Swimming in bio-luminescent Mosquito Bay

A visit to Peurto Rico isn't complete without a visit to one of it's many bio-luminescent bays. The one we chose to visit was in the island of Vieques off the Peurto Rican mainland. Mosquito Bay in Vieques is considered the best example of a bioluminescent bay in the United States and is listed as a national natural landmark.We got to Vieques by taking one of the daily ferries from the mainland.

Swimming in Mosquito Bay

The biobay tour company that we shortlisted was one that allowed you to swim in the bay as the others allow you to kayak only in it.I've heard that since our trip,you can't swim in the bay anymore.We met outside the tour company's office at dark and then were taken down to the shore of the bay in a beat up van with kayaks piled on top of it and tied to it.

It was a bumpy ride in the van and at several points we thought the kayaks would fly off the top off the van but we managed to make it one piece to the bay. We wore our life-vests, grabbed our oars and Russell and I got into our kayak and started off to the middle of the bay. As we got deeper in the water and away from the ambient light on the shore you could see that once the water was disturbed with our oars we left a shiny luminescent trail behind, like blue glowing diamonds in the water. This was the bio-luminescence. The luminescence in the bay is caused by a micro-organism, the dinoflagellate which glows whenever the water is disturbed, leaving a trail of neon blue.It was absolutely beautiful. The Spanish believed that the bioluminescence they encountered there while first exploring the area, was the work of the devil ('El Diablo') and tried to block ocean water from entering the bay by dropping huge boulders in the channel. The Spanish only succeeded in preserving and increasing the luminescence in the now isolated bay.

Once we got to the middle of the bay we got out of the kayak and swam in the water, the bay was shallow and the water was warm. But as the water ran over our arms and bodies it looked like we were covered in shiny blue diamonds. It was simply ethereal and it felt like we were on the sets of Avatar! We splashed each other and it looked like we were throwing blue weightless shiny diamonds at one another. It seemed like Aladdin would show up any moment in his flying carpet and join us in our diamond pool!! It was a truly magical night.

After about fifteen minutes or so we reluctantly got back into our kayaks and paddled ashore. What an amazing experience...a once in a lifetime magical trip!

More bio-luminescence at BioBay