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Culebra| Community 32 km/20 mi off the east coast of Puerto Rico, and belonging to it, between Vieques Sound and the Caribbean Sea (to the south) and the Atlantic Ocean (to the north); population (1990) 1,500. Culebra is an archipelago in which the main island is c.11 km/7 mi northwest to southeast and up to 6 km/4 mi wide. The Virgin Islands lie to the east across the Virgin Passage. It is a growing tourist centre. |
| Reputedly discovered by Columbus (1493), Culebra became home to Taino who fled Spanish colonization of Puerto Rico. Its harbour was a base for pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries. Settled in the 1880s, it became in 1909 largely a naval reserve, its main settlement called Dewey. Until 1974, Culebra was used by the US Navy for gunnery and bombing practice, in the face of growing protest. |
| A wide variety of flora and fauna is found here, and much of the island is now administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. |
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