Thorns, pirates and bioluminescence

The Jolly Roger reigns over Las Croabas Park in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.

When you live on the West Coast, Puerto Rico seems like a long ways away. But the fact is, it's cheaper to fly to this tropical isle  than to Hawaii. Yesterday I was treated to something that I don't think Hawaii has -- biolumiscence -- water that glimmers with light as falls from your hand.

Unfortunately, you can't take a photo of bioluminescence. It's bright enough to see, but impossible to photograph. So you'll have to take my word for it. The excursion I went on was located in a little city called Fajardo, at Las Croabas Park.

Before I went there, I spent part of the morning strolling the humongous resort where I can afford to stay by using time share credits. I got up early to examine some damage to my rental car from a brush-and-run from the night before. (More on that in a future blog.) Then I walked around the grounds a bit, taking in some of the interesting foilage, such as the tree, below.

What an amazing trunk; you are looking at a root that is probably 3.5 feet high, at least.

Another view of this amazing tree, with roots that reach down the bank.

Then as I was walking along the road, I took a closer look at a tree I previously had thought was rather ordinary looking. When you get close you realize this species of tree seems to have an anti-social personality disorder. Nothing personal about it -- it doesn't care if you lean against it -- but you certainly will.

Big, stubborn, unforgiving three-quarter-inch thorns aim in every direction.

Don't try using this limb for chin-ups.

I doubt that I will ever see
A monster meaner than this tree.

Those thorns reminded me of what was once called the Iron Maiden, the hollow shell that held prisoners and which was festooned with interior spikes. Except, of course, that the Iron Maiden was a fiction. This tree, however, is a fact.

Here are some friendlier examples of the flora at the resort.

Malanga -- replaces spuds, reduces blood pressure

Toward the end of the day I headed out for my excursion. Along the way, I stopped at Walmart to shop for malangas, pictured below. This is a remarkable root vegetable. You can mash it just like potatoes. I made some just before writing this post. It is quite good and quite filling, and it is supposed to help with high blood pressure. I'm going to be looking for this and other Puerto Rican root vegetables after I get back to Seattle.

I planned an early arrival for the bioluminesence tour, which technically was about a 40-minute drive from the resort.
Technically.
Getting around Puerto Rico by auto isn't difficult, once you get the hang of it, but using GPS can be a bit iffy because the street names are not always posted and freeway exits could be more obvious. So you have to trust the GPS, and it's not always spot on.

Dollar Rent A Car charged me $11 a day for a Nissan Sentra, and then upgraded me to a Hyundai Tucson because they didn't have the compact in stock. They also would have charged me $13 per day for a Garmin brand GPS device,  after warning me that Verizon's GPS system was unreliable. Actually, I found Verizon's GPS pretty reliable, but I used a Garmin as well. For the price of renting one, I could simply purchase one. Neither device is 100 percent correct, but if you stay cool you can get where you're going.

When I got to Las Crobas Park, I found pirates -- sort of. The folks got creative with the big toys, which were made out to be imaginary pirate ships. I hadn't seen anything so creative in big toys.

Pirates ahoy! With a little imagination, the kids become swashbucklers.

This is the business end of the port canon near the ship's bow.

At a small cafe by the park I dined on bits of pork and paella -- a rice and corn cake.

Too dark to photograph

And here's where the photos end. Even though there was a bit of cloud cover, the moon was full and that meant light pollution. That and the gentleness of the glow in the water made it impossible to photograph the bioluminiscence. However, it was just dark enough to poke your eye out if you didn't watch where you were going and drifted into a mangrove branch.

Mangroves essential for the night lights

The mangroves are part of the reason for the bioluminescence. The plankton that produce it pour from the ocean into this mangrove estuary, and the chemicals from the mangroves as well as the temperature of the water are just right to support the animals that make the glow. When I stirred the water with my hand, it became engulfed in a white smoke-like glowing cloud. When I splashed the water onto the edge of the kayak, the ocean water looked like shimmering droplets of mercury running across the surface of the boat. Puerto Rico is one of the best places in the world to see this phenomenon.

My under-powered vessel

My kayak was under powered and slow. All other kayaks had two paddlers aboard. I rode solo and it was a chore keeping up and maneuvering in the dark through the channels of the mangroves. The twisting channel eventually reached quiet open water where we tied up together and played with the planktons, before returning to shore. The excursion was a three-mile round trip, according to one guide. Toward the end I accepted his offer to give me a bit of a tow, which made catching up with the others a lot easier. No shame here; I had been doing the work of two. And unlike two couples in our group, I managed not to flip my kayak.

Rubber knees

I was surprised I didn't get blisters on my palms, and more surprised when I tried to stand up after exiting the kayak. It's not unusual for newbies to have rubbery legs when they exit the craft, and the waves of the ocean can give you a tumble. The guide had to hold me up to get me up the steps on the bank. I put my arm around him and held on. Twenty years from now, I may not need the excuse of kayak exhaustion to require that kind of help. Was this a premonition of things to come? Where did I stash that walker?

Love,
Robert