The Experience · Bucketlist Tours
A Private Day and Night at La Parguera
Snorkeling at a cay, sunset on the water, and a swim in the bioluminescent bay with the guide in the water beside you.
This is a full day, and it is built for one group at a time. Yours.
The road
We leave San Juan at 2:00 in the afternoon. The standard pickup is the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino in Condado, in a private, air-conditioned Mercedes with cold bottled water on board.
La Parguera is on the southwest coast, in Lajas, about two and a half hours away. The road crosses the central mountain range and comes down into the southern plains. I will not pretend that is a short drive. It is the price of the only bay where you can swim, and I use the time. You will hear the history of the landscape we are crossing, and what you are about to see in the water and why it happens.
On the way we stop at Guánica, where United States troops landed in 1898.
There is also an optional door to door service. I can pick you up and bring you back to your hotel or Airbnb anywhere from Rincón in the west to Humacao in the east.
The hotel
We work with a partner hotel in La Parguera. You change there before we board. Your dinner is ordered on the way in.
The cay
We reach the dock around 5:45 and board our private boat for Cayo Caracoles, a tiny island inside the La Parguera Nature Reserve. It is where locals go to avoid the crowds in Fajardo. We swim and snorkel through its channels in warm, clear, turquoise water. Sanitized snorkeling gear, life vests and floaties are included, so swimmers and non-swimmers are both in the water. There is very little walking on this day and no hiking.
Sunset
We watch it from the water at the cay. Then we wait, because the bay keeps its own hours and so do your eyes. They need fifteen full minutes of darkness before they are ready. I will ask you to stay off your phone. One look at a bright screen and the fifteen minutes start again.
The bay
After dark the boat takes us to Papayo Cove, inside La Parguera. This is the bioluminescent water.
I am the first one in the water, on every departure. Part of that is professional. I want you to see that it is safe, and I want to show you how to move. Frantic splashing is not the best way to see the glow.
Then you follow me in.
The water is warmer than you expect. Where we swim it is ten to thirteen feet deep and the bottom is mud. No coral, no urchins, no rocks, and nothing living that will hurt you. The bay is saltier than the open sea outside it, so you float more easily than you are used to.
We go out on a pontoon. Underneath the platform there is an air space about six feet wide, twenty feet long and eighteen inches high. The aluminum ribs that hold up the floor work like monkey bars, so you can hang there instead of treading water. And under the platform there is no moon. Guests tell me it is twice as bright under there.
I show you the halo around your arm. I show you the arm test: lift your arm slowly out of the water, and some of them stay on your skin and keep blinking in the open air.
This is the moment when people go quiet.
The film
I film you in the water with low light equipment of the kind marine filmmakers use, and the footage is delivered to you afterwards as a keepsake. Leave your phone behind. Salt water kills phones, and the photograph would come out blurry anyway.
After
Back at the hotel you shower and put on dry clothes. Dinner comes fifteen minutes after we return. Then we drive back, clean and fed, without wondering whether anything will still be open when you get there. Expect to be back in San Juan later in the evening. The whole day runs about eight hours.
Who this is for
Couples. Families with children and teenagers. Grandparents. Friends. Groups of two to twelve.
There is no age limit. I have had two-year-olds and eighty-five-year-olds in that water.
What is included
- Private, air-conditioned transportation from Condado, with the door to door option
- Cold bottled water
- A certified, bilingual guide: me
- About three hours on a private boat, to Cayo Caracoles and to Papayo Cove
- Sanitized snorkeling gear, life vests and floaties
- Use of the partner hotel to change before and shower after
- Footage of your night
- Our two Bucketlist guidebooks: the top ten things to do in Puerto Rico and the top seven rooftop bars in San Juan
What is not included
- Tips
- Meals and snacks
What it costs
From $1,299.99.
This is priced higher than a kayak tour in Fajardo, without question. What you are paying for is on this page.
What guests say
Questions and answers
Yes. We use a partner hotel in La Parguera. You change there before we board and shower there after the swim.
After. It is ordered on the way in and arrives fifteen minutes after we get back.
Only your group. One private group per departure.
I am the first one in, on every departure, and I stay in with you the whole time.
No. I have had two-year-olds and eighty-five-year-olds in that water.
Life vests and floaties are included, the bay is saltier than the sea so you float more easily, and under the pontoon you can hold on to the ribs of the platform.
No. We snorkel at a cay for close to two hours first and watch the sunset from the water. The bay comes once it is fully dark.
To a camera, yes. To your eyes, whitish sparkles, perhaps pale green. Only at its peak does it show a hint of blue.
We still go. Under the pontoon there is no moon. Those are not optimal nights and I will not say they are, but in three hundred nights I have never had a group come up disappointed.
Rain sits on top of the salt water and hides the glow from the surface. Under the platform the light is still there.
I am. The footage is yours afterwards.
Leave both. Salt water kills phones, and the less that goes into that water, the better.
About two and a half hours from San Juan. It is the longest drive of the three bays, and it is the only one where you can swim.
The standard pickup is the Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino in Condado. Door to door pickup from your hotel or Airbnb can be arranged.
About eight hours. We leave San Juan in the early afternoon and return later in the evening.
From $1,299.99. Tips are not included.