So when was the first time you ever went to Flamenco Beach?

I must have been like six or seven years old.

I cannot emphasize the level of intensity that the first impression that this beach has.

You know, it's a struggle to capture it.

Part of the island is a coral reef.

So the sand is bone white.

It's a coral reef that has disintegrate.

And then the water is, depending on at the time of the day, it's so transparent that you don't actually see it.

The effect is even more intense at night. And then there's another component which makes it very magical.

I don't know the scientific name, but there's an animal that lives. It's a volcanic amoeba kind of fungi thingy. One of its characteristics is bioluminescent. So a wave comes, splashes on the sand, and then washes out, right? There, and then the sun stays wet for a few seconds so you're walking on the beach

you look behind and you see your footprints shining you go there to this beach now

and it's very I described it as this paradise, very calm, bioluminescent, you know, you can float there, you don't see the water, you feel you're flying this dream space.

Well, you know, 50 years ago, it's a battle zone.

A battle zone where you can still see the remnants of war.

Amidst all the beauty that Flamenco has to offer, there's also these huge hunks of rusting metal,

dozens of abandoned military tanks all along the beach.

I'm Baudelaire, and this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible, and wondrous places.

Today, we're going at Flamenco Beach in Puerto Rico, a place of great beauty with a history of resistance.

More after this. My name is Carlo Cubero and I am a social anthropologist.

Carlo grew up in Puerto Rico and would visit Fl social anthropologist.

Carlo grew up in Puerto Rico and would visit Flamenco often.

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