Chacachacare. Down de Islands. Trinidad and Tobago.
Chacachacare Island located eight miles from the Venezuelan coastline is a place full of rich history. It is an Island to escape from the hustle of city life and 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, cultivated on the island was cotton and along the Lighthouse Road, 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 Spanish Rule. At one time, whales populated the Gulf of Paria and Caribbean Sea. In 1820, a Whaling Station established there. The highest point on the island is Morne Cabresse (825feet), wherein 1870 the Boca Light House built and remains in operation today.
In 1924, a Leprosarium constructed to accommodate 500 patients. The hospital wards placed at Cocos and Saunders Bay. The Dominican Nuns, who took care of the patients, constructed a convent and church at La Chappelle’s Bay. Many of the nuns while taking care of the patients contracted the disease and died. In the cemetery grounds of the Nunnery, their tombstone still exists and serves as a reminder of their dedication. It was like a death sentence, for a patient to be sent to the island and 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, electricity provided and the patients had a cinema for recreation. In 1984 with a cure for Hansen disease the place abandoned, and all left today are the ruins.
