Ile de la Tortue in Haiti or Tortuga Island

July 16, 2014 8:08 PM

Tortue Island hosts 2 km long 'Pointe Ouest' one of the best beaches in the Caribbean. Sailing on the emerald glass water for a few hours is a bliss; the white color beach with towering mountains behind, never seems to end. "Tortuga" is the Spanish word for 'turtle' and the island was named so by Christopher Columbus because the shape reminded him of a turtle's shell who discovered it during his first voyage on December 6, 1492. He was the first European to land here with some of his Spanish shipmates. Then it was outside the jurisdiction of the East India Trade Company and the Royal Navy and quickly became a heaven for pirates, the biggest pirate base in the Caribbean during the seventeenth century.

Ile De La Tortue by Frere Joel and La Bonne Nouvelle

European adventurers with a view to establish a foothold on the neighboring Hispaniola started settling here since 1629. Unfortunately, the island could not yet depart from his early pirate days. Even today, Tortuga Island is a hot spot for smuggling in the U.S. and ironically by its nature, has become the ideal location to shoot the modern-day film, "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Tortue Island is also known as "Île de la Tortue" (in French) and "Isla de la Tortuga" (in Spanish). The island is located on a 181 square km area on the northwest coast of Hispaniola.

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