Isla de Sacrificios

Isla de Sacrificios is a low, sandy island about 450 metres long and 198 metres wide in the Gulf of Mexico, a short way off the shore between the port of Veracruz and Boca del Río. It is the largest of the small islands in front of the two cities and part of the Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano national marine park, a system of coral reefs that protects the coast. A lighthouse on its southeast side still guides ships into Veracruz. The island itself has been closed to the public since the 1980s and is under the protection of the Mexican Navy (Semar).

In the Postclassic period the island was a Totonac ceremonial site, and excavations, notably by the archaeologist Alfonso Medellín Zenil, found burials, platform bases and hundreds of figurines and vessels; some of the finds are now in the British Museum. Juan de Grijalva's expedition landed in 1518 and found two stone shrines with the bodies of people sacrificed the night before, which gave the island its name. Later it was used to repair ships and as a base for attacks on Veracruz: in 1683 the pirates Laurens de Graaf and Nicholas van Hoorn retreated here after sacking the city, quarrelled and fought a duel that cost van Hoorn his life. The French used it during the Pastry War of 1838 and buried soldiers here in the 1860s, the Americans used it in 1847 and 1914, and in 1946 it served as a quarantine station for zebu cattle shipped from Brazil, an episode tied to Mexico's foot-and-mouth disease outbreak.

In 1983 a clean-up of the island removed some fifty tonnes of rubbish, and shortly afterwards it was closed to visitors because of damage to the reef, coral collecting for souvenirs and sewage. Access is now limited to research, teaching and occasional sporting events. The island has a varied birdlife, with 81 recorded species including pelicans, cormorants, frigatebirds, ospreys and peregrine falcons, and hawksbill turtles have been seen nesting on its beaches. Most visitors see it from the shore at the aquarium and the Veracruz boardwalk, or on kayak and boat tours that paddle out to the island's edge to snorkel in the shallow water over the reef.