- This article is about an island. For the Coche language, see Camsá language
Camsá is a language isolate of Colombia.-Genealogical relations:Camsá has been linked with various hypothetical phylum proposals including Macro-Chibchan....
.
Isla de Coche (
Coche Island) is one of three islands forming the Nueva Esparta State of
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, located in the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....
between
Isla MargaritaMargarita Island is the largest island of the state of Nueva Esparta in Venezuela, situated in the Caribbean Sea, off the northeastern coast of the country. The state also contains two other smaller islands: Coche and Cubagua. The capital city of Nueva Esparta is La Asunción, located in a river...
and the mainland. The other two islands are Isla Margarita, the main island of the state, and
CubaguaCubagua or Isla de Cubagua is the smallest and least populated of the three islands constituting the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, after Isla Margarita and Coche. It is located 16 km north of Araya Peninsula, the closest mainland area....
, the smallest.
Geography
It covers an area of 55 km² (11 km long by 6 km), with a population of about 8,200 (1999 census). The highest elevation of the island is 60 m above the sea level. The
climateClimate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
is
tropicThe tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
, with an average temperatute of approximately 27 to 38°C.
The island is coincident with the
municipalityA municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
of Villalba, with capital San Pedro de Coche. Other towns on Coche are El Bichar, Guinima, El Amparo, El Guamache and La Uva.
The economy depends mainly on tourism.
History
The island was discovered in 1498 by
Christopher ColumbusChristopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
. First efforts to settle Coche was made in the early 16th Century. There was previous population of refugees originating from the city of Nueva Cádiz which was destroyed by a tropical storm on Cubagua Island. All settlers, mostly the
pearlA pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other...
daughters, abandoned Isla Coche in 1574.
In the first half of the 20th Century, in
CumanáCumaná is the capital of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located 402 km east of Caracas. It was the first settlement founded by Europeans in the mainland America, in 1501 by Franciscan friars, but due to successful attacks by the indigenous people, it had to be refounded several times...
's library a document, written by a
FranciscanMost Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
monk reported that on Isla Coche a boat was discovered with the embossed inscription "John Bober Polonus, 1726". Polish voyager and writer,
Arkady FiedlerArkady Fiedler was a Polish writer, journalist and adventurer.He studied philosophy and natural science at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and later in Poznań and the University of Leipzig...
, made efforts to find other information about the mysterious John Bober. The result of his search was the novel trilogy: "Wyspa Robinsona" ("
The Robinson's Island"), "Orinoko" ("
Orinoco") and "Biały Jaguar" ("
The White Jaguar").
John (in Polish: Jan) Bober (half-Polish roots) was a
settlerA settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
from
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and after settlers revolted against the English Lord Dunbury was crushed, he escaped from
Jamestown, VirginiaJamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
, on board of a pirate ship. The ship sank near the Venezuelan coast, and only John Bober and two others were caught as slaves by Arawak Indians, captured after a long swim to the shore of Isla Coche. There they spent about three years, between 1725 and 1728. In 1728, a battle took place on Isla Coche between an Indian daughter, who escaped from Margarita, supported by Bober (who supplied guns and taught them how to use them), and the Spanish from Margarita Island. The "Islanders" had won, but didn't stay there because they were afraid of Spanish revenge. They later left La Cocha and sailed to an Arawak's village named Serima, on the right bank of the
OrinocoThe Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia...
river on the mainland.
The next successful settlement took place in 19th Century, and from this date Coche is still habitated.
Airport
Location
City: Isla De Coche, Venezuela
Name: Andres Miguel Salazar Marcano
ICAO: SVIE
Details
Type: Airport (Aerodrome, Airfield)
Latitude: 10°47'40"N (10.794406)
Longitude: 63°58'54"W (-63.981589)
Datum: WGS 1984
Elevation: 10 ft (3 m)
Runways: 1
Longest: 3937 × 98 ft (1200 × 30 m)
External links
Airport information found at [as of 28 Aug., 2008]: http://gc.kls2.com/airport/SVIE