Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Later that week we were sitting in a bar in Esperanza when a couple of twenty-somethings
parked themselves next to us and struck up a conversation. Married for about a year, Colin
and Denise had come to Vieques for a long-postponed honeymoon.
“You have a house here?” Colin all-but-shouted. “You dudes are effing lucky!” His eyes
swept from Michael to me.
We admitted that we considered ourselves pretty fortunate.
Colin asked lots of questions. Where could they get the absolute best food on the island?
Which was our favorite beach? What was the biggest iguana we'd ever seen?
We answered as best we could, including telling him about the Stegosaurus-sized iguana
we'd encountered on our first visit to the island.
And then he asked, “What's the bio-bay like?”
“Uh…”
Denise, who had remained quiet for most of the conversation, spoke up now.
“You've never done the bio-bay, have you?”
Her question was good-natured but seasoned with a pinch of mischief.
Michael sighed.
“Not so much.”
“We've always meant to, but there's never enough time,” I complained.
A brief silence followed.
“That's pretty lame,” Denise threw back.
We laughed uneasily.
“Wanna go with us?” Colin asked.
Michael glanced at me.
“Sure.”
It wasn't as if we'd deliberately avoided the bioluminescent bay. After all, many people
considered floating around in the glowing bay a life-altering experience.
And if the experts were right, postponing our visit to the bio-bay much longer might
not be such a good idea. There was evidence that this natural wonder was ecologically en-
dangered and could simply cease to exist in the not-too-distant future.
In layman's terms, the bay's luminescence is generated when the microorganisms inhab-
iting its waters are disturbed by movement. The water looks dark until you jump in, at which
point the microorganisms begin to glow, outlining your body with an eerie blue-green light.
The faster you move, the brighter the glow. In terms of pay-off, you get a very big bang for
your buck.
Although this phenomenon exists elsewhere in the world, most bioluminescent bays
have been partially—and, in some extreme cases, completely—destroyed by pollution.
Vieques' Puerto Mosquito is the brightest surviving bay of its kind in the world.
Which is another way of saying it was truly disgraceful we'd never experienced it.
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