Monos (island)
| Monos | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Dragon's Mouth Strait ( Caribbean Sea ) | |
| Archipelago | Bocas Islands | |
| Geographical location | 10 ° 41 '0 " N , 61 ° 41' 0" W | |
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| width | 3 km | |
| surface | 3.9 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 287 m | |
| Residents | 50 (2011) 13 inhabitants / km² |
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Monos is an island belonging to Trinidad and Tobago and belongs to the group of Bocas Islands . Administratively, Monos belongs to the Diego Martin region .
geography
The Bocas Islands are off the Chaguaramas in the northwest of the island of Trinidad . The chain of islands (consisting of Chacachacare , Huevos and Monos) lies between Venezuela and Trinidad in the Dragon's Mouth Strait (Bocas del Dragón), which forms the northern limit of the Gulf of Paria to the Caribbean Sea . There are smaller straits between the islands. Monos is separated from the neighboring island of Huevos to the west by the almost 1000 meter wide Boca de Huevos . The almost 1000 meter wide Boca de Monos separates the island from the Chaguaramas peninsula , which is part of the Trinidadian mainland.
The island is completely covered by dense rainforest. Only on the east coast (Morrison Bay and Biscayen Bay) and in some bays on the south coast (Grand Fond Bay and Balmoral Bay) there are houses, usually holiday homes for mainland residents. There is only infrastructure in Morrison Bay in the form of a small port facility for private ships.
history
The island owes the name Monos (Spanish for "monkey") to the Guyana howler monkey, which was formerly numerous on the island . It was named by Christopher Columbus as part of his third voyage of discovery in 1498. From the 1830s, Monos served as the basis for commercial whaling. Up until the beginning of the 20th century, whales were cut up and processed on the island. The end of whaling on the Bocas Islands established by the extermination of the whales in the Gulf of Paria and the slow replacement of Tran by Petroleum. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Monos was a haven for wealthy Port of Spain residents . Families each bought individual bays and built holiday villas there. There was a public administration and a chapel on the island, and some families lived in their villas all year round. Among other things, the merchant and Italian consul Joseph Salvatori owned a holiday home there. In 1870 Charles Kingsley visited the island. During the Second World War, Monos was temporarily occupied by the US, who built bunkers, barracks, gun emplacements and roads. Today Monos is a destination for mainland Trinidadians who frequent the holiday homes and beaches on weekends and public holidays. Monos briefly hit the headlines in 2005 when 1.7 tons of cocaine were found in a house in Passy Bay.
Flora and fauna
Rain clouds hit Trinidad mostly from the northeast, from the Atlantic, so that the Bocas Islands have a drier climate compared to the mainland. On Monos there is also the fact that the island has no water sources. Trees that shape the appearance of the island include a. White gum tree , kapok trees , cocoa trees , Lonchocarpus punctatus and Machaerium robiniifolium, called salt fishwood in Trinidad . Continue to grow on Monos u. a. Croton , bow hemp , heliconias and various types of orchids.
The eponymous howler monkeys are no longer found on the island. Reptiles native to Monos are u. a. Mastigodryas boddaerti, idol snakes , Plica plicas, Thecadactylus rapicauda and skinks . Occurring bat species are u. a. Ametrida centurio and the big hare's mouth .
Individual evidence
- ^ Caribbean History Archives: Down the Islands. Retrieved January 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Angelo Bissessarsingh: A Walk Back in Time: Snapshots of the History of Trinidad & Tobago . Queen Bishop Publishing, Marabella 2015, ISBN 978-976-8255-17-4 , pp. 26 .
- ↑ Guardian article, September 22, 2013, available online
- ↑ Angelo Bissessar Singh: The King of Monos Iceland I . In: Trinidad Guardian . December 25, 2016, p. B5.
- ↑ Trinidad Guardian, June 30, 2014, available online
- ^ Longing for the glory days . In: Trinidad Express . October 5, 2010.
- ^ Robert Alonzo: $ 800m Monos Island drug bust - DEA to help track smugglers . In: Trinidad Guardian . August 25, 2005.
- ↑ WS Chalmers, The Vegetation of Grand Fond, Monos, in: TTFNC Journal 1965, p. 11, available online
- ^ Excursion report in a private blog
- ↑ RL Manuel, Monos Island Studies, in: TTFNC Journal 1965, p. 19, available online