Friday, 7 September 2012 - 01:30 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: South America / Südamerika Category/Kategorie: GeneralReading Time: 4minutes
Robinson Crusoe Island, formerly known as Más a Tierra (Closer to land), or Aguas Buenas, is the largest island of the Chilean Juan Fernández archipelago, situated 674 kilometres west of South America in the South Pacific Ocean and belongs to Chile. The archipelago is made up of three islands, Robinson Crusoe, Alejandro Selkirk and the small Santa Clara.
Robinson Crusoe has an estimated population for 2011 of 859 (525 men, 334 women) living in the village of San Juan Bautista. Although the community maintains a rustic serenity dependent on the spiny lobster trade, residents employ a few vehicles, a satellite internet connection, and many television sets. There is an airstrip on the island, near the tip of the island’s southwestern peninsula. The flying time from Santiago de Chile is just under three hours, and there is a ferry from the airstrip to San Juan Bautista. The tourist number is in the hundreds per year. Scuba diving is gaining popularity.
The island was first named Juan Fernandez Island after Juan Fernández, a Spanish captain and explorer who was the first to land there in 1574. It was also known as Más a Tierra. There is no evidence of earlier discovery either by Polynesians, despite the proximity of Easter Island, or Native Americans.
It was here that the sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned as a castaway in 1704, and lived in solitude for four years and four months. Selkirk had been gravely concerned for the seaworthiness of his ship, the Cinque Ports, and declared his wish to be left on the island during a mid-voyage restocking stop. His captain, Thomas Stradling, a colleague on the voyage of privateer and explorer William Dampier, was tired of his dissent and obliged by leaving Selkirk. All he had brought with him was a musket, gunpowder, carpenter’s tools, a knife, a Bible and some clothing. The sailor may have inspired Daniel Defoe to write the classic 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. To reflect the literary lore associated with the island, the Chilean government named the location Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966.
