This week we went on a tour of one of Puerto Rico’s bioluminescent bays, La Parguera. A bio bay is a ecosystem in a sheltered bay that lets thousands of Dinoflagellates thrive. When touched, they produce one tiny bit of glowing bioluminescence. When there’s a whole bunch in one place it looks really cool when people move around in it.
There are three bio bays in Puerto Rico, one in Jamaica, and one in Vietnam the one we went to is the only one with an ecosystem stable enough for people to swim in it.
We dove around each other showing off what spinning and going still then suddenly moving did. We dove underneath each other and pushed bioluminescence at one another making it look like we were superheros spraying light at everyone. Daddy jumped in a few times and we got to watch as he made it close to the bottom (about twelve feet down) and then went shooting back up with a glowing trail. We were told by some of the other people on the tour, who had gone before, that the bottom was sticky mud that smelled terrible. Apparently when they had gone somebody touched the bottom and got covered in goop. According to Jack, the bottom felt like a pillow and wasn’t sticky at all. None of us went near it except him, I guess we didn’t want to take the chance that it was sticky and smelly.
Before it was dark enough to experience the bioluminescent bay, we went on a snorkeling tour of the reef off La Parguera. That tour was less cool but still fun. We snorkeled around the reef and found sea urchins,sea stars, and a bunch of big fish too. While we were getting on our gear, we saw a dolphin really close to the boat. We didn’t see any others though and it disappeared as soon as we jumped into the water. It actually rained during the tour and only stopped when we got back on the boat.
We had a great time swimming in the bio bay and if any of you are ever in Puerto Rico I would highly recommend it.
What an amazing experience! I love your description!