Tortuga Island

ga by Amerigo Vespucci because of the enormous presence of turtles on the island. During the 1500 the island was populated by the Dutch who came there to exploit the salt evaporation ponds on the east of the island. They constructed a fort on the island to guard their salt works and reapers against the Spanish who were eager to keep the Dutch off the island. They were definitively expelled in 1631 when the Spanish governor of Cumana Luis Fernandez destroyed their facilities and flooded the salt pans. Since then the island has not had a permanent population and its location and morphology have remained untouched, which makes the island one of the last virgin islands in the caribbean.