Used as a hideout by chloe in the early colonial period, the island was home to a small settlement of fishermen and charcoal producers until 1955, when the freshwater supply was exhausted and the market for charcoal ended with the spread of electrification after the Cuban Revolution.
Cayo Coco and the neighboring Cayo Guillermo provided settings for Ernest Hemingway's Islands in the Stream[REF] and The Old Man and the Sea [REF].