Is the 'Pirate Island' real-life version disappointing One Piece fans?

Only one dirt road and forced to board the helicopter if you want to come or go

If you are a fan of One Piece, it must be curious if there is a "pirate island" in fact, how will it look? Come to Mocha , a small island located off the west coast of Arauco province of Chile (South American country), you will have the opportunity to take advantage of marketing.

Mocha Island.

On the outside, Mocha has a poetic shape like a drop of water. With an area of ​​about 48km ² and a total population of about 800 people, it is quite deserted, there is only one dirt road.

Although 35 km from the mainland, Mocha has no shuttle boats. The waves and the disturbing magnetic field make it a death zone with sea traffic. In return, you can reach the island by helicopter.

The whole island has a unique road.

However, when you come here, don't think about being able to play like a pirate world, because Mocha has almost nothing! The whole island has a few small grocery stores. All activities, necessities, such as going to school, going to work, going to the supermarket, even going to the emergency room, must go to the helicopter before leaving the island.

"Pirates" are actually Western expedition boats

Most of the inhabitants of Mocha Island are Mapuche (indigenous peoples of Central South Chile and Southwest Argentina).

In the past, they were isolated, very wary of outsiders. In 1578, when the English explorer Francis Drake (1540-1596) accidentally discovered Mocha and was on the verge of bustling, he was driven fiercely. I heard that the scar on Drake's face was traces from this careless approach.

2 Western explorers: On the right is Francis Drake, left is Olivier van Noort.

However, after Drake, everything changed. People on the island found that the boats passing by just wanted to exchange goods. In the 17th century, Drake's juniors such as Olivier van Noort (Netherlands) and Joris van Spilbergen (England) were warmly and warmly welcomed as guests.

On Mocha, although developing agriculture-fishery, but lack of metal forging. So people are free to bring cereals and cattle in exchange for cutlery and pots and pans.

The problem is that these expedition boats are very comfortable, fair at Mocha, but having just left the island, they quickly turned around. On the expedition along the Pacific coast, they frantically plundered, destroying Spanish harbors.

"Pirates" are essentially Western explorers.

Of course with the Spanish Empire, they are like pirates. And Mocha is guilty of being friendly, providing goods for "pirates" and being taken to be "abuser" . "Weeding must uproot", so in 1685, Spain sent a fleet of Mocha clean up. After burning it down, they dragged all the residents who still lived on the boat, to the mainland, forced to settle on the banks of the Biobío River.

The starting point of the legendary Mocha Dick, the famous Moby Dick prototype

After years of abandonment, in the 19th century - the most brutal whale hunt in history, Mocha turned into a destination for fishing boats. Since 1810, people began to regularly encounter a giant burial house, up to 15m long and extremely wise, or wandering off the Mocha sea butter. They call it Mocha Dick.

"It's an old, extraordinary size and power whale, all white," - Jeremiah N. Reynold, an American reporter and explorer of the same period.

Mocha turns into a fishing boat stop.

With "extraordinary size and power" , Mocha Dick is constantly escaping from raids. Normally, he likes to play with people, likes to swim alongside the train. But as soon as he discovered the hunters holding the TB guns ready to shoot, he immediately countered, sprayed the water, shrieked loudly and threw himself into sinking the boat.

Mocha Dick once won 100 hunts. It constantly escaped, before dying in 1838. People spit out 19 spears in its body.

Model Moby Dick in Herman Melville's great novel.

Feeling before the glorious life of Mocha Dick, the great writer Herman Melville (USA) built Moby Dick, a great white whale in the fictional world.

Rife with " treasure of sinking" treasure, people believe just digging, salvaging is enough to live

It was not until 1857 that Mocha was hired by a Chilean businessman named Juan Alemparte to hire and bring farmers back to re-open. Interestingly, thanks to 172 years of absence, it became extremely green and full of animals. At least the home of 70 species of birds, including the extremely rare Puffinus creatopus bird.

Very quickly, Mocha became one of the focal points of survival tourism. Currently, up to 45% of its area is completely wild, protected. For Mocha residents, it is the "floating" perfect, no need to touch their hands and feet steadily.

Mocha residents believe there are many things worth sinking in the sea and in the sand.

In addition, thanks to the waves of waves surrounding the island, offshore Mocha is full of wrecked boats. During the most terrible earthquake and tsunami of 1960, a steamship anchored in Corral, Chile, 160km from Mocha, was also jerked to the island.

Heard under the sand of Mocha coast there are many rare and precious ancient objects. People are sure that the gold ship Rosetta is sinking somewhere around here. Although the search, salvage, digging is difficult, but many residents on the island still wish for a day to suddenly feel bad.

The Mapuche people believe that Mocha is the westernmost island. The soul of the dead person is aiming for the West to depart, eventually stopping here. So except for the name "pirate island", Mocha is also known in Mapuche spirit as soul island.