Oh you’re still here? I know, both you and I thought I was done with Puerto Rico travelogue but I am not!
In fact, I haven’t told you about the best part of the trip, which there are no pictures of: night kayaking through bioluminescence. It is caused by these tiny critters that light up when they are moved. We went through these channels of mangrove trees into water black as ink, and the darker it got around us, the more the water sparkled when it moved. First, it looked like bubbles coming off the oars. When it got darker, you could dip your hand in the water and watch sparkles slide down your arm. Then a fish would dart by, its body outlined by sparkles. By the time we were out into a lagoon, the waves were sparkling and all these fish–tilapia, sting rays, and so on–were swimming around us, glowing as they swam, jumping up and hitting the water. It was like you could see every fish that came up to the surface of the water, including entire schools of sparkling, glowing fish. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done.
All this took place in lagoons surrounded by mangrove trees. Kyle and I had taken a nature hike through the lagoon during the day. Mangroves are fascinating plants. They grown in shallow salty water and have mechanisms for filtering the salt out of the water. We saw a lot of nature, including dozens of crabs, a mongoose, iguanas and their eggs, dark green hummingbirds, and termite nests the size of basketballs. Here’s some pictures from the hike:
Beach
Mangrove trees with their weird roots in the water.
Close up of the roots
A dried up lagoon. I liked the weird pattern of the sand.
Crab