I arrived at the observatory on Friday evening, and met most of the other students. 6 of them (Andrew, Dan, Sam, Laura, Martha, and Danielle) had taken scuba diving lessons all week, so they still had a rental van. It was decided that we would take this van and go out for the weekend.
I was awakened the next morning at 11:45 am by Laura calling and saying they were going to leave at 12:00, to which I replied that they had told me they'd give me enough warning to get ready, so we left at 12:30. Dan, Martin, and Danielle had just left for a atmospheric sciences conference, so 6 of us (Andrew, Laura, Sam, Martha, Julia, and myself) went on the trip, along with Lisa. We had to stop by her house (she's been housesitting for 2 years in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean with 7 dogs and 2 cats about an hour away from the observatory), and the traffic here is terrible, so it took us until 5:30 before we actuaully got to the town we were going to (La Parguera).
When we got to the town we found our hotel. After checking in we went to dinner at a blues cafe that served pretty good pizza. I tried pineapple pizza, which I'd never had before, and it was quite yummy. Then we went for a boat ride to the bioluminescent bay, where lots of dinoflagellates emit light in response to any movement ithe water. We bought tickets for a big boat with lots of people, and we got to see one guy from the boat company jump in the water and make the dinoflagellates glow (and he brought up a bucket of water that we dipped our hands in, and for a minute after I took my hand out whenever I moved it little lights flashed on my hand!). We decided that this was so cool we wanted to come back the next night and swim in the bay. We also walked around the town a bit. It's a very touristy place--lots of vendors selling bits of junk to all the tourists (mostly Puerto Rican) that go to see the bay. Then we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool, watched a show about venemous snakes on the Discovery channel, and went to bed. We had a 2-room suite with a bed, a pull-out sofabed, a cot, and the cushions from the sofa for person #6. I ended up sharing the sofa with Laura. It was quite comfortable. Also, the view was impressive.
We had breakfast at a little cafe by the hotel. I had french toast and orange drink. The guy at the counter asked "tu nombre?" and then repeated "your name?" because he assumed I hadn't understood him the first time. The food was good. Then we rented a boat and took snorkels to the island of Mata Lagata, which is a tiny little island that consists of a mangrove swamp with a boardwalk though it and a little picnic area, and a dock for the boats that bring people there, which encloses a swimming area. We snorkeled in the swimming area and I saw lots of little fish, a few medium-sized yellow and blue striped fish, and one big fish that looked like a small barracuda. We walked along the shore on the other side, where no other people were because it was rocky and most people don't have the right sort of shoes for wading along rocky shores. The boat took us back and it was time for lunch. We looked at some cafes, but Sam and Martha wanted food that wasn't tacos or burritos or something of that nature, so we went to the hotel restaurant, where we discovered that it was quite expensive and didn't have vegetarian food. So Sam, Martha, and Andrew (who can't eat much salt) ate there, while Laura, Julia and I went back to the cafe at which we'd eaten breakfast. They got burritos and I got nachos with guacamole and refried beans. It was yummy. Then we waited at the hotel for a bit while the others finished their meal, and drove to Cabo Rojo.
To get there we had to drive down a long and very bumpy road. Andrew does all the driving because he's the only one who's both an accomplished driver and over 21, which is the minimum age for driving a rental car here. Martha and Laura in the back felt kind of ill by the time we got there. We looked at the abandoned lighthouse and went inside, which was really nasty because all the empty rooms are apparently a spot for drunken parties, so there were lots of beer cans and trash thrown around and it smelled like urine. Outside, however, was beautiful. We walked along the edge of majestic cliffs and took lots of pictures, and then walked down to a beautiful sandy beach in a cove where kids were playing in the surf. We walked along the beach with the waves lapping over our feet. Then Laura went swimming and Martha stayed on the beach, and Andrew, Sam, Julia and I walked out to the point on the other side of the cove. The view reminded me of New England, only the water here is a lot warmer. After this we drove back to La Parguera.
We bought tickets (all of the tickets were $5 each--pretty cheap) for a small boat that let us jump out and swim in the bay for a few minutes. It was amazing--whenever I moved in the water all the water around me would glow. None of the other people on the boat ride swam, so they just watched us. (Julia also watched from the boat, and held my glasses.) Then we got some food from a bakery/convenience store (I had excellent bread and a cheesecake thing with fruit on top) and drove back to the observatory, where we arrived at about 1 am.
More pictures: La Parguera Mata Lagata Cabo Rojo
