Chacachacare Island Tour

Chacachacare Island ….Friday 19th June 2015
Chacachacare located eight miles from the Venezuelan coastline is a place to learn some history and at the same time enjoy a peaceful day at the beach. The Island first discovered by Christopher Columbus on 12th August 1498 and called El Caracol (the Snail) because of its angular shape. It is the largest and most westerly of the five Boca Islands which are Centipede, Gaspar Grande, Monos, Huevos and Chacachacare. In earlier times, cotton cultivated on the island and along the road to the lighthouse some surviving plants still blossom. In 1813, Simon Bolivar and Santiago Marino used the Island as a battle station in the liberation of Venezuela from the Spanish rule. At one time, the Gulf of Paria and Caribbean Sea populated with whales and in 1820 a whaling station established there. On the highest point Morne Cabresse (825feet) there is the Boca Light House built in 1870 and remains in operation today.
A Leprosarium built in 1924 to accommodate 500 patients and the hospital wards placed at Coco's and Saunders Bay. A convent and church run by the Dominican Nuns housed at La Chappelle's Bay. Still many of the nuns while taking care of the patients caught the disease, and their tombstones exist as a reminder of their dedication. To be sent to the island was like a death sentence, the patients taken away from their families some never to return to the outside world. At Rust Bay, there was the Doctor's House and at Blummer's Bay the Nurse's Quarters. During this period, the island was busy with activity, there was electricity on the island and the patients had a cinema. In 1984 with a cure for Hansen disease discovered the place became abandoned, and all left is the ruins.
The boat ride to the Island will take forty minutes, and the walk from the jetty to the Light House is approximately 35 minutes. At the top panoramic views of the surrounding islands and visible in, the distance is the Venezuelan mainland. There is an optional hike to the Nunnery to see the grave site of the nuns and located on the eastern end is the Salt Pond at Bandu Su Bay. For those who wish to relax there is an option to spend the time at La Tinta and Perruquier Bay.
For more details contact Marcia 490-2421 or islandhikers.com