Isla Mocha

Isla Mocha lies about thirty-five kilometres off the Arauco coast, with a ridge of old forest along its spine protected as a national reserve since 1988 and a population of a few hundred living on the flat ground around it. The forest holds pink-footed shearwaters, which breed in burrows here and on only two other islands in the world. The island's other claim is literary: Mocha Dick, an aggressive white sperm whale repeatedly encountered off this coast in the early nineteenth century and described in an 1839 magazine article by Jeremiah Reynolds, is generally taken as one of the sources Melville drew on for Moby-Dick.

History

The island was home to the Lafkenche Mapuche, and in Mapuche belief the souls of the dead travel west to it. Juan Bautista Pastene was the first European to record it, on 10 September 1544, naming it San Nicolás de Tolentino; in 1614 the Dutch captain Joris van Spilbergen saw islanders ploughing with chilihueques, a native camelid, and Dutch and English ships, Francis Drake's and Olivier van Noort's among them, used it as a supply stop. In 1685 Governor José de Garro moved its Mapuche people to the mainland, to the valley of Mocha where Concepción now stands, and in May 1839 Jeremiah N. Reynolds published "Mocha Dick: Or The White Whale of the Pacific" in The Knickerbocker, one of the inspirations for Melville's Moby-Dick (Wikipedia, Mocha Island).

The landscape

• A forest reserve on the spine - protected since 1988.
• Pink-footed shearwaters - breeding on one of only three islands.
• Mocha Dick - the white whale of this coast, and Melville's source.
• A few hundred residents - farming the flat ground around the ridge.

When to go

December to March. Several days, given the transport.

Good to know

Flights are in very small aircraft and cancel for weather; boats are irregular. Accommodation is a handful of family lodgings. There is no bank or reliable shop. Getting stuck for days is possible.

Nearby

Tirua is on the mainland; Canete and Lanalhue are inland.

Key facts