Floriana Island, Galápagos
Bear and I have a long-held fantasy of living on a deserted island. When the stress of raising four kids, building a business, and dealing with all of life’s pressures reaches a fever pitch, we dream about sailing away to some tropical outpost and living a secluded life.
We don’t have a specific Island in mind, but one of the unpopulated islands of the Galápagos, 900km off the shore of South America, would do just fine.
The practicalities of living off the grid, without society, on an island with little fresh water, never enters our minds. Our Paradise Island will be a thriving utopia, like Swiss Family Robinson’s.
We aren’t the only couple who share the fantasy. Many people have isolationist aspirations, but few carry through with the plan.
While researching the Galápagos, I came across a story about a German couple who acted upon their dream of deserted island living. Their experience has dampened my enthusiasm for becoming a recluse.
The story of Dr. Frederich Ritter and his partner Dore’s adventure on Floriana Island has been recorded in a documentary. The Galápagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, is an entertaining piece of filmmaking, set in the early 1930s.
The story begins with the Ritters in isolation but soon becomes cluttered with interesting characters. Another family moves onto the island, followed by a phoney baroness with delusions of grandeur and two concurrent lovers. The mix of characters does not work well. Good and evil make an appearance, in equal measure. There are mysterious disappearances, or murder, we never find out which. Hardship and celebration, love and infidelity, kindness and treachery are all involved, often simultaneously. There is a gunfight, a shipwreck, and as with all good stories, pirates make an appearance.
There are animals on the island, wild and domestic, as well as gardens, and poison.
The story is told in the participants own words, by actors reading from diaries. Historians chime in with an overlapping timeline of events. Children and grandchildren of the recluses relay first-hand testimony of events that unfolded on Floriana Island.
The documentary contains an imbedded silent film shot on location, with the wild baroness playing herself.
One of the descendants of the Islanders made a profound statement near the end of the documentary. She said,
“Paradise is not a place; it is a condition”.
I think that what she meant is, you can’t run away from your troubles, you must build your Paradise where you stand.
Bear and I have made it this far without cutting ourselves off from society, but we might still explore the possibility of replicating …
… The Galápagos Affair.
The Galápagos Affair – Documentary.
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