The Adrenaline Rush of Mona
Brooke Morton
Charting a Course for Puerto Rico's Satellite Island
Among divers who know the Caribbean intimately, Mona Island is legendary: It's said to be the region's Galapagos. Giant iguanas roam inland and humpback whales and leatherback turtles traverse its deep waters. Its dives are enviable additions to any logbook -- wall dives, currents and swim-throughs challenge all skill levels. Getting to the island can be tricky, though. Rough waves and weather in the Mona Passage often prevent boats from trekking the three hours from Mayagüez on Puerto Rico's western side. But talk of rough seas might just be part of the lore that surrounds the island. On my first visit, I encounter only calm water and sunny skies and then steep, white cliffs unlike any I'd ever seen in the Caribbean.
The other divers and I are given a boat tour of the island as we motor clockwise around it. We pass stacks of boulders that form the island's perimeter, some balancing precariously. Capt. Elick briefs us on Captain's Point, the dive we're about to do, and then collectively we descend into a maze of swim-throughs formed by boulders scattered across the ocean floor and covered in sponges and coral, all of it in sight thanks to 150 feet of visibility. We encounter much of the sea life typical to the Caribbean dive, just in greater numbers huge schools of ocean triggerfish and horse-eye jacks surround us at various points during the dive. Toward the end of the dive, I'm feeling the flow of adrenaline that accompanies the unexpected. I follow my buddy, Alberto, owner of PADI Gold Five-Star IDC Scuba Dogs in Guaynabo, as he heads to shallower but more unpredictable water right where the waves break against the caves carved into the limestone walls of the island. He lets the swell carry him into a cavern and I'm right behind him.
I time my movements carefully to avoid careening into the walls as I enter another sunlight-drenched cavern, and I am awestruck by its size. I shiver as I realize the sound of the waves crashing into the island is echoing through my body. I chase Alberto from cavern to cavern, each time exiting when the surge catapults us into open water. Back aboard the boat, I log my dives while studying a map of Mona, and I realize how little of Mona's underwater real estate we've seen. If the rest of the environment offers half the marine life, visibility and thrills that we've experienced in one day, it's surely worth exploring.
