BioBay kayak at night - Fajardo

.....Continued after Culebra.... 

We reached back Fajardo at night from Culebra and we were worn out, however our excitement of our adventurous trip to Culebra gave us the energy for our next feat. We set out to complete the wonderful day by experiencing the "MUST-DO" at night when in Puerto Rico.

Bioluminescent Bay

Image source: Pandora on Earth

If you were mesmerized by the movie Avatar’s sparkling water organisms, then you will be amazed to know that, the concept exists in the real world and can be seen, touched and experienced in Puerto Rico. Like the movies, we imagined a romantic night with sea stars twinkling inside the water and lighting up the paddles as we flowed through the water and to cut the story short it felt like that except that the journey to this blissful Bioluminescent Bay – well not a smooth sailing one!! 

BioBay is a body of water that contains millions of micro-organisms, called “dinoflagellates”, that glows when agitated producing a magical and alluring experience. There are 3 biobay parks in Puerto Rico and we went to the one in Fajardo. To experience this we could either take a motor boat or kayak our way to the bay. And yes, like you must have guessed, we kayaked!!! 

The kayaking tour to experience this starts from Las Croabas in Fajardo. While driving to this place, we drove past a very secluded and narrow road; however there was light at the end of the road. Once we reached Las Croabas, we saw masses of people, ample kayaks, lots of instructors, and people in life-jackets. The place was buzzing with people and their excitement. We reached at 0900PM and luckily our hotel concierge got us a spot with an adventure kayak tour. Its $45 per person and it takes 2.5 hours for the complete trip. They advice not to take camera and phones if it is not waterproof, however I regret not taking mine and wish I had a zip-lock or a waterproof camera.

The instructors start with providing instruction on how to kayak. After the instruction, they helped us into our Kayaks and off we went. We paddled ourselves into the ocean waters (a rough sea that night) and headed inside a mangrove that lead us to the biobay lagoon.  It was a good start for us since we have kayaked in the ocean before. After about 10 minutes we all started going inside the mangrove area. It was pitch dark inside and we could only see the glow bangles on the kayak in front of us. 

Now started the real challenge... I was so exhausted with our full day adventure at Culebra, that when the tour guide said left, I paddled right and vice-versa and we banged into all the trees in the mangrove. We have this as a standing joke in our family now and my goofiness is a story that my hubby loves to share with all his friends. (Arrrggghhhhhhh!! I was just tired.. I know my left and rights.. or so i think :)!!)

We finally reached the secluded biobay/bio lagoon. The guide told us to look into the water and I was amazed to see the stars twinkling inside the water. Imagine little diamonds in the water that sparkle and glitter, a glowing trail as you Kayak through the water. 

It was just amazing. We paddled, scooped some water in our palms to see the shining diamonds in our hands cascading as the water flowed out of our hands. Our tour guides let us explore and enjoy the magical sight.

We headed back excited with the quest and with a story to tell!!!

Culebra - Isla fantástica

Every day we all rise and shine and go about our daily routine, but how many times do we wake up thinking “Today I will go to one of the top 10 most exotic beaches of the world?”

That is exactly what we got up thinking. We aspired to go to Culebra. 

Culebra is an island 20 miles off the north-east coast of Puerto Rico and has been ranked as one of the Top Ten Beach and Sun Destinations in the World by TripAdvisor.

The ferry to Culebra leaves from Fajardo (Terminal De Lanchas) and since we were staying in Fajardo (north-east of San Juan, Puerto Rico), we simply had to go!!! Our hotel concierge presaged that travelers to this desired location would be camping out to buy the tickets from 0400AM. Likelihood of securing the tickets seemed bleak since it was July’s long weekend; however we were going to try our best.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu

0600AM – Although, it is not a journey of a thousand miles, getting to Culebra is an adventure in itself. My hero hubby got up at 0600AM, drove to the terminal and stood in line for the tickets from 0630AM. (Gosh!! how sweet is that). The tip off was true, and there were tourists in line from 0400AM.

Fajardo Terminal

Tickets to Vieques and Culebra Island

 

0815AM - My toddler, mom-in-law and I got ready, packed all the required stuff for the day and took a taxi to the terminal. I then, stood in line and gave some well deserved time off to my hubby.

The line moved at the pace of a tortoise and I was just hoping that we could win the race!! Whenever someone bought their tickets they would yell "YES” and jump up and down and it would just spark a little bit of hope and excitement in other tourists waiting in line.

My boyz waiting in line to get the tickets

0930AM - Just one more traveler ahead of us at 0930AM and the ticket counter closed. No Culebra after all this effort??!!! I still stood there dazed and talking to all the disappointed tourists behind me and just then like a movie scene, the captain of the ferry made an appearance and said something in Spanish. All I understood was CULEBRA and I wiggled back to the counter and got 4 tickets. Of course I yelled "YES" and jumped up and down!!! They gave out a total of 6-10 more tickets...

We literally had to run to the ferry and went up to the upper deck. We stood outside the whole time. The sea breeze and water on our face felt so gratifying. The ferry ride takes about 1 to 1.5 hours. Initial excitement stalled (for me) as the sea got rough after about 45 minutes and I felt a little woozy. The guy who was in front of me, who later became our friend, advised me to stand in the direction we were headed and to look at the horizon (the mountain that we could see up ahead) and that REALLY helped and I didn’t get seasick (WHEW)!! My baby was not troubled at all and stood out the whole time. 

