Travel Guide Bocas Islands

The archipelago of the Bocas islands is made up of 5 islands also called the "teeth of the dragon" because they are at the beginning of the mouths of the dragon, straits separating Trinidad from Venezuela, the Crab and the Gulf of Paria.Chacachacare is the most western and the biggest of the Bocas islands. Amerindians lived on the island until the end of the 18th century, when slave planters cut Chacachacare down, organizing the production of cotton and cocoa. At the beginning of the 19th century, Chaca, as it is known in Trinidad, served as a hideout for revolutionaries who used it to transport arms and ammunition from Venezuela to Trinidad. These revolutionaries were quickly defeated by the English government. When cotton prices collapsed around 1850, Chaca turned entirely to whaling. This last activity declined in its turn at the end of the 19th century, leaving Chaca and its last inhabitants completely destitute. Most of them were now small landowners living from the exploitation of their plots of land. They could not oppose the decision of the government of Trinidad to establish, in 1921, a leprosarium on the small island and were expropriated. Run by Dominican nuns, the administration of the leprosarium imposed very harsh conditions on the patients, bordering on coercion. The care center functioned until 1984. Since then, it has been empty, but its Victorian red brick buildings, the doctors' houses, the nuns' lodgings, the hospital and the chapel have remained almost untouched. At present, the only occupants of the island are the guardians of the two lighthouses and the giant iguanas, the most beautiful specimens of which measure more than 2 meters long.Gaspar Grande is the third island from the east and also the most accessible, a 15-minute pirogue ride from Chaguaramas. A fishing village until the 1960s, the island is now a seaside resort for the privileged, with splendid residences and private beaches. Its geology gives Gaspar Grande a special interest. There are caves and the remains of an underground river in the place called "Point Baleine". The mouth of this ancient underground river forms a kind of natural shed that in heroic times served as a hiding place for freebooters. These caves - the " blue cave " in particular - are decorated with stalagmites and stalactites whose often evocative shapes have earned them colourful nicknames, such as the lovers, the Buddha or the archbishop's pulpit. The caves serve as a refuge for thousands of bats, of all species, but the most fearsome of them, the vampires, were eradicated more than twenty years ago. The fauna of Gaspar Grande is not limited to bats. In fact, the island is a small paradise for naturalists. You can find all kinds of birds and in particular parrots, iguanas in number, snakes and the famous centipedes, these giant millipedes with a very poisonous sting. Monos is the fourth island of the archipelago, it is not very big, it is not more than 3 km wide. It owes its name to the band of noisy howler monkeys that populate it(monos means monkey in Spanish), so named by the Spaniards. The bay of Monos is especially beautiful, with its beaches and luxurious villas in the middle of palm trees. Very old pines and wild orchids make the happiness of the naturalist hikers of passage, few because this island is not very tourist. One can also see fromagers (or kapokiers), which form spectacular aerial roots. These fascinating trees were the object of many legends in Trinidad: they would have the faculty to move to regroup in the forest. You can also see cocoa trees.Huevos (which means "egg" in Spanish) is a very preserved island, but even smaller (1 km2) than Monos. These old plantations were inhabited by American soldiers during the Second World War when they were based in Chaguaramas. Today there are only a few very private luxury villas on this rarely visited island. The attractions of the island's boat tour stop in front of the landscapes of Balat Bay, Turtle Bay, Point Braba and Umbrella Rocks. It was on this series of small rocks that on August 10, 1800, the HMS Dromedaru, a large ship of the Royal Navy, ran aground with 500 passengers on board (all passengers were saved).Gasparillo is actually made up of two islands connected by a flight of rocks, but the smaller one does not have its own name. Some people also call it the island of scorpions or even the island of millipedes, in reference to the insects that inhabit it. People come here to climb its cliffs and the most daring to jump from the top of them. On the south side of the island, a beautiful 12m high cliff is the best place to play this adrenaline game.