A good portion of this weekend involved me laying in my bed feeling like death had come to poke his finger in my side and giggle while I lay in misery. The two parts of my weekend that I do want to write about are the times that I got out of bed and had what has probably been my favorite weekend here thus far. And after re-reading this, I apologize for it being so long…I got excited.
I’ll start with Saturday night in Parguera, PR. Approximately 15-20 minutes from San German is Parguera and the “Bioluminescent Bay.” No matter how sick I am, the idea of glowing water will always get me out of bed. Upon arriving in Parguera with Kristi, Holly, Bobby (friend of Kristi) and myself, we were surprised to see quite a night life. There bars blaring music, kids running with bubbles (doesn’t quite match the bar scene but whatever), tents set up with artisans selling their crafts, and hundreds of people walking around having a great time. So we cruised through the artisan’s stands and eventually made our way to the ferry. A ferry/boat was required to see this so called “glowing water.” We all opted for the smaller boat owned by Johnny Boat’s (grammar intended) and were set to leave at 9:15 pm. By 9:45 we finally began boarding, slightly frustrated but ready to go.
At this bioluminescent bay there were floating houses where people were having a grand time, small islands people can swim at during the day, and quite possibly the view of every star in the sky. Cruising in the boat we kept looking at the water and after about 15 minutes we were disappointed and thinking that the tour was over. We had seen a few “Edward Cullen” sparkles, as I like to call them, but hardly anything to advertise as glowing water. About this time our boat pulled up to another one of Johnny Boat’s boats and a teenage boy jumped overboard! As soon as he did, we all realized why. In the water there are microorganisms that are only activated with movement. When he began to swim, all of the water around him lit up neon green. The only real description would be those glow necklaces you get at pep rallies or skating parties. We all began flicking the water and sure enough! Green water! It was glowing, sparkling, speckling, and doing everything else that you could imagine! Almost looked like green lightning bugs just hanging out. When it was time to go, the boat took off and where the motor was it resembled a swamp movie. All of the water coming from behind the boat was green and glowing; no lights on or anything, just glowing water! It was by far the most spectaculous thing I have ever seen nature-wise (Sorry Dad, I’m afraid it even beats the beaver’s nest and the spawning rituals of crappie).
The remainder of the night we ate a Mexican restaurant and then headed back. So now we go through a slight time warp to Sunday night (speaking of time warp…apparently I’m a nerd for liking Star Wars over reality TV. Or Titanic.) I met this guy the other night, Hector, who owns one of my favorite cafes downtown. All weekend he kept telling me that there was some art and cultural festival this weekend that I couldn’t miss. It sounded like St. James, so right down my alley. The more people I talked to, the more awesome it sounded. Sunday rolled around and he sent me a text saying he was gonna go if I wanted to come, but at the time no one else was up for the journey except for me (and my momma taught me good…I don’t travel with stranger, I only take their candy). So disappointed I went for a run and just worked on some homework. Around 4 pm he sent another text saying that he got a late start and was just getting ready to go if I wanted to. My roommate, Sarahi, had showed some interest in it, so she decided to come with me. I was back to being super stoked.
After getting picked up by Hector and his friend Jaime, going through a curvy car ride in which I thought I’d lose whatever I had eaten, and parking, we were finally at the festival. Hundreds and hundreds of people walking around, a stage set up with live music, and tons of artisan booths and food kiosks were what greeted me. We looked around at every booth that was there (at least once) and continued on to eat some fried plaintains and empanillas with some freshly squeezed orange juice while watching some of the bands. I had a blast.
Sarahi always tells me that it’s very hard to understand when we speak English quickly but I never really understood until last night. While some people were ‘able’ to speak English, I was definitely the only one there whose first language was English. But nonetheless I asked everyone to continue speaking in Spanish and if I had problems I’d let them know….maybe. Wow, so much harder than I thought. And to make it even more challenging, Sarahi (from Mexico) would discuss the differences in words between here and there. Example: biscocho in Mex. is “sweetheart, darling, etc.” while here it is “cupcake.” And unfortunately there are a ton of these words.
After several hours at the festival in Maricao, we all had our fill of music, art, and fun. Ok, not really, it was actually just getting late. So we hopped in the car and on the way out we saw some guy get run over by a car. No joke. This drunk girl was driving and ran this guy over. So he’s laying on the road, his friends are trying to beat the crap out of her, she’s trying to get the heck out of there, and the cops show up at just about that time. We decided to leave…ok, we decided to watch for a few minutes and then leave. The drive back was not nearly as bad and before calling it a night we went to Risa’s Café for a bit to grab a bite to eat and hang out. After a much needed midnight snack, Hector drove us back to the dorm where we proceeded to pass out in our beds. Not only do I love glowing water, but I love festivals. This weekend was so much fun, and I must toss a ‘thank you’ out there to Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom relief for allowing me to move from my bed. More adventures to soon follow.
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