- With an area roughly the size of Aruba, the two small islands right off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, are actually overseas territories of France. During the Prohibition era, the islands were central in smuggling whiskey from Canada into the United States. Nowadays, the two islands have a population of just 6,000 people and their economy is mostly dependent on fishing and some tourism from nearby Canada.
2. The 5,300 inhabitants of Annabon Island, a 7 square mile province of the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea that sits off the coast of southwest Africa, speak their own unique Portuguese dialect. The island’s deceptively optimistic name comes from the Portuguese phrase Ano bom (“Good year”), and belies the fact that its delicate ecosystem is threatened by heavy toxic waste dumping.
3. Inaccessible Island, an inactive volcano in the South Atlantic Ocean, has been peacefully inhabited by penguins and other birds for the past 200 years. Aptly named, the remote island is surrounded by steep cliffs and has been the site of (at least) three shipwrecks. On old maps, it was simply labeled “inaccessible,” and the name stuck.
4. Ilha da Queimada Grande (Snake island) is located 21 miles off São Paulo, Brazil, and has a population of 2,000-4,000 venomous snakes and zero humans and is the only place on earth that’s home to the critically endangered, very deadly Golden Lancehead snake. Because of the inbreeding that results from the island’s isolation, a high percentage of the snakes are born intersex, having both male and female genitals. Sadly for snake-loving tourists, only select researchers are allowed to set foot on the island.