Isla Robinson Crusoe cruise port guide

About Isla Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe Island is a remote Chilean island in the South Pacific, situated 670 km west of San Antonio, Chile, and part of the Juan Fernández archipelago. Most of the roughly 843 inhabitants live in the village of San Juan Bautista on Cumberland Bay, where scuba diving on the WWI-era German cruiser Dresden is the island's signature activity. The island's volcanic terrain and its connection to Alexander Selkirk — the marooned sailor who inspired Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe — draw hundreds of visitors per year.

The signature excursion is scuba diving on the wreck of the German light cruiser Dresden, scuttled in Cumberland Bay on 14 March 1915 — a site gaining popularity among divers. Hikers and naturalists are drawn to El Yunque, the island's 915 m volcanic summit, and to its remarkable endemic wildlife including the critically endangered Juan Fernández firecrown hummingbird. The village of San Juan Bautista preserves the living lore of Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish sailor marooned here from 1704 to 1709 whose isolation inspired Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe — the literary connection that prompted the Chilean government to rename the island in 1966.