The flamboyant Baroness set up a small homestead, named it "Hacienda Paradise" and announced her plans to build a grand hotel.
Three dead, two missing over the course of a few months. They set up a homestead on Floreana Island and worked very hard there, moving heavy lava rocks, planting fruits and vegetables and raising chickens. His corpse was found on the deserted island of Marchena, 160 kilometres (100 miles) from the island to the north of the archipelago. The island has an area of 173 square kilometres. The island is associated with a strange and curious history of its inhabitants. The strangeness did not end there. A Traveler's Guide to the Galapagos Islands. Baroness Viewpoint is a fantastic place to absorb the environment of the Galapagos. There are easy trails in this area for exploring the flora and fauna of Floreana. The situation quickly deteriorated. This site hosts a large flamingo lagoon where other birds such as common stilts and white-cheeked pintails can also be seen.

They were discovered accidentally in 1535 and then promptly ignored until the seventeenth century when they became a regular stopping point for whaling ships looking to take on provisions. She made up elaborate, grand stories to tell the visiting yacht captains, went about wearing a pistol and a whip, seduced the Governor of Galapagos and anointed herself "Queen" of Floreana. The Wittmers remained on the islands and became wealthy years later when tourism boomed: their descendants still own valuable land and businesses there. There will likely never be any real answers. Floreana, small as it is at 67 square miles, turned out to be no footnote.

Wittmer often hinted that she knew more than she was telling, but it's hard to know if she really did or if she just enjoyed tantalizing tourists with hints and innuendos.

". According to Margret Wittmer, Ritter himself blamed Strauch. ... Champion Islet, named after the whaler Andrew Champion, is a small island located just offshore Floreana Island in the southern part of the Archipelago, considered as one of the most beautiful places on Galapagos for all snorkeling and diving fans and an excellent opportunity for dolphin watching. There was a prolonged drought, and Ritter and Strauch began to quarrel. The next arrival would change everything.

The coral reef in the middle is perfect for attracting marine life. Lorenz was in a hurry to get out of Galapagos and he convinced a Norwegian fisherman named Nuggerud to take him first to Santa Cruz Island and from there to San Cristobal Island, where he could catch a ferry to Guayaquil. According to the Wittmers, he said before dying that his lover had poisoned him. One of the Baroness’ lovers then began to spend time with the Wittmers, causing the Wittmers and the Ritters to turn on each other. Like Dr. Ritter and Ms. Strauch, the Wittmers were rugged, independent and enjoyed occasional visitors but mostly kept to themselves. The Baroness and Philippson departed that very day and were never heard from again. Today’s #throwback is to this wonderful 17.5k hi, Today’s #throwback is to watching these gorgeous, Today’s #throwback takes us to the magical Isla, Today’s #throwback is to #Furnas in The #Azores, Today’s #throwback is to the #BVI and watching t, Today’s throwback is to these cheeky little monk, Today’s throwback is to #Kachically #crocodile p, Throwback to 2014 and spending a wonderful day exp, #Covid-19 and #lockdown has had us stuck at home a, Porto de Baleeira – Sagres’ World-Famous Fishing Harbour, Cabo de San Vicente – The Cape of Portugal’s Forgotten Saint in Sagres, Portugal, Saint Salvator’s Unlucky PH in St Andrews, Scotland, Disappearance of the Baroness in the Galapagos, Places to visit on Floreana Island Galápagos, Post Office Bay – Floreana Island, The Galápagos, How the Galápagos Became Known as the Enchanted Isles, Lake Titicaca, The Sacred Lake of the Incas, http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-04-04/new-film-unearths-true-story-1930s-murder-mystery-galapagos, http://www.galapagosisland.net/galapagos_islands/the_galapagos_affair_movie_and_history.html, https://www.gadventures.com/blog/the-dark-side-of-the-galapagos/, http://www.galapagos.to/BOOKS.php#Strauch, http://www.galapagos.org/about_galapagos/about-galapagos/the-islands/floreana/, http://www.visitgalapagos.travel/baroness-lookout-galapagos-islands, http://www.ecostravel.com/en/ecuador/new-wonders-ecuador/baroness-lookout.php. Our website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

Many believed that Strauch had poisoned him, as his treatment of her had gotten much worse. *Activities will be operated according to each boat itinerary. Things turned petty. Christopher Minster, Ph.D., is a professor at the ​Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. A short time later the Baroness’ other lover left the island on a fishing boat heading for Guayaquil but never arrived. No one else remembers any ship coming in that week, and the Baroness and Wittmer never turned up in Tahiti. Unlike the others, they remained, setting up their own homestead with some help from Dr. Ritter. Not exactly a paradise, they are rocky, dry and hot, and are home to many interesting species of animals found nowhere else. Baroness Lookout is a natural lookout point on the north of the island in La Olla Bay, between Cormorant Point and Post Office Bay.

Not long after the Wittmers came, a party of four arrived on Floreana, led by "Baroness" Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bosquet, an attractive young Austrian. In her eyes, the island was instantly hers. In November of the same year, Dr. Ritter died, apparently of food poisoning due to eating some poorly-preserved chicken.

Champion Islet, named after the whaler Andrew Champion, is a small island located just offshore Floreana Island in the southern part of the Archipelago, considered as one of the most beautiful places on Galapagos for all snorkeling and diving fans and an excellent opportunity for dolphin watching. They made it to Santa Cruz but disappeared between Santa Cruz and San Cristóbal.

Incidentally, Marchena is in the northern part of the Archipelago and not anywhere near Santa Cruz or San Cristóbal. He brought with him one of his patients, Dore Strauch: both of them left spouses behind. Lorenz started spending a lot of time with the Wittmers until the Baroness would come and get him. She was accompanied by her two German lovers, Robert Philippson and Rudolf Lorenz, as well as an Ecuadorian, Manuel Valdivieso, presumably hired to do all the work.
A few years after the arrival of Floreana’s first residents, the Wittmers (a German physician and his lover) and the Ritters (a husband and wife who gave birth to the first baby to be born on Floreana) things began to change on this small, remote island. Snorkelers enjoy the variety of marine life and exciting currents that rush through the crown, creating an exhilarating experience. The Ritters later claimed that the other lover had killed the pair and the Wittmers had helped him to cover it up. In 1929, German doctor Friedrich Ritter abandoned his practice and moved to the Islands, feeling he needed a new start in a faraway place. Heinz Wittmer arrived in 1931 with his teenage son and pregnant wife Margret. Regarded as stubborn, sexy and wild, she landed on Floreana with the same pomp and circumstance as the English landed in Virginia. The legends about this baroness are associated with a fascinating murder mystery.

Floreana Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It was formed by volcanic eruption. Then on March 27, 1934, the Baroness and Philippson disappeared. Floreana is most famous for its intriguing history and the several disappearances that happened in the 1930s. "The Galapagos Affair" as it came to be known is a mystery that has puzzled historians and visitors to the islands ever since. The Baroness also had plans to transform the island into an adult-themed bacchanalia.