Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Mona Island, Cueva del Lirio, AEB trip circa 1982


A land's view from an area near Cueva del Lirio, you can see in the top left corner the ship Alborada that had ran aground on the reef in from of Pajaros Beach
A part of the Asociacion de Estudiantes de Biologia of the Mayaguez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico.  You can see Nelly with a ton of hair, Javier alarmingly young, Jorge without big muscles and Isabel with a goat skull.
In one of the ledges of the cave we found a small nesting colony of  Sooty Terns

There were Sooty terns all around the Island but these were nesting in one  an opening of the cave that faced toward the sea
The inside of the cave is filled with a breathtaking variety of speleothems ranging from cave pearls to massive stalagmites that resemble fantastic animals.
A seaward view from Cueva del Lirio


I visited Cueva del Lirio many times during the 1980's.  My only regret is that I didn't take more photos of the inside of the caves.  Mona Island caves are laberinthic and this makes them unsettling and disorienting for those that are not accostumed to visit caves.  There are many strange and wonderful speleothems inside this cave.  Hopefully one day I will be able to go back to take photos of them.

4 comments:

Daly said...

Hermosos recuerdos, bella mi islita de Mona!!!

Miguel A Pagán said...

Es la Galapagos del Caribe.Gracias a Ricardo conoci a Mona. El guia oficial de la AEB.

Orchidteer said...

I am something of a caver myself. Have you been caving in the US or Mexico. Do you do any vertical work?

Ricardo said...

Sadly, after college I have done very little cave exploring. My work with the parrots makes me spend lot of time isolated in the forest and so weekends now are for spending time with my family. I used to climb like a monkey using only my hands and feet. But now that is long gone, I could not climb a cave wall to save my life! I have not caved outside PR.