  

Upon reaching Culebra port, we saw a lot of taxis waiting outside with placards that said “Flamenco Beach - $3”, however the first thing we did was buy the famous and delicious passion fruit ice-cream “Parcha”. I think we all had about 3 of those per day. We then sat in the taxi and off we went...

The middle one - Parcha the best ice-cream ever!!!!

On our way to Flamenco, we stopped at the airport to see if we can catch a flight back to Ceiba (South of Fajardo); for the sake of thrill, however they had only 2 tickets for the 5.30PM flight which they eventually cancelled due to rains in the evening.

Our Destination - Flamenco beach

Flamenco Beach Ranked # 2 in the top 10 most exotic beaches in the world. The beach is also protected by the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources as a Marine Wildlife Reserve ~ Wikipedia

Once you enter the beach, there are a lot of food stalls where you can grab tasty food to eat. After a refreshing coconut juice and tasty and fresh Mexican food we headed straight to the beach

 My camera does no justice to the beauty we saw!!It is like one of the magazine’s cover page – pristine, crystal clear, blue and picturesque. The green mountain in the background simply adds to the alluring beauty of the beach.

We had a great family time at this place and we wish and hope to come again ... The trip was so worth it.

We took the 0500PM ferry back and our return trip was very smooth and relaxing. We reached Fajardo, got our car from the parking lot and after getting some dinner, we reached home by 08PM!!! 

We travelled back in Fajardo II

After we settled our exhausted beach baby and mom in our hotel room, hubby and I got our second wing and went for our night adventure at 0900PM ... I have no clue where we got the energy for that one... and it was a MUST- DO. A brief write up on that coming up next...!! :)

Send me a note or feel free to ask any questions about Culebra or our Puerto Rico itinerary!!! Let me know of your experience when you go there, or if anyone has been there - done that!!

Waterfall Hiking and Ziplining

“It is the greatest shot of adrenaline to be doing what you have wanted to do so badly. You almost feel like you could fly without the plane.” ~ Charles Lindbergh

I hope that words will provide justice to this wonderful “Break in Routine”. Being immersed in our daily routine, we forget how being amidst Mother Nature could bring inexplicable contentment and excitement. To sprinkle some adventure in our lives, my hubby and I did Waterfall Hiking and Ziplining in the Rainforest. This was a real adventure with such an adrenaline rush.

After researching on the internet, we booked our adventure tour with Ecoquest Tours. They picked us up at 0800AM from our hotel. 6 more couples were to join us however eventually, it was just us and another couple from Texas. A personal tour of the rainforest just for us !!!

Our tour guides Hector and Sayid drove us to San Salvador Rainforest in the beautiful Caguas Mountains located 40 minutes south of San Juan. After a drive through the narrow and winding road that burrowed the countryside, we arrived at our starting point. We put on our helmets and harness and our journey began...

Our trail began with short but STEEP hike from where the van was parked.

Steep hill climb from the van

After some huffing and puffing, we arrived at a small waterfall from where our incredible waterfall hike began.

Waterfall Hiking

The path was through the river and waterfalls. We were hiking uphill alongside of the waterfall, and at times we traversed right up through the waterfall. Water levels changed throughout our route; sometimes only knee-deep other times ankle-deep and in some places chest-deep. This divine river was loaded with small and big waterfalls and we would soak ourselves in the waterfalls to augment our amazing experience.

We arrived at some steep waterfalls and the only way to go was straight up through it so we used ropes to do some thrilling steep rock climbing

I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We walked up and......up through the rocks,waterfalls and river... 

When we finally reached the top, we were greeted by the sound and sight of a majestic 80 feet waterfall. The water was gushing down with full force with the bountiful rainwater. This was a pristine beauty of nature.

Our tour guides told us that they had never seen it so full and when they usually rappel down the waterfall, the water is less than a quarter of what we saw and experienced. They cancelled the rappelling part for our safety, however we just stood and admired the beauty of the surroundings and the falls. We stood enthralled under the gushing water of the magnificent water fall.

After some yummy fresh mangoes and bananas, we set off towards our next big thrill, the ZIPLINING adventure.

Ziplining 
We ziplined a total of 3 lines from different locations in the rainforest.It was extremely thrilling to zip by the rainforest from one tree to the other. It was splendid fun and we let gravity do most of the work to push us along the cable. When the guide would signal, we had to apply pressure to the cable to slow down at the end. The distance of each line was about 300-400 feet long and it was pretty high from the ground too!!

We saw stunning views of the rainforest as we ziplined

I could do this the whole day .... We could hear the coqui frogs and the birds chirping and the river flowing. It was simply beautiful everywhere.

That's me Zip lining...

Once we finished the ziplining, we walked down the mountain and again through crisp clear cool water streams. We then went back to our van, changed into dry clothes and went to eat at one of the resident family’s home.

Lunch Time

It was a fantastic traditional lunch (vegetarian for us) with an amazing view of the rainforest. No restaurant could beat the rainforest view, ambience, lunch and the best flan dessert that we had. Nothing could beat this experience.

I totally recommend Puerto Rico's Ecoquest Adventure Tour (www.ecoquestpr.com ). Some pointers - Book in advance since they get booked up pretty fast. Get a load full of excitement. Enjoy the day!! 

Ahh!! What a day and what an amazing way to celebrate our anniversary month. Love you A :)... u are simply the best!!!

This is where we ate... Great food with great view!!