Puerto Rico Winterim 3/23

Written by Tori and Maylei

We woke up at 7:30 a.m. and got everything packed and ready to go, and had a really good breakfast. We got ready to say goodbye to the big yellow house and the iguanas. Then we loaded up into the vans that were lively with music and started our trip across the island to the el Yunque national forest to “hike” or walk through the beautiful forest to a beautiful river. We swam and swam in the cool water and played on the big rocks, after about an hour we hiked back to the van and we were off to lunch. We went to a cool strip of shops and food right on the beach i Luquillo, where we had amazing piña coladas and lunch! After we enjoyed some shopping, then it was time to go to the beach, the crystal clear blue water was amazing. We played with empty coconuts in the water and enjoyed the sun. We finished of our beach time with coconut and passion fruit ice cream. We dried off and headed back to the van to take us to Casa Coral! We arrived at our beautiful beach house were we got settled and and had some amazing dinner. Then it was time for kayaking! We piled in the van in the dark, singing all the way there. We arrived at the kayaking place where we applied lots of bug spray and waited our turn to paddle. We got our life jackets and waded to the boats and paddled 2 miles downriver to the bioluminescent bay(lagoon). Through mangroves that arched over us making a cool tunnel in the dark, as we tried to stray from the walls of mangrove around us. The guide talked about the science of the the glowing plankton we turned off all the light, and in doing so we turned of the light pollution from the city with tarps over our kayaks. We made movement in the water and were able to see the plankton glow! We played with the glitter of bioluminescence before slowly making our way back up the river. Paddling hard and arms hurting, we had lots of fun battling the current. Wet and tired we made it back to shore and piled in the van to make it home for the night. At last at around 11 o'clock it was finally time for bed.