Yokahu Kayak Trips — Attraction in Fajardo

It could have been worse. None of the Kayaks tipped over. The guides were friendly and knowledgeable. The weather was nice. No leeches. But all the rest... pretty much a paddle in the dark across the smallish bay to the entrance to the mangroves and... well, I'm getting ahead of myself. The kayaks (there were about 20) each had color tagged glow sticks at the front and back which was critical because we had to proceed single file following each other through the narrow channel in the mangroves... in the dark... dodging roots and mangroves and branches... steering around termite colonies... trying to avoid running into/being run into another set of kayaks that were on their way out. I think that this part may have been interesting to see in the daylight - but it was pitch black. After about 30 minutes of paddling we entered a lagoon. Finally, we all thought, now we'll see what we came for. The guides proceeded to remove all of the glow sticks, tie all the boats together in a rough circle - noses to the center - one directly next to the other. The guides talked a bit about the ecology of the lagoon and the source of the bioluminescence and we were then told to reach over the side and swish the water (which was challenging to do because of how close the adjacent kayaks were). Lo and behold... a bit of shimmer with each swish. OK, I thought, a limp kind of start, but there's going to be more. Next thing I knew, they passed very large tarps to the assembled, bound together kayaks and told us to hand it to the back so that we ended up being totally covered. And there was darkness. Swish! - we were told. Swish! - we did (again reaching our hands into the bit of water between our kayak and the next). Lo and behold... well... the shimmer was a bit more visible. Pretty - and I'm being generous - as far as it went, which was not so much. We spent 5 or 10 minutes under the tarp, periodically swishing, chatting with people in the other very close neighboring kayaks and starting to get pretty warm and humid, until the tarps were pulled up front and off. Here we go, I thought, now we move on to the brighter, more densely packed and expansive part of the lagoon. Or something like that. . Nope. . That was it. . I am virtually certain that I heard a collective silent gasp of disbelief from each of the kayaks. The guides thanked us for coming for the experience and hoped that we enjoyed ourselves and learned some things, before untying us, putting a new set of glow sticks on the kayaks and began to make our way back towards the single lane channel. It was chaos and bordered on funny - a clump of kayaks trying desperately to form some sort of single line in the darkness. Lots of bumping and kayaks coming at you from all directions until we finally... FINALLY... got it together (more or less) began paddling through the canal. Same challenges as on the way in. Well, it seemed as though there were a greater number of kayaks from other operators on their way in than there were when we started into the canal an hour before. They seemed to enjoy pushing us off to the side and into branches, stumps, and the shore. It was chaos number 2. No damage done, however, but it did make for slow going. Finally back to the bay, paddling against the current until reaching the docking area where the guides helped pull the kayaks out of the bay to the shore and pull us out of the kayaks onto dry land. Start to finish, somewhere in the range of 90+ minutes. The guides were nice and helpful. (They were doing their best an were quite helpful.) The kayaks were fine (although I really would have liked better back support!). The bioluminescence part, however - as you already know - a bit of dim shimmer, but otherwise nothing much to see. A very disappointing specialty tour. Very. And, not cheap. And, as far as the bioluminescence is concerned, not at all worth it. I believe that there are better opportunities to see bioluminescence elsewhere on one of the small islands to the East and you'd be well advised to at least check those out instead...

On an extended Memorial Day Weekend trip with my girlfriend and two other friends we took some time to go kayaking in Puerto Rico. Through our resort, the Wyndham Rio Mar, we booked this excursion experience with Yokahu Kayak Trips.

Getting there wasn't too difficult with our rental SUV. Once we got there it was a bit of a challenge finding parking. You may have to drive around the park a few times unless you cab it there. There were a ton of these kayak tour companies set up in the same place offering the same experience.

Our tour was scheduled for 5:30p which ended up being the perfect time. I'll get back to that and why it was perfect later. The tour guides do a great job giving a quick training session before getting us all onto the kayaks. They also do a great job of putting single riders together in a way that doesn't make it uncomfortable for the riders.

Once we were all in the water we had to wait while the other tours from the other companies got through the entrance to the mangroves before us. In hidnsight, this was the only negative part of the tour overall. All the tour companies leave at the same time jamming up the entrance. I suggested to them that, while I get that they're all competing for the business, they'd all be better off overall if they were to work together and plan different departure times. Maybe each tour can leave 20 minutes after the previous tour - 6:00 / 6:20 / 6:40 / etc.

Getting through the mangroves on the way to the lake was pretty outstanding. Though that was nothing in comparison to actually arriving to the lake. The 5:30p departure time was perfect because it still gave us enough daylight to see through the mangroves on the way in. I thought it was also perfect because you got both perspectives during the tour of seenig the environment with some daylight and experiencing it with nightfall and eventually complete darkess when you're done, except for the moonlight of course!

Once in the lake, the tour guides gathered us all together and gave us a quick tutorial on what bio-bay was all about as well as the organisms which make it so special - the dinoflagellates. These organisms make the water glow like a there was a flashlight in the water underneath you when you disturb the water with your hand or paddle. We had a cloudness night sky that night and a nearly full moon which made it even more special. We had time to admire the serenity of the environment with our friends before heading back.

Be ready for heavy paddling on your way back because the current is pretty strong coming into the lake, or Laguna Grande. And again, we had to deal with some extended wait time during the return through the mangroves because of the other tours leaving before us. This is my only complaint about the whole trip. Otherwise, this was an outstanding adventure and one you should definitely take while in...

This rating has more to do with the experience than the tour operators (who were decent, but not great). We just got back this evening, everyone in our group got bit very badly by mosquitos. We sprayed with deet, and had the mosquito bands but they still got us. When I say bit badly, I would say everyone had a minimum of at least 30 bites per person. YES 30. Some of our faces are swollen terribly, and two people have their eyes swollen shut. It was just a horrible experience. We did see the illuminating microorganisms but it wasn’t worth the mosquito bites.

Regarding Yokahu guides. They were professional, started close to the time, and finished on time, but didn’t go out of their way to help anyone. The tour guides should have said something about how bad the mosquitos are, because, while we applied bug repellent before the tour, we didn’t take spray with us, and after rowing and sweating and getting water on us, we could have used a reapplication. In fact we had bags with us and our guides told us to put it in our car. The Yokahu guides had no spray on them for us. After the tour we talked with other people on other tours, and their guides did give them spray, and they warned them before they started that the mosquitos were bad, which helped the other groups to better prepared (with long pants and shirts).

Overall, if you are going to go on this trip, use another company, and be better prepared.

Other tips. Check to see how big of a group you will be a part of. The bigger the group means other people on the group will slow you down and you will need to work more. This group is the cheapest and therefore had the largest group. It really is worth it to go with a smaller group, even if it costs more money. If you can do the electric boat, go with that option. My parents did it the same night as us and while they also go bit, it was a...