Caja de muertos (Coffin Island)

The Legend: A man named José Almeida once fell in love with a woman married to one of the most important men in the Virgin Islands. Since he couldn't conquer the islands, he befriended her husband and became involved with piracy. When Almeida returned a while later, he found that his love's husband had died, so he married her immediately and they set sail. Unfortunately, tragedy struck and Almeida's wife was killed in a pirate attack. He sailed to a small, uninhabited island and buried her in a glass coffin inside a cave. Almeida is rumored to have come back to the island often--and even to have buried some of his treasure there. According to this legend, that is how Caja de muertos (coffin island) was named.

The body is mostly on the left with the feet sticking up on the right.

The Alternate Explanation: When looking at Caja de muertos from afar, the shape of the island resembles a body laid out upon a flat surface.

Taking advantage of the long weekend, I was able to explore this small, now-uninhabited island. A short ferry trip from Ponce gave way to rock formations covered in greenery, bright blue water, and patches of white sand between the rocks. A map of the island marked hiking trails to other beaches and the lighthouse. 

Playa Pelícano

Not knowing any  better, we walked like lemmings with the rest of that day's islanders to Playa Pelícano. Here, the water was rocky for about the first five yards but then it changed to soft sand. Since most of the other tourists were further down the beach, we almost had a private beach. 

Then it was time for a hike. Despite being clad in flip flops, we decided to find the lighthouse, but instead we encountered a series of lost hikers. Aside from the map at the ferry entrance to the island, none of the trails are marked. After a few conversations in English and Spanish, including a little boy who told us "you walk and walk and walk and walk and walk..." we figured out that the upper fork led to the lighthouse and the lower fork to Playa Carrucho. 

The Cactus Forest

The first part of the hike involved walking through what we called the cactus forest. Cacti on both sides of the path towered at heights up to twelve feet. Seeing such a dry climate seemed odd considering the rest of the greenery. The second stage was entirely uphill and turned out to be quite doable in flip flops, though it was made entirely of broken pieces of stone, so some stepping strategy was required. Overall, the entire hike took about 30 minutes (one way). The lighthouse was closed and bore some graffiti, but the view from the top was worth it, spanning over the ocean and hinting at the mountains in the distance.

The view from the lighthouse.

On our way down, we decided to switch beaches and headed to Playa Carrucho. What an upgrade! No rocks, beautiful sand, and crystal clear water. This was the type of beach that could make one throw around the word "pristine". Luckily for us, very few of the lemmings had found out about this beach and we spent the rest of the day there.

The lighthouse is still in use.

Though we never found the cave or any hint of past pirates, Caja de muertos was a perfect day trip. I will definitely be back, just like Almeida.