Photo: JAVIER SULÉ ORTEGA. Retrieved from english.elpais.com
Adrián Caraballo is happy and grateful to live on the tiny, 2.5 acre-island he shares with 825 other people. “We feel this deep connection with the ocean. And even though we’re in this little place, we’ve got the vast sea around us, full of all sorts of marine life,” said the 25-year-old community and environmental leader from Santa Cruz del Islote, a tiny Caribbean island about 10 miles from the Colombian mainland. Many people say it’s the most densely populated island in the world.
Although there’s no official data, the island attracts hundreds of daily tourists, causing division among the locals and raising environmental concerns. “I don’t want us to be known for this because many tourists look down on us and think there’s poverty and overcrowding here,” said Caraballo. “But they don’t know that we’re actually rich — we have the sea! We live peacefully together. No one here has more than anyone else, and we all share whatever little we have. It’s all about island solidarity.”
“Those of us who care about the environment don’t want the island to be marketed that way. And honestly, I don’t even know who claims that we’re the most densely populated island. There are no statistics or Guinness world records to back it up — it’s all just speculation,” said Alexander Atencio, a teacher for 18 years at the island’s only school. Colombia’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Research (Invemar) acknowledged the lack of official data verifying the island as the world’s most densely populated. However, it has long been regarded as such.