Robinson Crusoe Island is located 600 kilometres off the coast of Chile. The island is a rugged volcanic speck where 70 percent of its plant species are endemic, and is the largest of the Juan Fernandez Islands, a small archipelago that since 1935 is a Chilean National Park which in 1977 was declared a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. This island has witnessed and played an important role in Chilean and world history.
Robinson Crusoe Island has a mountainous and undulating terrain, formed by ancient lava flows which have built up from numerous volcanic episodes. The highest point on the island is 915 m above sea level at El Yunque. Intense erosion has resulted in the formation of steep valleys and ridges. A narrow peninsula is formed in the southwestern part of the island called Cordón Escarpado. The island of Santa Clara is located just off the southwest coast. Robinson Crusoe Island lies to the west of the boundary between the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate, and rose from the ocean 4 million years ago. On 20 February 1835, a day-long eruption began from a submarine vent 1.6 kilometres north of Punta Bacalao. The event was quite minor—only a Volcanic Explosivity Index 1 eruption—but it produced explosions and flames that lit up the island, along with tsunamis.
The island was first named Juan Fernandez Island after Juan Fernández, a Spanish sea captain and explorer who was the first to land there in 1574. It was also known as Más a Tierra . In 1704, the sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned there, living in solitude for four years and four months. Selkirk had been gravely concerned about the seaworthiness of his ship, Cinque Ports (which ended up sinking very shortly after), 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. All Selkirk had left with him was a musket, gunpowder, carpenter's tools, a knife, a Bible, and some clothing. The story of Selkirk's rescue is included in the 1712 book A Voyage to the South Sea, and Round the World by Edward Cooke.
1750 the village of San Juan Bautista was founded at Cumberland Bay and by 1779 there were already 7 small fortresses bristling with guns. The island’s isolation offered Spain a splendid place for setting up a penal colony, to which high-ranking Chilean patriots were deported in the early 19th century. In an 1840 narrative, Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. described the port of Juan Fernandez as a young prison colony. The penal institution was soon abandoned and the island again uninhabited before a permanent colony was eventually established in the latter part of the 19th century. Joshua Slocum visited the island between 26 April and 5 May 1896, during his solo global circumnavigation on the sloop Spray. The island and its 45 inhabitants are referred to in detail in Slocum's memoir, Sailing Alone Around the World.
2005 British, Japanese and Chilean archaeologists have discovered the spot where Alexander Selkirk, the model for the castaway Robinson Crusoe, survived in solitude for four years and four months. After a 13-year search, the team, led by Daisuke Takahashi, a Japanese explorer, believe that they have identified where the 18th-century sailor camped, cooked and kept a lonely lookout. The crucial breakthrough was the discovery of a fragment of one of Selkirk’s navigational instruments. Last January Mr Takahashi took a team of four scientists to the remote spot where he suspected Selkirk’s camp had been. There they found traces of a fire, animal bones and holes in which Selkirk appears to have placed poles to support a shelter. But the decisive evidence was a 6mm piece of copper, discovered by David Caldwell of the National Museums of Scotland, and identified by him as the point of a pair of 17th-century dividers. Dr Caldwell said: “Selkirk was a navigator, and the account of this discovery states that he had his navigational equipment with him. In archaeological terms that is as good evidence that you are going to get.” The artifact was discovered while excavating a site not far from Selkirk's Lookout where the famous castaway is believed to have lived. In 1825, during John Howell's researching of Alexander Selkirk's biography, his "flip-can" was in the possession of his great-grand-nephew John Selkirk, and Alexander's musket was "in the possession of Major Lumsden of Lathallan."
2010 Robinson Crusoe Island was hit by a tsunami following a magnitude 8.8 earthquake. The tsunami was about 3 m high when it reached the island. Sixteen people lost their lives, and most of the coastal village of San Juan Bautista was washed away. The only warning the islanders had came from a 12-year-old girl, who noticed the sudden drawback of the sea that forewarns of the arrival of a tsunami wave and saved many of her neighbours from harm.
Today there are around one thousand people living in the archipelago, most of them in the village of San Juan Bautista engaged in fishing for the “spiny lobster”, a delicacy exported to the mainland.
