Bioluminescent Bay Tour

Bioluminescence is light produced through chemical reactions in living organisms.  Think fireflies.  But there are plenty of other organisms that produce bioluminescence, including algae.  There are only 5 bioluminescent bays in the world;  bays you can swim or kayak in, and when you disturb the water it lights up.  Three of these bays are in Puerto Rico.  If you go to Puerto Rico, chances are you’ll stay in San Juan.  The closest bioluminescent bay to San Juan is in Fajardo, which is about an hour car ride from Old San Juan.

We rented a car which was something we had to do for our two day adventure to Fajardo.  Driving in Puerto Rico is easy, although our experience with Avis car rentals wasn’t the best.  The streets were nice and traffic wasn’t too bad.  If you want to see bioluminescence it has to be at night, so you can drive there at night and drive back, or just spend the night in Fajardo.  That’s what we did.  There is plenty to do and see on the way, so going to Fajardo to see the bio bay is a good way to pack a few activities into your trip.  You can stop at El Yunque rainforest on the way, visit Luqillo beach, eat local food road side puestos and finally arrive in Fajardo. 

We stopped at El Yunque, went to Luqillo and then checked in at our Airbnb, Marina Luxury Rooms.  It was a beautiful spot to stop for a night’s rest, but keep in mind there isn’t much to do in Fajardo, except for being a starting point for your activities, so you really don’t need to stay long.  We did the Biobay tour that night with Kayaking Puerto Rico.  There are plenty of kayaking companies operating in Puerto Rico, so make sure you know which company you booked with when you get to Kayak Village.

To get to the bay, you kayak through a mangrove lined lagoon.  Kayaking through there, with the current, can be frustrating.  It’s a cool and eerie experience: kayaking through the mangroves in the dark of night but that gets spoiled by the other tourists.  As with all popular tourist attractions, Kayak village, and all the companies operating there are packed with tourists.  To ensure no one gets lost, you have to kayak in a line with people from your tour who can’t steer, paddle to slow, or decide to ram you from behind.  Throughout the journey through the lagoon to get to the bay, the group was stuck on mangroves, collisions of kayaks and people trying to cut the entire line, causing more chaos and confusion.  When you think you are making ground… boom someone smashes into you from behind.  Or boom the kayak in front of you loses control, turns and blocks the path of everyone behind causing a multi kayak collision.

When you finally make it through the lagoon, the guides provide more information about the bay.  Of course there will be a few arrogant tourists being loud and disrupting the information session.  But I shouldn’t complain, you can’t control people and it is no fault of the tour guides.  There will always be obnoxious people.   It was a neat experience and we saw lots of bioluminescence in the bay, but the colour in real life isn’t like the colour you see in the photos.  Instead of bright blue it’s more whitish.  You have some time to explore the bay, excite the algae and observe the bioluminescence.  Then you head back against the current through the mangroves for more collisions and call it a night.

I expected better, but for someone who is interested in nature and science, it is a recommended experience.  Despite the chaos, kayaking in the night and through the mangroves is cool.  And there’s something magnificent about seeing the water light up as you run your hand through it.  It’s one of those attractions that is slightly underwhelming but still a must do.  After the tour we spent the night in our Airbnb and woke up early for a departure to Flamenco beach from the marina in Fajardo.