Fajardo Bio Bay Kayak Tour: Sunset with Marine Biologist Guide

4.83

(196 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We were already half-soaked before we even left Kayak Village in Fajardo—someone (okay, me) managed to splash water everywhere during the “Kayak 101” lesson. Our guide, Javier, just grinned and handed me a lifejacket with a whistle clipped on. He’s a marine biologist—he mentioned it right away, but not in a braggy way—and somehow made even the safety talk sound interesting. The sun was dropping fast behind the mangroves as we set out in our tandem kayaks, everyone bumping paddles and laughing nervously about who’d end up steering us into the trees.

The canal felt like another world once we got inside. You could hear frogs and something that sounded like distant music from another group. It was darker than I expected—Javier had warned us about that—but it made the first glimpse of bioluminescence feel like some kind of secret. He stopped us under the low branches and told us to swirl our hands in the water. At first I thought he was joking, but then little sparks lit up around my fingers—tiny blue stars just for us. The air smelled salty-sweet and earthy, probably from all that sargassum he explained (not my favorite smell, honestly). But it’s part of the deal.

I kept thinking I’d be scared in the dark but actually it was kind of peaceful—just paddle splashes and people whispering “wow” every time someone’s hand lit up the lagoon. Javier answered every random question we threw at him (someone asked if you could bottle the glow—he laughed and said nature doesn’t work like that). On the way back, I realized my arms were tired but I didn’t really care; there was this weird happiness buzzing through me that I can’t quite explain. Still think about those blue sparks sometimes when I’m washing dishes at home.