Santa Cruz del Islote was built by man. It is the most densely populated artificial island in the world.
To get there you have to take a one-hour boat trip from the small town of Tolú or two hours from the famous Cartagena.
"The island was made by hand by natives who came and built it in the middle of the coral, with stone, rubble and garbage," says Adrián Caraballo de Hoyos, an ecological leader and tourist guide of 20 years, from the World island.
"This is how it grew and people today continue to magnify it by stealing land from the sea," he explains. "The only natural part is a few trees of Clemont and Zaragoza."
And as the island has neither mangroves nor beaches, it does not have mosquitoes either, which according to the natives was decisive for those pioneers to decide to build there in the year 1870.
The same argument was used by the islanders some time later not to accept moving to Tintipán or Múcura, the closest islands, 80 and 32 hectares, respectively, which have water sources and some cultivable land.
In the logic of expansion of "one house at a time", today the island has more than a hundred homes where about 150 families reside.
On the islet I had the impression that it is the most youthful island I have visited. Indeed, 60% of the population of Santa Cruz del Islote are children and adolescents.
There are groups of young people talking and listening to music at full volume in the alleys and children of all ages who run around every corner, jump rope, play soccer or practice boxing.
There are children fishing, swimming, paddling on wooden boards or floats; there are children learning underwater fishing with adults and swimming with the turtles or the shark among the aquariums; there are children playing with the dogs or the fighting cocks that are moored there; there are very young children who talk to every tourist on the islet, who know where the adult you are looking for is ...
In the evenings they play dominoes and on Saturdays there are cockfights, an activity that attracts teenagers.