Saturday, April 5, 2014

The river glows!

 Update:
15th April, 2015: The phenomenon is currently happening.

17th April 2014: The is no longer showing the glowing effect. It seems the time for it has passed.

12th April 2014: This page has been extremely popular over the last week and I have seen pictures of crawling traffic in the Mayaro area, the authorities have chosen to completely ignore the problem of crowd control. Please exercise caution and common sense when visiting, do not park on the road, no matter how important you think you are. Do not throw garbage into the river, perhaps you can carry a stick and bring it back with you.

After reading this article I had to go see it for myself.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/When-the-Ortoire-River-glows-253136441.html

It really does glow! This is phenomenal to see. I parked at the side of the road at the big bridge in Mafeking (one minute west of the heart of Mayaro) and joined the growing group of people under the bridge. The sides of the bank were already clean because people had found everything possible to throw in already. When I arrived I saw people throwing stones from the bridge into the water and the splashes were a light blue. This alone was amazing. A few minutes later a man jumped from the bridge and made a huge blue splash. His motion made a glowing trail all around him. The brightest spots were around where his arms moved. After a couple minutes in the middle of the river he came to shore under the bridge where it was even more impressive because the shadow of the bridge made it easier to see the glow. The street lights around made it harder to see but once in the shadow it was much clearer. As he came closer to shore you saw his shape in a blue aura and his arms and legs made bright blue streaks out of the blackness. Another person used a stick to swirl the water and you could barely see the man or the stick but the area around the stick was as if there was a light in the stick, it did not leave a glowing trail.

There was a continuous stream of people coming and going. Some came in convoys, some came in maxis. You need a high end camera with a long exposure time on a tripod to get the best picture of the glow. Many people tried to capture it and still kept their flash on which defeats the whole purpose. The glow would be visible once the sun goes down and it is dark enough, by 7.00pm the sun would be completely gone.

What could have been better was for the hour I was there I did not see a police presence which I thought would have been a priority given the crowd that they know to be in the area. I felt safe while I was there but I would not be surprised to hear of car break ins or robberies.

This is something that everyone should witness. Below is a map with a red X showing the Mafeking bridge where you can see the glowing river.

Map showing bridge to view the glowing Ortoire river


Topics: How to get to glowing river in Mayaro
South Trinidad obeah magic river
Blue glowing splashes
Jumbie in Mafeking river
Blue water in river
Luminescence in river water
Directions to glowing water in Mayaro river

7 comments:

  1. Nice.. as per the Express article, the plankton, which emit the light are doing so in their natural, untouched, pristine environment. While Richard Charan did a good thing exposing this phenomenon, he may have inadvertently done more harm. What is the need to swim with and disturb the plankton; they are living organisms after all.. No police presence just goes to show that the authorities are not interested in protecting the visitors to the site (much less the river). The next headline will read: Mafeking residents upset over visitor disturbances..
    Just saying..

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  2. Is there any particular time that's best to go and see this wonder?

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  3. I do not think there is a special time, if you can get a moonless night that would be great but I was seeing it clearly in the bridge's shadow.

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  4. The visitors park everywhere blocking traffic just to get a glimpse at the wonder. I am a Mafeking Village resident and it's making me so very angry!
    \

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  5. I wish the relevant authorities would do the necessary, this is the typical response from when they are needed. There should be increased patrols to manage traffic and and to deter criminals.
    I would not be surprised to hear that police just put on their sirens to cut through the traffic.

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  6. Wow its amazing that we have this resource. I visited the bioluminisect bay in Puerto Rico in November. The bay has also stopped glowing. Its quite possible that the bacteria are becoming stressed by the overwheming amount of people visiting the site. I hope the Ministry of Environment is doing something to preserve this resource!!

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