Cayo La Yayi Vieques, Puerto Rico

Cayo La Yayi is a small cay off the coast of Vieques, Puerto Rico — part of an island whose modern history is inseparable from the U.S. Navy. Starting in 1941, the Navy took control of roughly 80 percent of Vieques for military exercises, including live bombing and training ranges that operated for more than six decades. For generations, large sections of the island's coastline — including cays like La Yayi — were entirely closed to residents and visitors alike.

That changed after years of sustained protest, culminating in the Navy's withdrawal from Vieques in May 2003. Much of the former military land was subsequently designated as the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge, and areas that had been off-limits for a lifetime opened to the public for the first time. Cayo La Yayi is part of that story — a small, scenic piece of coastline that visitors simply could not reach for most of the 20th century, and can now see firsthand.

Because so much of Vieques' coastline was closed to development and public access for decades, the areas that have opened since 2003 — La Yayi included — remain remarkably undisturbed compared to more built-up parts of Puerto Rico. There are no facilities, no crowds, and no infrastructure at the cay itself; it is a stop for the scenery and the water, not a developed attraction.

That undeveloped character is exactly what makes it worth including on a Vieques charter — a genuinely quiet corner of an island that is itself one of the least crowded major destinations reachable from Fajardo.