in the water if you’ve used a bug spray containing DEET.)

While we were waiting to check in, we saw this waterspout forming not far from where we were. I didn’t really know anything about waterspouts, but no one from the tour company seemed concerned by it, so we decided we wouldn’t be either. It never touched down as far as we could tell and after a couple of minutes, just dissipated.

After getting checked in and selecting our meal choices, we boarded the boat and picked our seats. We ended up sitting with a family from Pennsylvania who had just finished a cruise around the Caribbean. They had a daughter Squig’s age and the two of them and Sam hit it off right away. By the end of the evening, they had exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch.

The boat ride over to Vieques was very bumpy, but thanks to my good friend Dramamine, I didn’t get sick. None of the kids had any problems at at all.

Here are Ruby and Sam inside the catamaran boat.

This is the El Faro Punta Mulas (Point Mulas Lighthouse) that you see as you come in to Vieques. It was built in 1896 and restored in 1992. It's really cute and is still in use. We saw it working when we left at night.

After docking in Isabel Segunda (named for Queen Isabel II, and is sometimes written that way), the largest town on Vieques, we boarded públicos, which are public vans that run around town, kind of like a cross between a taxi and a bus. The tour group had arranged them ahead of time and they were waiting for us. We were then driven across the island to Esperanza, which is the second biggest town on Vieques. There, we ate the dinner included in the tour. It wasn’t anything special. I had a chicken breast with vegetables and tostones (fried plantain cakes, which are really good when made well, but these were just okay). The kids each had a cheeseburger. So adventurous they are.

Here they are just outside the dock in front of the "Welcome to Vieques" sign.

A quick shot of Isabel II as we drove through town.

Ruby, waiting for her dinner to arrive.

After dinner, we were gathered together and given a brief introduction to the bio bay and the dinoflagellates Pyrodinium bahamense, which glow when they're touched. They had this cute painting of one of the little dinoflagellates just outside the gift shop at the restaurant/tour launch site.

Then the younger kids donned life jackets and we all boarded an old school bus. An old school bus with seat belts even! Which turned out to be a good thing, as we then traveled down the bumpiest road you can imagine. It was nuts. So narrow that the tree branches on either side were constantly scraping the windows (they warned us to keep the windows closed on the bus), and so bumpy that you could barely stay in your seat!

At the end of this road (the only one that goes to the BioBay), we met up with the electric boat, which took us out into the bay. It was a perfect night. The weather was clear and you could see more stars that I can remember seeing in a long time. And the moon hadn’t come up yet, so it was nice and dark. The boat driver had what can best be described as an extra-long light saber with him, which he used to point out constellations and other features of the night sky.

And then they gave all the adults flotation belts and we all climbed into the water.

It was amazing. Truly amazing. All you could hear aside from the splashing was the oohs and aahs and giggles and exclamations of delight from everyone as they swam around lighting up the water. Every time you moved, even a little, the water would glow bright neon blue. And when you took your arm out of the water, each little drop that ran down would sparkle, and it looked just like fairy dust. We had so much fun playing in the water. And then when we got out, our bathing suits kept sparkling if you brushed your hand across them.

Now, I did try to take some pictures, but as they warn you, it is extremely difficult to take pictures of the glow in the water. It has to be very dark for the best viewing of the glow, which makes for really poor pictures even with the glow. I did get a decent picture of the wake from the boat (the quiet electric boat, as gasoline is damaging to the bay) by setting the ISO on my camera to 3200 and setting the shutter speed really slow (that's right, I figured out how to change both the ISO and the shutter speed on my camera in the dark! Thankyouverymuch.)

That worked really well for the wake. But not so well for little kids who tire easily. The glow is not quite this brilliant. It’s more of a soft glow, but it is pretty bright. You can even see where fish are swimming, because they leave a trail of light through the water.

I enhanced a couple of pictures, but really, this is something that has to be experienced in person. This is Ruby making a water angel.

And this is after I tuned it up in iPhoto. I didn't add any color, just turned up the color that is there (and the contrast and whatever else worked). She was wearing a big square life vest, which is why her outline inside the angel is so boxy.

Here's Sam making one:

And this is the enhanced version (his head is to the left and his feet are to the right.) His didn't turn out as well. It was impossible to see on the camera screen if anything was captured, or I would have had him keep at it a little longer.

After taking those two pictures, I decided that I had given it a good try and I went in to enjoy the water myself.

If you do a search for biobay pictures, all the bright ones you’ll see have been enhanced or have really long exposure times. And none of them really show the true nature of the glow. It is truly one of those things that must be seen in person.

We took the bus back down the bumpy road and met up with the públicos at the end of that road, and they took us back over to the dock where we boarded the boat to return to Fajardo. Ruby and I dozed on the ride back, but I could hear the other two kids chatting non-stop the whole way back.

The kids and I arrived back at the condo safely and ready for nice (and quick, it was late) showers only to discover that there was no water! And I don’t mean no hot water, I mean no running water at all from any of the faucets! We were able to get enough out of the pipes in the kitchen and downstairs bathtub to fill one pitcher. So, I had the two younger kids wipe themselves down with a wet washcloth, and used one cup of water each to rinse their hair and then they brushed their teeth with water from a water bottle and went to bed.

Squig and I took the ice from the ice maker in the fridge (which leaks and actually had a big lump that we had to chip out) and melted it in a pot on the stove. We used some of that water to washcloth off and dip our hair in a big bowl.

Fortunately, just before 7:00 a.m. the water came back on (I know this because I left one of the bathtubs on and the running water woke me up). We’re not sure what happened, but while I was running around trying to find water to use to clean up, John was kind enough to call around from work and he got a hold of someone at the Palmas water utility and they said they were aware of the situation and someone was working on it. Whatever it was, I'm glad it's fixed. It would have been awkward to be staying somewhere else and trying to pack up this place at the same time.