Cubagua

Cubagua is the smallest and least populated of the three islands constituting the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, after Isla Margarita and Coche. It is located 16 km north of Araya Peninsula, the closest mainland.

Geography

Topography

The island is 9.2 times 3.6 km and has an elliptical shape, with the longer axis from west to east. The area is 22.438 km ². The coast consists of steep cliffs which are 5 to 7 m high in the south, and the north 20 to 24 m. There are also sections of the beach. The highest elevation of the flat island is 32 m.

Climate

The island is dry and has no surface water (only in the underground there are freshwater ). The annual rainfall is 250 mm, which characterizes the island as a dry desert. Temperatures fluctuate during the course of years by 25 ° C, with small fluctuations.

Vegetation

The desert-like vegetation of the widely bare island has several species of cactus, as Ritterocereus griseus, Melocactus curvispinus subsp. caesius, Melocactus lemairei, Melocactus caesius, Pereskia guamacho and cacti, as well as some legumes, including representatives of the family Leguminosae such as Yaque, Cuj, and Prosopis juliflora, Caesalpinia coriaria, Stylosanthes viscosa, and Croton flavens.

Fauna

The island has small populations of rabbits and feral goats.

Traffic

The island has no roads or paths. It is served by ferries and other boats from Punta de Piedras, the main town of the district Tubores, which is located eight kilometers to the northeast of the island of Margarita. The trip takes about two hours. The Landepier located to the east of Playa Charagato, the main settlement on Cubagua. At Punta Charagato in the northeast is a lighthouse ( where the ferry from Punta de Piedras passes ), and another in the northwest at Punta Brasil ( for the ferries from Punta de Piedras to Puerto la Cruz, the Cubagua happen in the West).

History

The earliest human presence on Cubagua was dated to the year 2325 BC, a time within the Meso - Indian period ( 5000-1000 BC ).

For Europe Cubagua was discovered in 1498 by Christopher Columbus. The historically important resource was the pearl, already in pre-European times. The highest exploitation of pearls occurrence in the waters off Cubagua took place from 1508 to 1520. 1531 there were already clear signs of exhaustion of reserves. From 1530 to 1535 the fishery reached its peak in order to feed a growing population.

Cristóbal Guerra founded the city in 1528 " La Villa de la Nueva Cadiz" was the first Spanish settlement in Venezuela and one of the first in America. The place has become synonymous with the oppression of the Hispanic Conquistadores in South America.

Nueva Cádiz, which reached a population from 1000 to 1500, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1541. The ruins are protected as a National Monument of Venezuela since 1979.

Management

Cubagua belongs to the district Tubores, one of eleven districts of the state of Nueva Esparta, and there to the community ( parroquia ) of the main village of Punta de Piedras.

Population

Human activities date back to the 24th century BC, but was not intended to reach a lasting settlement. The island was used as a source of oysters, fish and pearls. The scanty vegetation and the lack of fresh water made ​​a permanent settlement near impossible.

Today, the island is temporarily used by fishermen, but has little permanent residents.

An unofficial census by the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural in August 2007, the island had a population of 51, ​​including 19 children. This population lives in four settlements in the north- east of the island, from west to east:

Some cards also a settlement of Punta Arenas is located in the southwest. Satellite images show there five buildings. A small village with four buildings may be about midway between Punta La Horca ( the westernmost point of Cubagua ) and Punta Arenas, just south of Punta El Lamparo be identified. Two buildings are seen in the southern Bay of Manglecito, east of Punta Manglecito.

The Venezuelan Navy maintains an outpost of the Coast Guard on the island, which is the Hauptstadtion Pampatar downstream on the main island of Margarita.

If you count the fishermen temporarily present from the rest of the state of Nueva Esparta and the Venezuelan mainland ( Sucre), one arrives at a total population of 300