Isla Robinson Crusoe, Chile

A couple of hundred miles off the coast of Chile lie the Juan Fernandez islands. Ever heard of it? Ever want to go there? Probably not. So in 1966, Chile renamed it Robinson Crusoe island and tourism boomed. Only 500 people live on this small island, but in 1704, it had one very famous resident, Alexander Selkirk.


He was 'stranded' on the island for 4 years and 4 months before being picked up by a passing English ship. But stranded isn't really the right word when you ask to be put on the island. Selkirk thought that the ship he was sailing on was in such bad shape that he asked to be left on the island. The other people onboard should have followed his advice because the ship sank shortly afterwards and only a handful of people survived! When he got back home, Daniel Defoe heard about his adventure and wrote the book 'Robinson Crusoe' based on some of Selkirk's exploits.

I was originally planning to visit Selkirk's cave on the top of the hill, but it rained as soon as we got there, so I decided not to do it. At least one passenger did attempt the muddy climb to the top, but he fell down and was covered in mud from head to toe!

As you can imagine, there's not much to see and do in such a small place. There are only 2 streets and it takes all of 5 minutes to walk from one side of town to the other. One of the things I did see though was this house made of bottles. About 3 years ago, the original house burned down, so the owner rebuilt the new one out of the empties. So you see, there really isn't anything to do here except eat and drink and drink and drink ...