Puerto Rico, part 4- Isla Caja de Muertos

We and s/v Caretta arrived at Caja de Muertos early on the morning of April 19^th. It’s a beautiful island about 5 nm south of the Ponce area. Nobody really knows how it got its name, but it’s had that name for a couple hundred years at least. The name translates to either “Dead Man’s Chest,” likely due to its association with pirates back in the day, or more commonly as “Coffin Island.” 

Caja de Muertos is about 2 miles long and ½ mile wide. The old Spanish-built lighthouse, constructed from 1885-1887, sits atop a 170-foot hill on the NE end. There is a lovely shallow, clear sand swimming beach called Pelícano on the SW end of the island on the Puerto Rico side. The beach on the Caribbean side is a turtle nesting site and therefore closed to humans, not that you’d want to attempt walking it the days we were there. Oh the crashing waves! The island was designated a Nature Reserve in 1980 and placed under the administration of the Department of Natural Resources (DRNA). They received approval in 1985 to develop the island as a center for tourism. A large cement ferry dock was built, plus covered, cement cabanas with picnic tables, a small museum, restrooms, a service building, and a residence/office for the DRNA rangers who lived there. Ferries and local private boats arrived daily from the mainland. We hear the island was heavily visited and quite the hangout for locals on the weekends.

If you’ve been keeping up with my Puerto Rico posts, you may notice that I’m speaking in the past tense again. Like Gilligan’s Island, this Nature Reserve is now officially closed to the public; “enter at your own risk” and with your own transportation. Although Hurricane Maria in 2017 closed the island for almost a year, it was the January 2020 earthquake that led to the current damage that has yet to be repaired. The DRNA residence/office is in a shambles. The museum is damaged and has been emptied but for some posters on the wall and some bits and bobs lying around. The ferry dock is heavily damaged. We explored the ruins to the extent we felt was sufficiently safe. We do enjoy exploring ruins. We heard that private boats still come out on the weekend to anchor in the shallows and enjoy the swimming beach, which is still marked off with floats. Cruisers still stop here, too. It shortens the trip between Ponce and Salinas, not to mention it’s too beautiful to miss.

We hiked up the small hill on the SW end of the island and discovered a shrine to the Madonna under a rocky overhang. The next day we hiked up the taller hill to the lighthouse ruin. Since the island was closed, nobody has officially kept the trail cleared so the cacti and thorny bushes were encroaching. We were only able to do the hike because Andrea (s/v Caretta) dropped off Barry with his machete at 7am. He whacked his was up to the lighthouse, clearing the trail of the worst thorny offenders. We picked up Andrea at 9am and started up the trail to meet Barry. We still had to pick our way carefully along the often narrow path, but thanks to Barry’s efforts, we made it unscathed to the top. The lighthouse sits atop the former keeper’s house, long since abandoned for that purpose when the light was automated in 1945. The quarters are said to have briefly housed a museum a number of years back. Now it’s just the damaged remains due to time and earthquake. We climbed the metal spiral staircase to the cement platform just below the actual light. Those views were stunning, but then we continued our climb up to the light itself and braved the narrow exterior platform, briefly, for photo ops. The wind that high made it challenging to hold the camera steady, but the views were totally worth it!

Our friends on Wild Horses arrived from the Ponce anchorage pretty early on Friday the 21^st. The gang was together again! They explored the island, though not the lighthouse (the trail would not have been safe for their dog, Ocean) and hung out on the beach with Caretta. Dave and I explored a couple of spots along the NE end that Barry & Andrea had explored previously. There were piles upon piles of conch shells of varied types. We found a lovely Helmet Conch shell to bring back to Indigo Lady. We all gathered on Indigo Lady that afternoon for some trip planning and socializing. Sometime after 5:30pm we got a text that s/v Happy Jack was coming our way, about 10 minutes out. None of us had actually met them, but they had been part of the Easter Rebels WhatsApp group started back in Luperón when we were all looking for a weather window to head to Puerto Rico. We invited Brent and Andrea to join us once they’d anchored, which they did. So we all finally got to meet in person and hang out for a bit. 

The next morning, we, Caretta and Wild Horses hauled anchor and set off for Salinas back on the mainland of Puerto Rico. From there we would be taking a road trip together to Old San Juan, which is what I will tell you about next time. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!