The Atlantic Islands—Paradise is a Stone's Throw Away

A myriad of small islands and islets lie just off Galicia's jagged coastline. Battered by the sea, they are icons of the local landscape, a refuge for marine species, a reference point for fishers and sailors, and the stars of many great and lesser-known stories in history.

Four of these coastal archipelagos and the surrounding sea make up the National Maritime-Terrestrial Park of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia (Parque Nacional Marítimo Terrestre de las Illas Atlánticas de Galicia). These archipelagos include the islands of Cíes, Ons, Sálvora, and Cortegada.

They face the estuaries of Vigo, Pontevedra, and Arousa. Together, they account for just over 18,000 acres (7,000 hectares) of sea and just under 3,000 (1,200 hectares) acres of land, some of which are the best examples of Atlantic marine ecosystems.

The Atlantic Islands have great biological wealth. The sea hides the most important treasure all of the park: the marine currents and the varying reliefs and underwater layers (sand, rock, algae, shells, etc.) make a perfect home for a wide variety of species of marine flora and fauna.

The abundance of aquatic organisms, together with a lack of human interference, make this an ideal location for large populations of seabirds. The colonies of yellow-legged seagulls (Larus michahellis) and European shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) found on these islands are some of the largest in the world.

The lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus), Scopoli's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea), and the European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) also make their nests and look for shelter in the cliffs of the Atlantic Islands. The iconic common guillemot (Uria aalge) used to be here in abundance until the 1980s. Fishing and dumping lead to a major decline in their population, to the point that it is now a critically endangered species.

Many migratory seabirds land on these islands, such as the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), as well as many species of seagulls, shearwaters, and terns. The sandwich tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis) flies spectacularly as it hunts fish in the sea. Sandwich terns are also commonly seen feeding with groups of northern gannets (Morus bassanus) in the waters surrounding the islands.

On land, the biodiverse plant and animal species take shelter in the dunes, cliffs, and bushes. The islands are green despite the strong wind, which makes it difficult for plants to grow, and forest species such as oak, blackthorn, and bay trees and can be found on them.

The most southerly and well-known islands in the park are the Cíes islands. Of its three islands, two—Monteagudo and Faro—are joined by a lagoon and the Rodas sandbank, which The Guardian recently named the best beach in the world.

The island of San Martiño is separated from the others by a canal called Porta do Mar. It is the only island where visitors are not allowed. The other two are open to a limited number of visitors during the high season, when they can follow the islands' trails or bathe in their waters, which are as clear as they are cold.

The island of Ons, its sister island, Onza, and the islet of As Freitosas have contrasting coastlines, with the side facing the mainland covered in beaches while the other is more rugged and faces the ocean. The wild sides of the islands have underwater caves called furnas.

The ocean face of these islands have an underwater landscape made up of vertical walls bursting with life thanks to the upwelling of nutrient-rich deep waters.

Sálvora island is the most westerly island in the Arousa estuary, surrounded by a constellation of legendary islands, such as the small islands of Noro, Vionta, and Sagres.

History has left its imprint on Sálvora island. The island was once inhabited, and there are still traces of human life: a lighthouse, an old salting factory converted into a traditional Galician house (pazo), and a little village frozen in time, still with its eight granaries and a chapel.

The shipwreck of the steamboat Santa Isabel in 1921, in which 213 people died, still lives in the local collective memory. A further 58 people aboard a small vessel were saved by four women from the island. They were known as the Heroines of Sálvora and are the main characters in a film called The Island of Lies (La Isla de las Mentiras) by Paula Cons (2020).

Cortegada's best-kept secret is hidden in its thick pine groves: a forest of bay trees, one of the most prominent in Europe, is found here. Some trees reach 40 feet (12 m) in height.