Puerto Rico in 7 Days - Day 3

We checked out of our lovely hotel and drove down to the El Yunque Rain Forest. There are several different trails you can go on here and so we drove to the farthest parking spot and went from there. As we were making our way Chris and I both commented that we felt like we were in line for a ride at Disneyland. I specifically said it felt like we were in the old Swiss Family Robinson Tree House at Disneyland. Anyone remember that one? There were so many people all with the same destination in mind. La Mina Falls. I had read that it was a popular waterfall because people like to swim in it but that you can also keep going past it and see some wonderful swimming areas that are less crowded. They weren't kidding about it being popular. If you want to get a quieter less touristy version of the rainforest try one of the other trails like El Bano. It was beautiful there and it was amazing to see so many different plants in one area.

From El Yunque we drove a few more miles down the road to Fajardo where we would be staying for the night. We stayed at the Casa Real Guesthouse and we knew it would be big step down in amenities from our previous two nights but our main thing was to stay someplace cheap and clean. I read about this place in my Go To Puerto Rico guide book and it met our expectations perfectly. It was in a very rundown part of town but our room was very clean and we had A/C. Plus it was $50 cash for the night. You can't beat that. Our plan was to do some laundry while in Fajardo. I had read in my guidebook that they had a laundry place in town so off we went with our clothes in tow. Well, nobody told us it was a holiday! The laundry/ postoffice/ stationary store was closed. What to do? I looked in my book to see if there were any other laundry areas around in nearby towns and we also asked around. Nothing. So we went to the store, bought some detergent and washed our clothes by hand in our tiny bathroom sink. I washed in the sink and Chris rinsed in the tub. We hung all of our clothes up on a rack and they were dry by morning. I felt very pioneerish!

There are 5 Bioluminescent Bays in the world. Three of them are in Puerto Rico. One of these is in Fajardo at Laguna Grande so we had reservations with Kayaking Puerto Rico.


We took the later of the two kayaking trips and started kayaking out a little after 9 p.m. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen and was one of the highlights of my trip. For anyone going to Puerto Rico you don't want to miss it. We kayaked across the ocean for about five minutes, through a mangrove canal for about 20 and then we were in this bay. They used to let people swim in it but found that the insect repellant and sunscreen were hurting the tiny Pyrodinium Bahamense, a microscopic plankton capable of producing natural light at the touch of your hand! So when you put your hand in the water, the water around your hand sparkles like fairy dust. Anything that touches the water lights up like that. It was truly breathtaking. It was an exciting yet exausting day going from hiking in the rain forest to kayaking to one of the worlds only bioluminescent bays. What a lesson in ecosystems that I never could get from a book. A day I won't soon forget.