Marchena Island

About the island

Marchena Island

Marchena is a large, remote island in the north of the Galápagos, between Santiago and Genovesa: about 130 square kilometers (50 square miles) of dark lava, rising to 343 meters (1,125 feet). It is named after Fray Antonio de Marchena, the Franciscan friar who supported Christopher Columbus's plans for his first voyage; its old English name is Bindloe.

Marchena is a young shield volcano. Its caldera is filled with fresh lava flows that spill over the rim, and in 1991 it had its first recorded eruption. The young lava keeps the island dry and bare, with sparse vegetation, and it is the only home of the Marchena lava lizard, found nowhere else in the world.

There are no visitor sites on land, and Marchena can only be visited in the water, at two marine sites: Punta Espejo, at the southeast tip of the island, and Punta Mejía, on its southwest coast. Both are explored by panga, snorkeling and diving. Hammerhead and Galápagos sharks, rays, moray eels, green sea turtles, sea lions and dolphins are often seen, and the coves and grottos of Punta Mejía shelter Galápagos fur seals. Close to the coast the currents and swell can be strong, so snorkelers stay in calmer water.

Because it is far from the ports, there are no day tours to Marchena, and only a few cruises and dive boats on northern routes come here.

Marchena also has a place in the Floreana mystery of the 1930s: in late 1934 the mummified bodies of Rudolf Lorenz, one of the companions of the self-proclaimed baroness of Floreana, and of the Norwegian skipper who was taking him to San Cristóbal were found on its shore, where they had died of thirst.

Fast facts

• Marchena can only be visited in the water, at two marine sites: Punta Espejo and Punta Mejía.
• Marchena's volcano had its first recorded eruption in 1991.
• The Marchena lava lizard lives on this island and nowhere else.