The ruins of Cubagua Island are located between the Araya Peninsula and Margarita Island. History tells that, since the 16th century, this island possessed large deposits of pearls, whose exploitation gave rise to the first Spanish settlement, which sought its treasure. Although there were already indigenous settlers in that region.
The lack of water and the disappearance of the oyster beds caused the inhabitants to migrate little by little. In addition to this, history points out that 41 years later, a hurricane and a possible earthquake hit the area, causing the inhabitants to flee to Margarita Island.
Soon after, 10 settlers settled in those ruins. Then French pirates arrived there and left the city in flames, causing the abandonment of the island once again. Ten years later, the complete exhaustion of the pearl oyster beds determined the definitive abandonment of this island. It was left only for fishermen who improvised huts.
In 1979, the ruins of Cubagua Island were declared a national monument.
At that time, I was 18 years old, studying Marine Biology at the Nueva Esparta Center of the Universidad de Oriente. The professor of a subject assigned us a research on marine algae and pearl shells. The place of this study was in the ruins of Cubagua Island. Immediately, we organized ourselves into a group of 4 classmates: Duglaine, Azael, Carlos and myself. The Department of that specialty provided us with 2 diving equipment on loan,
The next day, all members of the research team got into Joan's car. Before leaving, Duglaine said:
"On the way back from that Island we will pass through the Espiritu Santo Valley and visit the Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Valley".
Then we depart to our destination to perform the assigned activity.
When we arrived at the ruins of that island. My companion and I put on our diving equipment, since we were experts in this sport, we submerged in the water, we observed that at the bottom of the ocean there were few vestiges of structural ruins of construction of houses eaten away by the effect of time and the salinity of the sea water. In addition, there were 2 giant octopuses that when they saw us waved their tentacles as a sign of greeting, winking their eyes at us in an act of coquetry. We responded with a smile and waved our hands in greeting.
Then we took the algae samples, we did not find any pearl shells. With these samples we made experiments and carried out our research.
When we returned we entered the Church of the Virgin, we made the sign of the cross. When we were praying, suddenly Duglaine, very excited, started shouting:
"My God, this is a miracle, the Virgin looked at me, suddenly opened and then closed her eyes!". Crossing his hands making with his fingers the sign of the Cross , he swore:
"By the memory of my mother, that what I have seen is true, believe me, do not laugh". I replied:
"We did not laugh, we respect what you say, do not get angry, let's go home". She understood and we all went home.
_In this story the first four paragraphs are actually described, as they are based on several historical documents, which I reviewed
The rest of the story is a lie. The only elements of truth that appear in this part of the story are the four characters Duglaine, Azael, Carlos and myself, all graduates in Sociology at the Universidad de Oriente, Núcleo de Sucre.
None of us studied at the Núcleo de Nueva Esparta. We are currently in good health and all of us are over 70 years old.
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This is a non-fiction story
I hope you like it
The drawings are by me
Use the translator Deepl