What is life without some surprised travels... So for James' 25th Birthday, I decided to surprise him on a mini-cation to Puerto Rico. Needless to say we made some new local, friends. One of which was a shark.
If you follow me on instagram, or especially snapchat, you know how excited I get when I travel. Theres just something about stepping onto new soil and taking a deep breath of unexplored air. Waking up at 3 am, my head was totally alert, while my body ached for more sleep. Nothing a cold, refreshing shower won't cure! Dragging myself to the bathroom I started to get ready. Our flight was at 7 am so I wanted to pack my skin with as much hydration as possible for our longish flight to PR.
Eleven hours later, 8:30 pm local time, we arrived. Heading to the resort, exhaustion of traveling hit. After we checked in, I couldn’t help but use some reserve Jamie battery to convince James to go down to the beach with me. Right down the pathway led to a privet beach. As I stepped onto the warm sand, the excited travel bug in me sprung up to appreciate this moment. Looking up at the star, it was nice to be able to see them shine so brightly.
The next morning, after a huge breakfast, it was adventure time. We woke up extra early to be able to go down and book our boatto the Island of Vieques which is a smaller island a couple of miles off shore of Puerto Rico. The boat ride was probably one that James loved and hated later on because my little Swiss got a nice sunburn. (HAHAHAHA) Arriving at Vieques, excitement hit me. Checking into our other hotel on the island for the night, we quickly changed and went out to explore the local food spots. We decided on a restaurant called Bananas and oh my gosh, was it bomb. James was super happy with his whole red snapper and I was in heaven with my chicken.
Okay guys, bare with me for a second. But personally, I think one of the most interesting and fulfilling aspects of traveling is the local food. You can learn so much culturally just with one bite. The abundance of seafood dishes, is from the obvious fact that Puerto Rico is an island. The richness of spices also told tales on the Asian and Spanish cross heritage there. Which we also learned later on with a special guided tour through Old San Juan when we got back to Puerto Rico.
After we explored the shores of restaurant row, we headed back to the hotel to relax by the pool for a bit before heading off to the main reason why we went to Vieques in the first place. This is the part that Im most exciting to talk you about. When I first decided on Puerto Rico, I never thought that it would offer me the opportunity to experience something I thought only existed in movies; Bioluminescent Bay. So in a nutshell, Im pretty sure you have probably seen pictures of it on popular destination or travel feeds, of an ocean that lights up blue. Like out of the movie Life of Pi. Yes guys, it exists.
That night, us and another couple ventured into Mosquito Bay along with our guide. We were in kayaks, equipped with our paddles and life vest. Being from Florida, we have pretty crazy, human eating creatures (animals, retiles, and sea life) that Im personally, not so keen on getting friendly with. As we paddled out into the dark, our guide casually mentions that this bay is a nursery for many of their marine life… my heart dropped and Jamie’s Shark radar was on high alert. Close your eyes and picture this with me… *Close eyes* Do you see anything? Exactly, pitch dark right? Well that was how dark it was that night. The best time to see the Bioluminescence in action is when the moon is at its lowest cresent. So with little moon light, and no light anywhere except for the starry sky. We relied on our senses. As we paddled out further, and told us to look at the water and watch the fish that were following us. I must say it was pretty awesome seeing so many of them swimming in unison in our wake. As we got we paddled more, I started to notice something… something breathtaking. Everything my paddle would hit the water to push our kayak forward, there was a blueish glow. Basically, the water would glow every time there was friction or a disturbance that would happen to it.The deeper we went into the middle of the bay, the more it glowed. We stopped for a little bit while our guide explained the reasoning behind the luminescence. James was so exciting, he took his feet and dipped it into the water, then his hands, then I scolded him to stop because well one, we are in a kayak and he keeps on rocking us back and forth. Two, Jamie’s shark radar was still on high alert. And three, well truthfully I was mesmerized and scared at the same time. During the last length of the time we were out in the bay, our guide wanted to show us some awesome things we can see in the bay. He kayaked around and had us watch the water because if there was a fish that was big enough, you can see it clearly from the glow of the BioLumi. James once again thought that it would be a brilliant idea to take his battle and splash it into the water.. “Splash, Splash, Splash…woah Jamie look at that!!” ( The fish that was getting scared from the commotion on the surface.) And again, “Splash, Splash, Splash…woah look at that!!” … At this point, my Shark radar has overheated and was about to explode. I finally told him to stop doing that because there was sharks in the water. (Sharks are attracted by the vibrations in the water of an injured animal. So what James was doing with his paddle made what I feared a reality.) With the other couples Kayak adjacent from our, James splashed once more… and right to my left, the water light up like the forth of July… only this time, it shaped out a huge 7 foot shark. The couple next to us was in a bit of a surprise and our guide, trying to sound calm and cool, said “Oh man yeah I love to see them. They don’t bite…” As we all became quite and James sticks his hand back into the water and play with the BioLumi, the guide hesitantly says, “Well maybe keep your hands out of the water, I don’t know what kind of shark it is..” UM I can tell you!! Its a hungry shark thats for sure! As we ended out tour, I looked up into the pitch black, twinkling sky. It was incredible, all of the stars shining down at us.
The luminescent bay and starry skies will be locked in my memories in a special place. Until my next adventure, here are some recaps from Puerto Rico!
