Isla Caja de Muertos, PR

On Wednesday and Tuesday we shared a rental car with Amanda & Jim on Adventure Bound to do some provisioning and run some errands. High up on the priority list were some fast-food runs (our first since leaving the States) to Pizza Hut and Burger King. Most importantly for me was renewing my passport. Since you have to send in your current passport, I figured I'd do it while we're in Puerto Rico so that I can still fly back to the US in March using my drivers' license. Hopefully all goes as planned and we get my new passport back before we have to go to the British Virgin Islands when my dad comes to visit. I have my fingers crossed anyway.

This morning we headed over to Isla Caja de Muertos (Coffin Island - because in profile and on a map it is somewhat coffin-shaped). The water here is so clear we both jumped in with our snorkels to try to dislodge some stowaways (barnacles) that we must've picked up in the murky waters of Luperon. The hull was covered in baby ones, the big kind are harder to scrape off so we were lucky in that sense.

We then hopped in the dinghy and headed over to the beach and ranger station. Coffin Island is extremely popular on weekends -- there's a ferry that leaves the anchorage in Ponce several times a day on weekends, complete with twinkle lights and vibrant music, packed to the gills with partygoers. But today is Thursday and it is all peace and quiet, in fact there's only one other boat in the anchorage. There are three rangers here full-time and as we walked up the beach one of them waved. His name is Orlando and he's been a ranger here for over 10 years. The rangers do rotations where they spend a whole week on the island and then are relieved by the next week's crew. Just looking around the island you can tell that these guys take their job pretty seriously -- the trails are well maintained, there are signs showing points of interest, there's no sign of trash anywhere, and there are some beautiful picnic areas with nice resort-style gazebos. I can see why people come here by the ferryload on the weekends. During May-November, the rangers help out by protecting the sea-turtle spawning habitat on the Eastern side of the island. We hiked up the hill to take a look at the lighthouse which dates back to the 1880's. On the trail we saw lots of lizards, and when we came across a couple of small snakes I'll admit: we BOTH screamed like girls. The lighthouse was all locked up and there was some vandalism so it wasn't much to look at, but the view down to the bay was breathtaking, a green oasis surrounded by crystalline blue water and our boat just a white speck in the water. Hopefully in Salinas we'll be near an internet connection so we can post the photos.

Where we are:
Location=Caja de Muertos, PR
Lat=17 53.173
Lon=66 31.844