Stranded On An Island For 18 Years, Returning Home Was Even Worse

Comments · 936

• TH

  @TheInfographicsShow · 1 year ago · pinned

  If you're stranded on an island with no freshwater source, some indigenous survival techniques involve capturing sea turtles (especially green sea turtles) and drinking their blood, which can sustain hydration in dire situations. What's the craziest survival trick you've heard of?

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• FA

  @fancyf33t295 · 1 year ago

  I'm haunting EVERYBODY if i survived in isolation for 18 years only to die once i got to civilization

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• NI

  @nightmare348 · 1 year ago

  Man, imagine surviving for 18 years totally alone then getting sniped by dysentery less than two months after being found.

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• EL

  @elsakristina2689 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Who else remembers reading the book in fourth grade? But she actually wasn't the last one. There were some first and second generation Nicoleño surviving and living in IIRC the Los Angeles area up until about eight or so years after Juana Maria passed away. They themselves couldn't be located in time to meet her, but there actually were some people found who spoke languages related closely enough to hers that they could understand at least some of what she was saying. She told them that she had had a young son and she and he either couldn't leave or didn't want to leave when everyone else was taken away and so she raised him alone for the next eighteen years, but one day as a young man he disappeared while he was out in a canoe and it's believed that a shark got him. Juana Maria was found sometime not long after that and even though she couldn't have known it would be her doom she decided to leave the island because she just didn't want to be there without her son and she wanted to be with people again and she was so lonely she didn't care who those people might be.

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• AA

  @aaronisaac4168 · 1 year ago

  Returning home is misleading in the title, as a native to the island going to the mainland is only leaving home

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• AW

  @awoodward37 · 1 year ago

  Alone for so long and she outlived the others of her people that were "rescued".

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• LA

  @LauranCHB · 1 year ago

  Book: Island of the Blue Dolphins

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• MO

  @morisumxd3396 · 1 year ago

  This woman is remarkable, 18 years running and still able to craft woven baskets and useful tools, Quite a fascinating lady. Awesome story.

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• CO

  @Courier-Six · 1 year ago

  Island of the Blue Dolphin for the win. Grew up reading it as a Californian. Juana Maria's story is legendary

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• MI

  @mikelopez9071 · 1 year ago

  She sounds like a beautiful soul

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• MI

  @michaelramsey7919 · 1 year ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUcl6PyglXY&amp;t=277">4:37</a> &quot;Better Than Nothing&quot;... I&apos;m not riding that boat! 😂

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• ED

  @edwardtdm123 · 1 year ago

  This story was heartbreaking and inspiring all at once—Juana María&apos;s resilience is beyond words. 🏝️

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