Dangerous and Creepy Islands

There is a very strange looking island near Naples Italy. It looks like two separate flat rocks sticking up out of the sea with a walkway connecting the two of them. The island is said to be cursed and none of the locals in Naples, Italy will have anything to do with it. So where did this idea come from. It is claimed everyone whoever owned this island died in one way or another or landed up broke. It is said no one knows how old the curse is, but it seemed to start in the early nineteenth century. There is a villa on one of the islands, but it is crumbling and the island itself is only 30 yards off the coast of Naples. It would be very easy to swim to and yet nobody seems to be exploring it. I would have expected some urban explorers to check out this place. The name of the island is “The Isola La Gaiola.” The name comes from the caves around the island.

Do you like animals? Maybe I should say do you like snakes? There is an island which is about 100 miles off the coast of San Paulo, Brazil. The island is so deadly the Brazilian Navy has forbidden people from visiting it, because the entire island is covered with deadly venomous snakes. It turns out there are quite a few islands in this world which have deadly venomous snakes all over them. The name of this particular island is “Ilha de Queimada Grande.” Some people call this island the most dangerous place in the world. It has a secondary name which is quite fitting and that is “Snake Island.” One snake which lives there is the Golden Lancehead pit viper. This snake is on the endangered list and it is the only place where it can be found. The reason the Brazilian Navy has closed this island to people was not only to protect these people, but believe it or not also to protect the snakes.

One pleasant sounding island is called Christmas Island. It belongs to Australia and is an external territory. The island is in the Indian ocean about 220 miles south the Java. A couple of thousand people live there and the main population center is Flying Fish Cove. The island has a tropical climate and most people would like it. One of the problems is so do crabs and during mating season about 120 million crabs roll onto the island to mate. I don’t think anybody would want to get caught in the middle of this migration. The island does serve as a tourist destination since over 60% of it is national parks and it features some very rare wildlife and plants.

There is an island in the Pacific which the Japanese had invaded in World War II. The name of the island is “Ramree Island.” The island has been mentioned in the Guinness book of records and has a statistic which is very disturbing, especially to the Japanese. This island is the location of the worst human disaster caused by animals. When the Japanese occupied this island over 500 Japanese soldiers were killed and eaten by crocodiles which infest the entire island. It certainly doesn’t sound like a place anybody would want to visit and the crocodiles certainly are not scared of humans. When we talk about these Japanese troops we have to remember they were all armed at the time and still so many of them succumbed to the unrelenting crocodile attacks.

I guess since I am talking about islands I have a duty to mention one very famous island and that is Alcatraz Island which is located in San Francisco Bay. Everyone knows it was a notorious prison and had some very famous inmates, but many people today believe the island is haunted and the souls of many of those inmates are still there. One of those former prisoners was Al Capone who is said to still haunt his cell. Many people have said they heard noises and footsteps in that cell and some even claim to have seen a spirit. Before the prison closed guards reported often hearing noises in the corridor where three inmates were shot when they failed in an escape.

North Sentinel Island is controlled on paper by India, but you would not want to try and visit there. The natives are not very friendly and are known to threaten visitors with weapons, primitive weapons, but as the saying goes they will kill. The island has beautiful beaches and is located in the Bay of Bengal in the Indian ocean. If one were to ask how big is this island the answer would be about the size of Manhattan Island. The problem is, it is inhabited by the Sentinelese tribe which is said to be the most dangerous tribe in the world. I would say they are probably at least the most unfriendly. Two fishermen had landed on the island in 2006 and it wasn’t long before they were murdered. Even the Indian government has given up trying to have relations with this tribe and has established a 3-mile zone around the island.

Islands which should not be inhabited but are, are the Izu Islands. You may be wondering why I say they should not be inhabited. Let me give you a little tip why I say this, the air is so bad on the islands and the sulfur content in the air so heavy, the inhabitants have to carry gas masks with them so they can put them on when they are needed. The islands are volcanic in nature and that is where all the sulfur is coming from. The islands are located just south of Tokyo and the one with the worst sulfur content is Miyakejima. In 2000 the island had to be evacuated due to the high levels of toxic gas. The island rests upon an active volcanic chain and it has erupted six times in the last century. The tourist shops actually sell gas masks.