Today involved a whole lot of traveling! First I woke up at 7:30, thought it was much later (apparently I have lost the ability to tell time), and woke A up too. Once we figured out the actual time, we went back to sleep! I woke up again shortly, and whispered to A that I was going to check out the “Bookworm” store. It turned out to be pretty cool, with both English and Spanish books. It is a gay-owned bookshop, and had several of those books, as well as plenty of new age and self-help titles. There were at least five books I could have gotten, but the best find was a brochure near the cash register for bioluminescent bay tours with a gay tour guide! I ran for a pay phone and was delighted to find that he would indeed be leading a tour tonight. I made a reservation and went back to the hotel room.

Because we wouldn’t be kayaking until the evening, we headed for the Bacardí factory. Our trip started with a bus ride, and then we walked to the Acua Expreso ferry terminal. We had a long wait for the ferry, and when we finally set out it was for Hato Rey and then Cataño, where the factory is. Once we reached the right port, we had to take a $5 cab ride to get to the factory. An English tour was leaving as soon as we arrived, so we joined in. Most of the tour was conducted through audio guides that looked like telephone handsets, but there was also a short movie and a demonstration of how to make a mojito. We sent “videomail” to our parents and then returned to the tram for the rest of the tour. In the gift shop I bought five 50mL bottles in each of the special Bacardí flavors. We redeemed our free drink tickets for tiny mixed drinks, and then took a cab back to the ferry terminal. We had to go by Hato Rey again before returning to Old San Juan.

We were supposed to be back at the hotel by 4:30 to meet the van at 5 for the kayaking trip, but the B21 bus driver said he wasn’t leaving for 25 minutes! We cut it very close but managed to catch the van. We picked up one other couple, and then settled in for the long ride out to Fajardo. For me it seemed very long, because I’d had a big soda before leaving! We finally arrived at the park and I ran to a nearby restaurant. The door clearly said RESTROOMS FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY but I ignored it and nobody bothered me.

Our guide was Robert, working for Island Kayaking Adventures. After the requisite mini-lesson, we got onto our sit-on-tops and headed out. The stronger paddler sits in back, and the front paddler sets the pace, but I told A to sit back and relax (and navigate, because I couldn’t see around her!). We paddled through a long mangrove channel and then emerged into Laguna Grande. The other tour company was right - the moon made it nearly impossible to see any phosphorescence. Robert had brought a tarp, though, and the five of us huddled under it and splashed around while Robert explained how the plankton glow. We couldn’t see very much, but what we could see was impressive! We’d heard it’s nearly impossible to photograph this, so we’d left the camera behind. I was the only one who jumped in when it was time to swim, but the water was great! My PFD didn’t fit me very well, so it rode up on my chest (the one I have at home is designed for women) and made swimming difficult. The three kayaks moved with the current but I couldn’t keep up, so after I splashed about for a while A paddled over to pick me up. We chatted with Robert for a few minutes, and then he helped me back into my boat (and we didn’t tip A out of it!). We paddled back through the mangroves (it was very dark, I couldn’t see a thing - not good for the person in charge of steering!) and then had fruit and other snacks back at the pier. The ride home seemed much shorter than the ride there, and we arrived back at the hotel by 10:30pm. [See also my trip report for this excursion.]