The Bermuda Triangle, infamous for its numerous mysterious disappearances, is an urban legend that warns people to steer clear of this cursed region. Numerous boats, planes, and people that have lost contact and gone missing are last recorded in this area. This is a mystery that haunts many and that most cannot explain. From a young age, tales of the Bermuda Triangle terrified me, and I knew I was for SURE going to be avoiding this area.
When I was three years old, my parents and I traveled to Puerto Rico for a relaxing beach vacation. We stayed in a cute villa near the beach and bounced from tourist trap to tourist trap until we ended up at the bioluminescent bay, Bahía Bioluminiscente. Being so young, I remember very little, but I have seen pictures of how cool this glowing water was. We hopped on a boat and embarked on a journey through the bay and through a series of mangrove caves.
I watched the water glow behind the motor of the boat up until our boat stopped following a journey through one of the mangrove caves. My family of four and a young couple all sat there patiently waiting as our tour guide frantically attempted to redirect the boat. Being the annoying toddler I was at three years old, I began getting stir-crazy, so my mom recommended, “Why don’t we go for a swim?”
The tour guide hesitantly obliged and so when my parents got the go ahead, they stripped down to their swim clothes and jumped in. My mom had my dad pass me in, so my brother and I both got the chance to swim in the bioluminescent water. After about 15 minutes or so, our guide was ready, so we hopped into the boat and made our way back to the dock, where we had first started our journey.
As we removed our life vests and started to say thank you to the guide, he stopped us and started laughing. He asked us if we recalled when we had gotten stuck and if we had noticed how frantic and panicked he seemed. He then shared how crazy we all were for getting in. “We were stuck in the Bermuda Triangle!!” he said laughing.
He didn’t want to panic us back then, but when the GPS went down, and the boat stopped, we were in the part of Puerto Rico included in the Bermuda Triangle. He was stressed that we would join the list of people who mysteriously disappeared around this area, and as he was trying to navigate his course back, our swim took him by surprise.
“This could be a story you guys can tell now. Matter of fact, we all can!” We survived the Bermuda Triangle, kind of cool right?
Anyways, I consider this my own sort of “Myth-Busters” experience. I swam in the Bermuda Triangle and lived to tell the tale! But still, what is it about the Bermuda Triangle that makes failed technology and disappearances so frequent? I wouldn’t know. All I do know is thanks to my mom’s idea to go swimming, I have a pretty cool anecdote to tell and a story to help debunk the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle (at least when swimming)!
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