Santa Cruz del Islote: World’s most crowded island

The island measure 0.012 square kilometers with a population of 1,200 people

Santa Cruz del Islote is an hour’s boat-ride from Columbia’s Caribbean coast and it has been officially tagged as the world’s most crowded island. The island was founded about 150 years ago and currently has about 90 houses and a population of over 1,200 people living on just 2.4 acres of land. There are no high-rises except tiny one-story house linked by a maze of alleyways. Along with the houses, the island boasts of two shops, one restaurant and a school that are built back to back right up to the shoreline.

       Locals commuting to nearby Caribbean islands        (C)LucaZanetti

There is currently no electricity on Santa Cruz and the Colombian navy ships  brings drinking water to the island, once every three weeks. But the water supplies are too few for the impoverished population. Women wash the clothes with salty water from a nearby well. And men settle for doing most of their necessities on the surrounding sea. With no doctors, no steady water supply and a sole generator that runs for just five hours a day, the population is fighting to get the state to provide basic amenities. But, despite the challenges, most Islote residents wouldn’t dream of leaving.
“Life here is calm and delightful,” says Juvenal Julio, a descendant of Islote’s founders. “We don’t have violence, we don’t need police, we all know each other and we enjoy our days.”
One major advantage Islote has over other islands is the fact that it has no mosquitoes because it is located in the path of winds from every direction.

                                       A family shelling crabs                         (C)jpgmag

Fish farming a a lucrative business for locals 

Another resident, teacher Arguedy Guerrero Garcia, 23, has said, “The children here are much more docile and better disciplined than where I’ve taught before; you have to respect your elders in a place where everyone knows everyone,” he says.
The islanders depend on a steady flow of tourists, traveling 90 minutes on daily tour boats from the mainland to neighboring islands in the archipelago, for their survival.