Caminando por Isla de Mona en pantalones cortos, circa 1984 con la asociación de estudiantes de biología del recinto universitario de Mayaguez

Los pantalones y el calzado, "do not try this at Mona"

Foto usada con permiso de Gerardo Camilo

Hace unos días un amigo comentó sobre unas fotos que tome en Isla de Mona allá para la década de los ochenta y que están en uno de mis álbumes de Facebook.   En la foto, que está arriba, aparezco en la colonia de bobas de patas rojas (Sula sula)  que se encuentra en la cara norte de la Isla de Mona.   Un detalle particular de esta foto es que estoy en pantalones cortos y tenis.   En la siguiente historia explico cómo fue que esto llego a ocurrir.

Como saben los que han visitado Isla de Mona, la vegetación de la isla se distingue por la abundancia de plantas espinosas y venenosas.  No debemos dejar de contar las que aun no siendo ni venenosas ni espinosas, tienen unos tallos y ramas leñosos que te laceran la piel si ocurre un leve roce.  Jamás me habían preguntado cómo era posible que alguien hubiera llegado a un lugar tan remoto de Mona, en pantalones cortos, en unos tiempos en que, para los acampadores, no había nada que se asemejara un camino para llegar al lugar. 

En adición a lo hostil de la vegetación, está el detalle de que la superficie misma del camino está compuesta de caliza erosionada por los elementos y que tiene la forma que se conoce como “diente de perro”.  La caliza “diente de perro” es justamente temida entre los caminantes porque  destroza hasta el calzado más resiste y porque es capaz de infligir heridas cortantes a aquellos que tienen la desgracia de tropezar y caer sobre ella.

¿Entonces, como es posible que en varias ocasiones llegáramos, yo no era el único en pantalones cortos, a la colonia de Bobas sin más protección que unos pantalones cortos y unos tenis?

La razón es que la vegetación en el lado de noroeste de la isla (por lo menos en esos tiempos hace décadas que no paso por ahí) era extraordinariamente baja en estatura por una combinación particular de factores.    El primero de los factores es el viento.  El viento en el lado noroeste de mona viene del mar y es constante y en ocasiones fuerte.  Cuando uno camina al lado mismo del farallón, puede ver a las aves marinas acercarse al mismo desde el mar y ser empujadas por el viento hacia arriba cuando el viento choca con la pared del farallón.    En esta parte de la isla la mayor parte de la superficie es roca caliza, el suelo se encuentra aquí y allá en pequeñas y medianas oquedades en la superficie de la roca.  Es en estos “bolsillos” de suelo donde la mayoría de las plantas puede crecer.    A esto se suman temperaturas altas, resequedad y un nivel de exposición solar que retan severamente la fisiología de la mayoría de las plantas.   Finalmente, no debemos olvidar el impacto de las cabras salvajes.  En ese tiempo las cabras salvajes eran mucho, muchísimo más abundantes de lo que son ahora.  Una de

Ay que añadir que aunque la vegetación era de baja estatura, esto no significaba que algunas las plantas fueran pequeñas.   Recuerdo mi sorpresa al descubrir que algunos árboles habían crecido hacia el lado siguiendo el contorno de las irregularidades del terreno para extender sus ramas.  Por lo tanto, lo que a primera vista parecía ser una serie de arbustos en realidad eran las ramas de un mismo árbol.

Los arbustos, algunos bastante substanciales, estaban separados por extensiones de piedra sin vegetación alguna, eso es, si no contamos a los cactus copo de nieve que en algunas partes crecían en gran profusión en los hoyos de la piedra caliza que tenían una mínima cantidad de suelo.   Un observador cuidadoso podía reconocer en la vegetación trillos de cabras que estas mantenían abiertos por virtud de un constante uso. 

Por todos estos factores, una persona segura en sus pies y con buena condición física, podía recorrer varias millas de la isla en el norte usando pantalones cortos y zapatos totalmente inapropiados para cualquier otra parte de la isla.  Si todo fallaba y la vegetación se tornaba impenetrable, siempre se podía recurrir al trillo de cabras que estaba justo al borde del farallón.   Esta singular ruta casi siempre estaba abierta pero la cercanía del borde del farallón podía causar un cierto nerviosismo hasta en el más valiente.   

