 Overview
The history of Santa Cruz is similar to that of the other inhabited islands of the archipelago. The islands were officially discovered on March 10th of 1535 by Tomas de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama. They were later used by buccaneers and whalers until the Ecuadorian Government took possession of the islands in 1832. However the colonization of Santa Cruz is recent. This is probable due to the inhospitable conditions the island offered to its prospective inhabitants. An attempt to colonize the island was made in 1932, by a group of Norwegians who established in the high lands. After this date, other settlers came from different parts of Ecuador as well as from Germany, England and Switzerland, in the early 1970´s the tourism industry started to prosper on Santa Cruz.
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