Galápagos in Puerto Rico? Part Five
Into the light!
Note: This is one of a series of photo-memoirs about a 1964 expedition to Isla de Mona, an uninhabited island in the Caribbean. Photos were taken from contact prints as no negatives or prints remain.
Sunday, January 5, 1964
Mike, Carl and I arose refreshed by a light shower that fell during the night. On the first day of our two-day trek around the interior of Mona Island, we struggled to follow an overgrown and often invisible trail through barely passable terrain. But we got (along with blood, sweat and a tear or two) many specimens and photos for our projects before we collapsed into our sleeping bags.
The first rays of the sun emerged in the east — exactly the direction we needed to go. We could see the top of the Mona Lighthouse radar tower!
We fortified ourselves with our neglected dinner and our last drops of water, packed up and headed across a forest that was growing out of a vast layer of rock.
The forest was mostly tall thin-ribbed cactus, clumps of brittle ground cactus, the rare Higo chumbo cactus, and Turk’s-head cactus. Among the flora and fauna, we saw a yellow-billed cuckoo, several snakeskins, and a sun-bleached pig skull. We paused often to photograph rare specimens as we (mostly) side-stepped the hostile cacti!
We emerged from the forest after two sweat-drenched hours under a tropical sun and ran (to quote Carl) “like dying desert foxes” toward the lighthouse and water — frightening some grazing goats along the way in a grassy area and surprising the lighthouse keepers.
The crew was astonished. They said it was inconceivable that three people could have appeared there since their last report— and the last road check by the police garrison at Sardinera. It was incredible that we crossed the “Rock,” they said.
They gave us water (it never tasted so good) and we told our tale. They had spotted our flashlights the previous night and were going to investigate when the lights ceased to shine. We prepared and ate our breakfast and then toured the tower. They were extremely friendly and cooperative, allowing me to photograph anywhere and asking us to join them for lunch.
We cleaned our gear and, of course, Mike had me take more photos of plants, insects, some unusual flowers, and even a few more (damned) varieties of cactus.
Early in the afternoon, we rode with them to Playa de Pájaros. While they checked the landing station, we examined some of the remains of early 19th and 20th-century guano extraction operations from the caves above the beach. The fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient was lowered by cable to waiting ships.
Later, at Camino del infierno, we parted from them and hiked to Uveros while Mona ground doves danced before us.
At Uveros we visited Doña Geña’s cave — she and her family lived on Mona from 1910 to 1943. We continued on Camino del Diablo about three miles to Sardinera, arriving at sunset.
We built a fire, prepared dinner, compared notes over coffee, and planned our final major adventure: to explore Mona underground in some of its hundreds of caves.
In case you missed any of my Galápagos in Puerto Rico stories, they can be found HERE. For my fiction, poetry and other writing, please browse HERE.
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