We left Valparaiso on a new leg with the Explorer. Lunch was served up on deck and then the new punters boarded, making us 94 for the upcoming 25 day leg to Tahiti: of these 39 were from the US; 16 from the UK; 10 from Poland: 9 from Australia; 5 from Ireland, plus a few assorted others.
click on a thumbnail to get a bigger photo
 |
 |
 |
 |
We then had the introduction of the new Expedition leader, Marieke, from Holland. Roger, Julie, Carolina and Paola had disembarked ; in their place we had Demetrius, a historian from Russia; Dot, another historian from Australia; Anthony art and Lea was now on board as a marine biologist and snorkel master March 19th A day at sea. A lecture by Damon on modern life in Chile. A talk by Mila on Archaeology in Chile, tea, Recap and Briefing and then the Captain Pavlin Koev¨s Welcome. A roughish day with 3 m of swell and it was cold eating in Hot Rocks for dinner
Dawn saw us off Bahia Padre on the west of the island of Robinson Crusoe. Dawn came around 08.00 and we we clearly not going anywhere until it got light. We then had a 75 minute zodiac cruise with Jamie, who was passionate about the Juan Fernandez fur seals we found there, also an excellent zodiac driver.
Juan Fernandez fur seals are found only on the Juan Fernández Islands and the Desventuradas Islands. The Juan Fernandez fur seal is part of the group of eared seals. Fur seals in general have thick insulating fur that protects the skin from cold water, they have small ear flaps on the side of their head, and they hold their weight on their front flippers which are also used for land locomotion. Fur seals are different from true seals because they have the external ear flaps, but also true seals use their chest for support and movement, fur seals walk on their front flippers. The Juan Fernandez fur seal is the second smallest fur seal, second only to the Galápagos fur seal. Their bodies are short and robust with brown pelage. Both the fore flippers and the hind flippers are relatively short, and the hind flippers have fleshy tips on the digits. Females are lighter brown and average 100 pounds and 4'6" long. Males are significantly larger and average 300 pounds and 6'6" in length. Males have thicker necks than females and have generally darker brown pelage. Male seals have golden tipped thick guard hairs on the back of the head, neck, and shoulders.
Juan Fernandez fur seals - once covered these beaches in the hundreds of thousands or more. And then, starting in 1687, sealers came and methodically killed them. Season after season, they brutally harvested the animals. By the 1850s, the Juan Fernandez fur seal was annihilated, considered extinct. A hundred years later, rumours reached Chile that seals had been sighted near the islands. In 1965, the Chilean scientist N. Bahamonde went to see for himself and discovered 200 of the animals. In 1968, an American expedition led by marine biologist Kenneth Norris confirmed that these were indeed the "extinct" Juan Fernandez fur seals.
From what we saw in this little cove, their numbers are certainly increasing. There were literally hundreds of seals here
click on a thumbnail to get a bigger photo
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Then in the afternoon we re-positioned to the little town of San Juan Bautista where were landed. We disembarked at 1.15 for the medium walk, about 50 of us. We passed 2 WW2 guns (put there for defence by the Chilean government) , before reaching the island's seedbank greenhouse and a fig tree with lots of the island's rare firecrown humming bird.
The IUCN has assessed the Juan Fernández firecrown as Critically Endangered. The species inhabits only one small island. It has an estimated population of 1500 to 3500 mature birds or 3000 to 5200 total individuals and the number is believed to be decreasing. The destruction of native trees, which the species depends on for nest sites, is a major cause of the decline. Also contributing are the spread of exotic zarzamora blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius) and maqui wineberry (Aristotelia chilensis), predation by domestic and feral cats, and destruction by introduced rabbits and goats. A conservation effort was begun in 2004 by a partnership of several organizations (The Hummingbird Society, American Bird Conservancy, and Juan Fernández Islands Conservancy, Oikonos - Ecosystem Knowledge) with the aim of preventing extinction of the species. Their efforts include planting native species, removing non-native plants, and reducing non-native predators and competitors. Island residents have been hired as project coordinators and workers.
We continued upwards for about 3k, passing through a fairy ring and then walking for 40 minutes along a circular board walk with hundreds of steps. In truth it was a fairly strenuous walk, due to the height gain. By time we got to the board walk, we were last and were escorted all the way down by Damon. Once back at the shore we did a detour of about 600m along the shore to get to the "pirate"party: pisco sours, pirates and canapes. It no doubt went down well with some of the chattering classes, but we saw little of merit in it.
click on a thumbnail to get a bigger photo
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |