Cubagua Island or Isla de Cubagua () is the smallest and least populated of the three islands constituting the

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n state of

Nueva Esparta The Nueva Esparta State (in Spanish: ''Estado Nueva Esparta'', ), is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It comprises Margarita Island, Coche, and the largely uninhabited Cubagua. The state has the smallest area, and is located off the northe ...

, after

Margarita Island Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the States of Venezuela, Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the northeastern coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on t ...

and Coche Island. It is located north of the

Araya Peninsula The Araya Peninsula is a peninsula on the Caribbean Sea, located in Sucre State, northern Venezuela. The peninsula is part of the eastern Serranía del Litoral mountain range, in the Venezuelan Coastal Ranges System of the northern Andes. It ext ...

, the closest mainland area.

Geography

Topography

The island is in size, an elliptical shape with the longer axis east-west. Its area is . The coast consists of some beaches as well as cliffs from high in the south and from high in the north. The highest elevation of the flat-topped island reaches .

Climate

It is dry and lacks surface water bodies (the only freshwater is found in small underground reservoirs). Annual precipitation is , which is the value of a dry desert. Temperatures are close to year-round with little fluctuation.

Vegetation

The desert-like (

xerophytic A xerophyte (from Greek ξηρός ''xeros'' 'dry' + φυτόν ''phuton'' 'plant') is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water, such as a desert such as the Sahara or places in the Alps or t ...

) vegetation of the essentially barren island includes a number of

cactus A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

species such as Cardón de Dato ('' Ritterocereus griseus''), Buche, Melón de Cerro, Sabana o Monte (''Melocactus caesius''), Guamacho (''Pereskia guamacho''), and Opuntia tuna as well as a few legumes (family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

) such as Mesquite (''

Prosopis juliflora ''Prosopis juliflora'' ( es, bayahonda blanca, Cuji Venezuela, Trupillo Colombia, Aippia Wayuunaiki and long-thorn kiawe in Hawaii) is a shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae, a kind of mesquite. It is native to Mexico, South America and th ...

''), Divi-divi (''Caesalpinia coriaria''), Poorman's Friend (''Stylosanthes viscosa''), and the Sangre Drago (''Croton flavens'').

Fauna

The island has small populations of hares, feral goats and a large population of dogs.

Transportation

The island of Cubagua has no streets or roads. It is served by

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

and other boats from Punta de Piedras, the capital of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

of Tubores located to the northeast on Isla Margarita. The passage takes less than 2 hours. The boat landing pier is located at the eastern end of Playa Charagato, the main settlement of Cubagua. A

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

marking Punta Charagato lies in the northeast to aid the Isla Margarita ferry and another lighthouse is situated at Punta Brasil in the northwest to aid the ferries of Punta de Piedras and Puerto la Cruz.

History

The first human settlement on Cubagua has been dated to 2325 BC, a time within the Meso-Indian Period (5000-1000 BC). In 1498, Cubagua was sighted by

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

along with Margarita island. Later in 1499 Spanish expeditions returned to exploit abundant pearl oysters, enslaving the indigenous people and harvesting the

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s intensively. They became one of the most valuable resources of the incipient Spanish Empire in the Americas between 1508 and 1531, by which time the local indigenous population and the pearl oysters had been devastated. In 1528, Cristóbal Guerra founded the city of

Nueva Cádiz '' Nueva Cádiz is an archaeological site and former port town on Cubagua, off the coast of Venezuela. First established in 1500 as a seasonal settlement, by 1515 it had become a year-round permanent town. it was one of the first European settle ...

, the first settlement to hold the title of "city" in Venezuela. Venezuela By Leonard Victor Dalton"> Venezuela By Leonard Victor Dalton
/ref> The city became a synonym for the suppression by the Hispanic

Conquistadores Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

. Nueva Cádiz, which reached a population between 1,000 and 1,500, was destroyed in an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

followed by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

in 1541. The ruins have been declared a National Monument of Venezuela in 1979. Ruinas, Cubagua Island (7)

Administration

Cubagua is part of the

of Tubores, one of 11 municipalities of the state of

Population

Human activity dates from the 24th century BC, but the first people did not settle here in a permanent fashion. Instead the island was used as a source of oysters, for food, and for pearls. The lack of vegetation or fresh water made permanent settlement nearly impossible. Today the island still has temporary fisherman, but few to no permanent residents. According to an unofficial population census conducted by the ''Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural'' in August 2007, the island had 51 residents of which 19 were children. The population resides in the following 4 communities in the island's northwest: *Playa Falucho *Playa Charagato (the largest settlement) *Punta Charagato *Punta la Cabecera (close to the ruins Nueva Cádiz) In addition, on some maps a settlement called Punta Arenas appears in the Southwest. Satellite images reveal about 5 buildings at that site. A small settlement of about 4 buildings can be made out about midway between Punta La Horca (the westernmost point of Cubagua) and Punta Arenas south of Punta El Lamparo. A pair of buildings can be seen on the southern bay of Manglecito just east of Punta Manglecito. The population exceeds 300 during the year when seasonal fishermen from the Venezuelan mainland state of

Sucre Sucre () is the capital of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the 6th most populated city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high altitude gives the ...

are included.

In popular culture

In 2015, Venezuelan director Jorge Thielen Armand made a short documentary about the island of Cubagua, ''Flor de la Mar''.

References

External links

Information about Cubagua Island (Spanish)detailed map (Geology)
* {{Authority control Geography of Nueva Esparta Venezuelan islands of the Leeward Antilles