Sin embargo, caminar por el noroeste de Mona en pantalones cortos no siempre terminaba bien.  En una de estas caminatas mi amigo Fermín termino con tantas laceraciones en sus piernas que hubo que confeccionar unos pantalones largos usando fundas de basura plásticas para protegerlas de la vegetación ya que el dolor de los cortes era casi inaguantable. 

Hace décadas que no visito el lado noroeste de Mona, así que no se si las cosas han cambiado.  Hace poco más de un mes visite el lado Noroeste y encontré a la vegetación más espesa y quizás más alta de lo que la recuerdo en mis primeras visitas a Isla de Mona en el principio de la década de los 80.  Sin embargo gracias a que se han abierto caminos entre puntos clave de la isla,  caminar es mucho más fácil, además de seguro, que en los tiempos de mis primeras visitas.

Pantalones largos, bien, tenis, mala idea!  Vea la caliza "diente de perro"

Otros camaradas en la cofradía de los pantalones cortos
Foto usada con permiso de Gerardo Camilo

La boba prieta, Sula leucogaster, y la escalera del Terror

Durante la década de los años ochenta estuve visitando la isla de Mona todos los años a fines de mayo y principios de julio con el grupo estudiantil conocido como la asociación de estudiantes de biología del recinto universitario de Mayagüez de la universidad de Puerto Rico.    En uno de esos viajes para principio de los 80 visite la cueva del Lirio.  Justo debajo de una de las ventanas que miran a la costa de Mona, específicamente una desde las que se puede ver la playa de Pájaros, observe que habían unas bobas prietas anidando a cierta distancia debajo de la boca de la cueva (Sula leucogaster).   Las bobas estaban anidando directamente sobre la piedra caliza.  La piedra caliza sobre la que las bobas anidaban es una forma particular causada por erosión por la lluvia y los elementos y está cubierta de hoyos y filos.  Este tipo de caliza de llama “diente de perro” y es justamente temida por su capacidad de lacerar y herir a los que caen sobre ella.  Este tipo de caliza es notorio porque destroza lentamente (y a veces de forma no tan lenta) a todos el calzado que se usa para caminar sobre ella.

Las bobas que vi anidando eran de las primeras que había visto en tierra y me domino el deseo de acercarme a ellas.  Pero no parecía haber forma de bajar de la cueva hasta donde estaban las bobas, que era en una ladera en la cara del farallón.   Uno de mis compañeros me indico que justo debajo de la ventana que daba al mar, había una grieta en la que estaba encajada una viga que se podía usar para bajar a donde estaban las bobas.  La viga tenía unos pedazos de madera clavados a lo largo que formaban una primitiva escalera.  Sin pensarlo dos veces baje por la viga, que tengo que decir, no era exactamente una pieza de madera nueva.  Actualmente la idea de usar una cosa así para bajar unos ocho o diez pies verticales a una ladera rocosa con la consistencia de un enorme guayo,  me llenaría de espanto.  Pero en esos tiempos pesaba 130 libras, tenía la agilidad de un mono y una confianza sin límites en mi capacidad de lidiar con el peligro.

Esta foto fue tomada antes de que encallara el Alborada en Playa de Pajaros

Las bobas reaccionaron a mi llegada con cierto disgusto pero ninguna abandono su nido.   Pude notar que la ladera rocosa era virtualmente inaccesible desde el tope del farallón o la playa.  Me imagino que por eso las bobas la escogieron para anidar.  Para mi sorpresa también vi una iguana de Mona juvenil bastante pequeña, en esos tiempos ver iguanas juveniles no era algo común y corriente.    Le tome fotos a dos de las bobas. Ambas estaba protegiendo a su polluelos del intenso sol.  Siempre me he reprochado que no le tome una foto a la escalera.  Pero quizás fue lo mejor, si mis padres la hubieran visto les habría causado una apoplejía.  Me pregunto si alguno de ustedes, los que leen estas líneas, también recuerdan esa escalera en la cueva del Lirio.  

