Travel Guide Chacachacare

Chacachacare is the westernmost and largest of the Bocas islands. Amerindians lived here until the end of the 18th century, when slave-owning planters took Chacachacare into their own hands, organizing cotton and cocoa production. At the beginning of the 19th century, Chaca served as a hideout for revolutionaries, who used it to transport arms and ammunition from Venezuela to Trinidad. They were soon defeated by the British. When cotton prices collapsed around 1850, Chaca turned entirely to whaling. This in turn declined at the end of the 19th century, leaving Chaca and its last inhabitants completely destitute. They were unable to oppose the Trinidad government's decision to set up a leprosarium on the small island in 1921, and were expropriated. Run by Dominican nuns, the leprosarium imposed harsh conditions on patients, bordering on coercion. The treatment center operated until 1984. Since then, it has been empty of any occupants, but its red-brick Victorian buildings, the doctors' dwellings, the nuns' quarters, the hospital and the chapel have remained virtually untouched. Today, the only inhabitants of the island are the keepers of the two lighthouses and the giant iguanas, the finest specimens of which measure over 2 m in length. The easiest way to get there is to contact a local agency.