Qualla: Caja de Muertos Island

Caja de Muertos Island: Introduction

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY 1.0. Seen from certain points along Puerto Rico's southern coast, the island gives the impression of a dead person lying on a plateau. That, at least, is the official explanation for the name Caja de Muertos - Dead Man's Chest - attributed to the 18th-century French writer Jean-Baptiste Labat, who called it Coffre à mort. But official explanations only go so far on an island that has been called Isla Abeiranas, Isla Bestia, Isla del Tesoro, and a dozen other names since the Taíno people first paddled out to its shores. Uninhabited today, protected as a nature reserve, Caja de Muertos sits eight miles off the coast of Ponce, a two-mile sliver of dry forest, limestone, and five beaches whose turquoise waters hide coral reefs and the nesting grounds of endangered sea turtles.

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Caja de Muertos Island: Pirates, Treasure, and a Copper Coffin

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The stories that cling to Caja de Muertos read like drafts of a novel that was never quite finished. In 1599, a group of English merchants-turned-pirates seized a Portuguese ship loaded with gold, silver, and precious stones off the Indian coast. Fleeing toward England, they surv...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Caja de Muertos Island: Revolutionaries in the Scrub

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Caja de Muertos attracted more than pirates. During the 19th century, the island served as a secret refuge for Puerto Rican patriots who opposed Spanish rule. Ramón Emeterio Betances and Segundo Ruiz Belvis, two of the most prominent figures in the independence movement, are docu...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Caja de Muertos Island: Turtles and Dry Forest

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Caja de Muertos Nature Reserve protects the island and its surrounding waters primarily because of its sea turtle nesting habitat. The dry forest that covers the island's interior is ecologically valuable in its own right, supporting species found nowhere else. The island mea...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Caja de Muertos Island: Fragile Paradise

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Reaching Caja de Muertos requires a catamaran from the La Guancha Boardwalk in Ponce, a trip that was interrupted twice in recent years. Hurricane Maria in 2017 badly damaged La Guancha, and the 2020 Puerto Rico earthquakes damaged it again. After the earthquakes, the reserve's i...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0