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.

Mona Island, the amazing sight of waterfalls on a dry deserted island, AEB field trip 1980.

Water falling from the 200 feet tall cliffs in the area of Pajaros beach

We tried to fend off the water with anything that we could find

We had to take refuge in the area of Cueva del Caballo since the rain swamped the camping area.

Mona Island is a deserted island usually most remebered by hikers for its dryness and its endless vistas of dry fearsomely thorny scrub.  Althought the island can have periods of rainlessness that lasts months, from time to time it does gets hit with the great weather systems that make their way from Africa to the Caribbean.  In this case the Association of Biology Students was camping in Sardinera beach and decided to go to the other side of the island, to Pajaros Beach, about six miles away as the crow flies.  During the night we were camping in Pajaros beach a tropical wave or depression unexpectedly dumped an enormous amount of water over us (I know this is almost beyond belief but at the time we didn't have cellphones or even (gasp) Tweeter).  When we woke up the next day there was water everywhere and the astonishing sight of waterfalls falling from the central plateau of the island.  The previous day the island had been bone dry and now it everything was soaking wet.  We took refuge in a small cave nest to the Cueva del Caballo and made jokes as we shivered and tried to make the best of it.  I have gone back to Mona Island many times over the years but I have never again witnessed this spectacle again.

Mona Island, cave pearls, circa 1984, AEB field trip.

These are cave pearls from a cave in the Island of Mona, a small island about fifty miles to the west of the Island of Puerto Rico.  Mona Island is composed of a huge slab of limestone that rose from the sea about a million years ago.  There are two types of limestone in Mona Island, caliza lirio, the top layer, is relatively easily dissolved by rain water, the bottom layer is dolomite which is harder and resists dissolucion by rain much better.  In the boundary between the two layers of limestone you get enormous caves which can have hundred of thousands of square meters of interior space.  The easiest caves to access are all around the coast of the island. Almost all were severely altered by man early last century to extract huge quantities of guano that were deposited in the caves in the past.  The caves in Mona Island are laberinthic with many side passages and cavities going in all directions and interconnecting in all sort of ways.  They are full of a large variety of stalagmites and other speleothems, some of which seem to defy gravity.  Cave pealrs can be found in large numbers in some of the caves but they are rarely as white and pristine as these ones.  As you can see they are not necessarily round, they can be square, triangular and irregularly polyhedral.  From the empty niches you can tell that some have been taken away from the cave.  These pearls have no commercial value and are best enjoyed in their natural setting.  Hopefully these ones are still in the cave where I saw them.

The goats on Mona Island back in 1979, ABE field trip

A startled goat running at full tilt through the scrubby vegetation in alocation a few hundred feet south of the Mona lighthouse

Part of herd of about thirty that crossed the road from Pajaros beach to the lighthouse

Two goats grazing on the median strip of the road from Pajaros beach to the lighthouse.

My first trip to Mona Island was back in 1979.  It was with the Asociation of Biology Students of the Mayaguez campus of the University of Puerto Rico.  This trip was an important event in my life as I made new friends and decided to go to study to the Mayaguez campus.  I took many photos in that trip, sadly they have become a bit deteriorated.  But they still provide a window to a time where Mona Island was not a popular destination and few people visited it.  In this trip I saw a large number of goats.  About seventy goats crossed the road ahead of me during a half hour hike between Pajaros beach and the lighthouse, undoubtably there were many times this number lurking in the vegetation to the sides of the road.  The goats seemed untroubled by our presence  and some even spent some time grazing on the median strip of the road even as we approached them.   The goats were also plentiful around the lighthouse and I even managed to get fairly close to a few before they took flight.  In the decades that have passed since my trip hunting became much more popular and large numbers of hunters would visit the island to hunt for goats and pigs.  The goat population plummeted and it became harder and harder to see them.  The last time I was in Mona, about ten years ago, you had to hike for hours away from human haunted areas to be able to glimpse even one.

