On Wednesday on my vacation week we visited Fajardo bay. Our group of eager adventurers departed from the hotel lobby, being escorted by our guide. Our guide was a personable fellow who told us what we would expect from our trip. The only way I can think of describing him was "Big Kahuna." I sat in the last row of our small bus and looked out the window at the blurring lights of distant towns. We would occasionally drive through a place of intense darkness and it was strange because I actually felt anxiety at this sight. I just imagined myself sitting there in the middle of nowhere in the dark.
Anyway after about 45 minutes of smooth sailing we ended up at our destination.
We were briefed on rules and regulations and took a quick bathroom stop. The bathrooms were in the back, I stayed outside enjoying the night sights. Small kids just wandered around playing the darkness here. My mom came back with a stunned look on her face. "The floor was moving" she said. Obviously they had a bit of a bug problem.
We took off our shoes and placed them in a large barrel. I was kind of worried I would never retrieve them and go home barefoot since I had gotten them just for Puerto Rico and I wasn't too keen on the design I should look for. They began to load us up. My sister and I shared a simple kayak and were pushed out into the open water. Small boats bobbed around us and the light was dim. In the dark of the night everyone was my parents and nobody were my parents. I wanted to see their reactions. (I later found out my dad's back started to bother him and they got caught in a thick patch so they were pulled in the dark by a small native guide named Julio. He said "Enjoy the ride sir", attached their kayaks, and my parents did as such.)
Our first destination was a small mangrove path. The water was three feet deep, smelled like sulfur and we would have to travel one by one into the darkness. Once we were inside moonlight and the small glow sticks on each kayak were our only guides. Occasionally the mangrove canopy would completely cut out the sky, leading to complete and blackness around us. My sister continued to splash me, and paddle like a bird attempting to lift off into flight. "Dig in", "Left, Left, Left", "RIGHT!", were all we spoke. We were machines. We occasionally hit a tree and pushed off.
All at once the thicket opened up leading to a lagoon were the glow stick group had assembled. We stopped in the middle of this lagoon and looked up. I have never seen so many stars in my entire life. At first it scared me but then I was in utter awe. The moonlight reflected off the gentle waters of the lagoon. I immediately thought to myself "It is ten at night and I am in the middle of a lagoon, under the stars, in Puerto Rico, in search of a glow." It was a definite point of realization.
The Glow! That's right. We were instructed to put our hands in and disrupt the water. I did so. A blue fairy like glow surrounded my submerged fingers. Faerie fire erupted all around us, caused by the introduction of oxygen into these micro-organisms. My cousins jumped in and immediately turned into floating, glowing angels. Stunning! I pulled my wet hand out of the water and looked at it. It sparkled for a moment, blips of light like on a radar screen and then immediately turned back into my hand again. Astounding! This turned out to be quite a night.
We retraced our way out the way we came. This time I moved into an Indian-style of seating and worked my engine role steadily, while my sister acted as a spotter and turner. The sight of the boats again signaled the end of our search for bio-light but we knew we had found more.
They offered free water, pears and cookies. I took some water and pears and went back onto the bus. I was wet but couldn't sleep on the bus ride home. I looked at the window again, retracing my path once again. In viewing the opposite side of the road I no longer saw the same dark woods that had disturbed me on the ride there. I could see a lot more lights. I thought about the dead micro-organisms on my hand that I kept with me. I didn't eat the pears until we got home.
