Fun Chic, Obie-Wan and I had agreed to meet in Mona (click on the link if you'd like the see the original Tabblo on Mona Island) later on in the summer after our Mt. Whitney trip. This time we would be joined by Super Squirrel and his girlfriend, Ratatouille.

Getting to Mona was quite the adventure as Capt. Elick of TourMarine is not currently ferrying folks to Mona due to some pending litigation against the Department of Natural Resources.

This time we did not do as much hiking as last time. Nor did we do much caving. No, this time we mostly hung out, ate, drank, snorkeled, swam. Super Squirrel spent a lot of time fishing but did not have much to show for it, except that he kept grinning like a child.

Snorkeling in the lagoon was particularly great this time around as there were Green Turtles in the water. These turtles allow you to swim with them but the moment you try to get too close they simply take off in a heartbeat. I tried taking pictures of them with a cheap underwater throwaway camera but the results were not good. In fact of the 27 pictures I took I only kept seven and most of those were not very clear.

We spent a few days in this tropical paradise and we had the whole island to ourselves. We only had rain the last night much to my personal detriment as I was the only one who did not bring a tent or tarp but I found shelter and spent the rest of the night walking around and staring at the moon and the stars after the bad weather blew by the island.

This here is Bob Iguana (as christened by FunChic). Bob was a constant companion and would not let any other iguanas near our campsite.

Above:

+ one of the thousands of huge hermit crabs that inhabit the island

+ our fearless cook. His hamburgers were the best ever.

+ a partial view of our sleeping quarters

+ a view from the plateau.

+ Ratty hiking on the intensely hot Mona plateau.

Below:

+ Mujeres Beach

+ one of the many rays that inhabit the lagoon.

+ another underwater shot.

+ a sweaty Obi-Wan taking a picture inside a cave.

+ a pair of hungry hermit crabs

+ Bob or one of his enemies.

+ Mona sunset