Mona Island Sardinera Beach coral reef, circa 1982

Acropora palmata coral was abundant all over the Sardinera reef and  it would grow almost up to the water surface near the reef crest.

Many of the Acropora palmata colonies were composed of many thin flat branches

Every crevice in the reef was inhabited by some critter, in this area there were a lot of black urchins

There were, many, many fish around the corals.  Here you can see part of a school of surgeon fish with a few parrot fish tagging along.  These were not tiny fish most were in the 1-2 feet long range.

Here I am hanging for dear life in the strong currents of the reef crest.  You can see that the water is full of small fish.

Among Acropora palmata colonies in water about seven feet deep

Colonies of the finger coral Porites porites extended as far as the eye could see

School of fishes of all sizes filled the reef, here is a group of yellow grunts

In the Sardinera Beach reef there were fish in good numbers all over the place.

Mona Island, exploring the Acropora palmata reef, circa 1982

Acropora palmata, notice the extreme clarity of the water

Various types of coral, In the center of the photo Jorge Saliva, notice the puny arm lacking the basketball sized muscles that later appeared there

The reef crest was haunted by an unbelievable quantity of fish

There was coral all over the place

I took these few photos of the coral at the reef that borders the Sardinera beach in Mona Island.  At the time visiting this reef was for me a new and unbelievable exciting thing.  I took just a few photos because I was too busy drinking deeply from the incredible experiece of snorkeling there.   There were so many things to see and explore that it was like visiting an alien city in outer space.  The diversity of corals, fish and invertebrates made this place a dream experience for a biologist that had read all about them in the books but had not until them too much oportunity to see them in the flesh.  I have been told that the reef I visited so many years ago no longer exists, that most of the Acropora has died, that there are much less fish and algae reigns supreme.  I vividly remember marveling at a school of large parrot fish, two feet long feeding in water that was less than three feet deep.  These photos stand as a testament of the beauty that was and hopefully some day will again be.

1980 Mona Island, a happy smile in an awful spot, a memory from my AEB times

This is a photo of one of my dearest friends.  It was taken during a trip to Mona Island 1980.  I can hardly believe that thirty one years have passed since we did that trip.  Mona Island is an uninhabited island between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.  It boasts some of the most dangerous and inhospitable terrain in the Caribbean, its central plateau is dominated by fearsomely thorny, horribly poisonous xerophytic flora.  As hard core biology students we decided to visit one of the eastern Caribbean largest breeding colony of red-footed boobies.   The colony is located in the most remote and inaccessible part of the island.  To reach it we traveled for hours through very difficult terrain and did so enduring air temperatures that in the sun reached up to 120 F.  It is a wonder nobody died.  This photo was taken near Punta del Norte, we had found a cave to take refuge from the tremendous heat and had rested for a time inside it.  The cave was filled by a several feet thick blanket of dried goat droppings.  But we were so overjoyed to be out of the sun that we didn’t mind in the least.  As we rested our tired bones on the cave floor we were thankful for a cool place to rest.  This photo reminds me of the times when life was simpler, when we were alarmingly skinny and when a cave full of dried droppings was another amazing thing to be experienced and not a horrific ordeal to be endured.  So many years have passed and we are still good friends and he is still a very nice person, always with a smile on his face.  My friend went back later to the colony and took with him his future wife.  Now he has two beautiful children and a wonderful marriage.  I suspect that if a girlfriend has the fortitude to endure the heat, the thorns and spines, the endless walking and the awful cave, there is little that can put a dent on this relationship.

One one trip to the red footed booby colony I found a an orchid in full bloom with flowers that I have never seen before.  It looked so delicate and out of place in the arid landscape.  I took a flower back with me and Hector Colon who was quite familiar with the flora of Mona Island identified it as something new for Mona Island.  Later it was identified as Broughtonia dominguensis, this was the first time this orchid had ever been found in the Puerto Rico area.  I was fascinated by the fact that this small orchid could thrive in such a hostile enviroment.  This was the start of my interest for orchids, which continues to this day.