At dawn today, a light nor’easter blew in at the beach.  The surf roughed up a bit with whitecaps extending out to sea, but the waves themselves are not that large.  Still, it was a far cry from what the ocean was like just a few hours before, at 3am.

It was almost two o’clock when I when to bed last night, the last person in the cottage to turn out the lights.  Our room faces the ocean and just before going to sleep, I decided to look through the window screen at the ocean.  It had been calm all day, the waves no higher than 12-inches tall, so the whole expanse of water was simply flat and black.  A bright green wave broke on the sand bar.

I blinked.

Was that reflecting off the street lights or could it be…?

I waited through two more waves before waking up Oksana.  “Sorry, honey, but I think we might want to take a walk down to the beach.”

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There’s an easily-overlooked natural wonder printed on every map of Puerto Rico: “Mosquito Bay.”  It’s a regrettably descriptive name, but I like to think the fact it has never been changed is simply a clever cartographer’s trick that keeps the surrounding area undeveloped.  The locals on the island of Vieques refer to it as “Bio Bay,” and it’s home to one of the best bioluminescent displays on planet Earth.

The conditions in Mosquito Bay are just right for trillions of organisms, called dinoflagellates, to thrive.  Invisible to the naked eye, these microscopic creatures release a tiny burst of light when the water around them is disturbed. When millions go off at once, the water glows blue-green.

Every night, excepting those near a full moon, local companies bring tourists by the van-load to witness the phenomenon.  You can’t see it from the shore, so boats are provided. Gas-powered motors have been outlawed, but there are still electric-motor pontoon boats for those that want to be up off the water.  Oksana and I chose to take a guided kayak tour.

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