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!!!