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The Most Densely Populated Island In The World Is An Uncanny Paradise

A manmade island where the people never leave

Grant Piper
4 min readApr 1, 2024
(Wikipedia / CC BY 3.0)

A place with no crime. A community where everyone knows each other. Water on all sides. Gorgeous tropical weather. Children frolic in the sun. Work consists of fishing. Everything is shared. For many, this is the perfect description of paradise. It is also the description of an island off the coast of Colombia. Santa Cruz del Islote is a strange place that seems like something that should not exist. It is home to a community that lives by rules from another era.

Santa Cruz del Islote is an artificial island, built up over decades of diligent work by local fishermen, that is home to between 500 and 1000 residents at any given time. There are roughly 50 permanent families that live on the island, and many of them have never left. This community is full of people that are born, live, work and die on this tiny island. And the island truly is tiny.

The area of Santa Cruz del Islote is just three acres. That literally makes it smaller than my backyard. Despite that, hundreds of people live in small shacks that fill the island where they support local fishermen. The island is surrounded by swarms of fish thanks to dense coral formations and shallow waters.

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Grant Piper
Grant Piper

Written by Grant Piper

Professional writer. Amateur historian. Husband, father, Christian.

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