Settling in and Speeding By...

As my third week is coming quickly to an end, I've realized that I can't believe how quickly time flies here in Vieques!

Over the past week or so, I have been busy with all sorts of new activities, adventures and experiences including my first foray into snorkeling in the Atlantic to capture creatures for our marine life exhibit along with finally visiting the bioluminescent bay (Puerto Mosquito) at night. On the note of "Puerto Mosquito", I am sadly finding that my Wisconsinite blood is just as appealing to Puerto Rican mosquitos as it is to the vicious Wisconsin mosquitos that chow on my blood at home.

Playa Grande

In my free time, I have biked and hiked my way to two stunning beaches just outside of Esperanza-- Playa Grande and Playa Negra. Both beaches were uniquely stunning! Playa Grande was beautifully rugged and picturesque, and Playa Negra, although much smaller than Playa Grande, involved a gorgeous half-mile hike in to the secluded beach.

Playa Negra

On a more exciting and significant note, the next round of our "Manta" Summer Programs kicked off this past week at the Trust. It's been a ton of fun getting to work, play and learn with this fabulous group of kids! They have been busy learning about the impact of recycling by visiting the local garbage dump here, swimming in the ocean in order to learn more about marine life and have been actively starting a composting program at the Trust by raking up leaves and creating a compost container. Their compost initiative has inspired me (along with my mom's personal green initiative -- she composts year round for her summer vegetable garden); consequently, I'm hoping to start a compost campaign for the local community to help educate about the ease and benefits gained by the simple act of recycling organic materials.

But hands down, the most fantastic and awe inspiring experience of my internship thus far was seeing the bioluminescent bay on Tuesday night. Around 8 pm, Mark, Melissa (my fellow intern) and I loaded onto a school bus tour and made our way down the rough, bumpy road to Puerto Mosquito; we joined a biobay tour group in order to collect a specimen sample of the dinoflagellate, which is the organism that is responsible for the fluorescent nature of the bay. As a chemist, I found it fascinating that the fluorescence of these single cell organisms occurs due to an interaction of a protein and an enzyme. When the organism is moved or disturbed, the combination of the protein and enzyme helps facilitate a chemical reaction causing the teensy-tiny dinoflagellate to glow!

As we glided smoothly across the dark water, my jaw dropped as as I watched the glowing wake of our boat drifting behind us -- I absolutely could not believe how beautiful and ethereal the bay looked; words and descriptions do not give adequate justice to the inexplicable beauty and wildness of the whole experience. Watching the water glow and glimmer, I was reminded of the Disney movie "Peter Pan", where Tinkerbell, a small fairy, zips and flies around leaving a trail of glimmering pixie dust in her wake.

Pyrodinium bahamense are the micro-organisms responsible for the
fluorescence of the biobay in Vieques.

Even though I am a chemistry major who has a limited background in biology, I have never experienced anything in nature that has rivaled or influenced me quite as much as my night on the biobay; the whole evening makes me want to delve deeper into natural biology where I can hopefully apply my background knowledge of chemistry! Before I get overly sentimental and even more long winded about my experience, I will sum everything up by saying that the bioluminescent bay is definitely one of the most magnificent experiences that our world has to offer.

Such an amazing past week, and the best part is there are many more adventures to come! With our upcoming fishing tournament, more snorkeling to restock the marine life exhibit and more Manta activities and explorations, I am up looking forward to the upcoming days ahead!

-Abby