Diego organized a trip to Mona Island off the west coast of Puerto Rico, one of the best scuba diving locations in the world. The island is uninhabited except for rangers and campers, who must obtain a permit from the government. On the morning of departure, I had to observe until 1:30 am for a hands-on project. We looked at clouds of ionized hydrogen surrounding stars and saw their spectral lines. We had to leave at 2:00 am because the boat had to leave very early to make it across the Mona channel before the water became too rough. We were 14 people in all: 11 summer students, Diego, his wife Naomi, and Juan Carlos, the diving instructor. Ingrid's parents drove some of us, including me, from the observatory to the town on the west coast where the boat was docked. We had to load all our stuff, including water, food, and diving equipment, onto the boat. Our escorts were Elick, the boat captain, and Papo, the cook, who was to prepare all our meals on the island.
We set out for Mona at about 5 am. It was still quite dark, and riding on a motorboat on the open ocean in the dark before dawn was exhilirating. The boat had an enclosed cabin in the bow, and walls and a roof that extended over where the captain sat, but the back of the boat, where we sat, was open except for a canopy. I sat back against the railing and felt the wind in my hair and watched the sky and the water. After a while it began to get light, and since we were heading west we saw the sun rise over the island behind us, a bright orange ball of flame. Once it peeked over the horizon it rose quite quickly, and was up in the sky in a few minutes. When the sun was higher it began to get hot, and the warmth made me sleepy, as I had not slept at all the night before. I dozed off leaning against the side of the boat, and then stretched out on the floor, using my sweatshirt for a pillow. When I awoke, the island of Mona was spread out before us, looking like a huge flat shelf rising out of the sea. The water had gotten rough, and the boat rocked on the waves.
We went around to the south side of the island, where the water was calmer, and docked in a bay by a beach where several tents were set up. The ranger station was located here, as it is the main camping center of Mona. We unloaded all the gear, and Papo set up his kitchen under the shelter of a huge boulder with an overhang and two picnic tables underneath. We walked down the path to an uninhabited section of beach on which to pitch our tents. A couple of giant iguanas looked at us casually as we passed only a few feet from them. They apparently live around the camping area, strolling around all day looking for scraps of food left by campers. The area is also home to a multitude of large land hermit crabs. We found a likely-looking spot of beach and set up our tents. Dan, Martin, Laura, and Martha had brought hammocks to sleep in, so they hung them from a tree.
By the time we set up camp, Papo had cooked breakfast, so we sat down to eat. There were ham and egg sandwiches for most, and for Laura and me, the vegetarians, there were soy hot dogs. This was pretty impressive, because Papo had initally asked "do they eat turkey?" when Diego had told him there would be two vegetarians on the trip. He kept us well fed. After breakfast, we swam in the wonderfully clear water for a bit, and then the divers went out for their first dive. Those who remained (Ingrid, Julia, Rebecca, Martin, and myself), made use of the hammocks and dozed happily. I was awakened by Papo inviting us to walk up the hill behind the campsite to see the view. After my initial sleepy grumbles, I got up and donned my hiking boots. It only took about 10 minutes to reach the top of the hill, and the view was quite impressive. When we came back down, Papo prepared a fruit salad for us and talked to us about various things, including his seven children by three different women. When the divers returned, we ate lunch.
We spent the remainder of the day alternately swimming and lying under the palm trees, enjoying the tropical paradise. Sam, Martha, Rebecca, and I talked about politics, with poor Sam representing the lone conservative viewpoint. Late in the afternoon we went walking down the beach in various divisions; I went with Sam. It was wonderfully peaceful--there was no one else on the beach but us, walking along with waves lapping over our feet. It got dark shortly after dinner, at about 7:30, and since there are no lights on Mona except at the ranger station, there was not much to do after dark. So we went to bed. We wrapped Martha and Laura in mosquito netting to protect them from the bugs while they slept in their hammocks. I had a blanket to lie on and a sheet to cover myself, and I used my towel as a pillow (not having come to Puerto Rico with camping gear). It was more comfortable than I expected, perhaps because there was sand underneath me instead of hard dirt. The tent was rather hot and stuffy, but I slept reasonably well.
The next morning the divers went off again, and Martin, Ingrid and I went snorkeling in the reefs that lined the bay, just a little ways out from the beach. I had never seen such things before--coral of different types, multitudes of brightly colored tropical fish, sea urchins and anenomes, and little squid. There were beautiful striped fish in shades of blue and pink, and fish which were bright yellow on the bottom and bright purple on top. Martin called me to look at a fish he had never seen before, lying flat on the sand under the water--it was a flounder, with both eyes on one side of its head. I had seen them in New England, but this one had blue spots.
After lunch, we all got in the boat and went to the a different side of the island, where there were caves. Sam and I rode up in the bow, getting splashed and feeling like we were flying (I think I made a Titanic joke), until the water became too rough and the captain told us to come back inside the boat. We docked near another camping area, and walked down a beach to the caves. To get there, first we had to climb across a rock ledge, clinging to the side of the cliff and watching the waves break on the rocks below. We went inside the cave just a little ways until we came to a tunnel leading vertically down into an underground pool. One by one, we climbed down and jumped into the cold water. When we shined our flashlights into the water we could see rock formations and the entrances to underwater caves. Juan Carlos took a picture of us with his fancy underwater camera (which he uses to take pictures while scuba diving), and we turned out all the lights and sat silently (or as near silently as 13 people can be) in complete darkness.
We climbed out of the pool and walked back to the boat, which drove to the place where the divers would have their last dive: a wall next to an incredibly deep drop. Those of us who didn't dive waited on the boat. I had a headache when I got on, so the rocking of the boat in the waves made me sick, and my lunch ended up in the ocean. Afterwards I felt somewhat better, and I lay in the boat listening to Bob Marley playing on the captain's radio. When the divers returned, raving about how amazing the wall was, we went back to camp and ate dinner. Beforehand I took a shower--these do exist on Mona, in a wooden shack along with the toilets. The showers are water faucets suspended from the celing, and we had to be careful not to use up too much water. After dinner it was dark, and it started to rain, so those people with hammocks (except Dan, who slept under a tarp) took them down and moved them to a shelter. I sat with some of the others on the porch of the ranger station, and during a dry spell I went to my tent and went to bed. It started raining again before I fell asleep, and I listened to the rain pounding on the roof of the tent, happy to be dry.
We had to wake up at 5 am so as to leave before the water got too rough, so we packed up our gear and had some bread and butter (anything more would promote seasickness). Most of us enjoyed the rocking of the boat on the big waves (much like a roller-coaster ride), but Julia, Martha, and Ingrid were most unhappy and spent the 3-hour ride alternately hanging over the side and lying on the floor. When we got into shallower waters, those of us feeling well were allowed to ride in the bow of the boat. I sat with Andrew, Laura, and Sam in the very front (and in the driest spot--Laura got soaked), and we watched flying fish and enjoyed the wind. But all good things must come to an end, so we docked, unloaded, and drove back to the observatory, where we all took showers and napped.
