Isla Tesoro

Puerto Dorado's southern coast

**Isla Tesoro** is a fictitious island from *Pirates of the Caribbean*.

## Description

Isla Tesoro is a cursed and haunted island in the Caribbean Sea. It holds many shipwrecks and the ruins of what damned colonies attempted to settle the island only to be met by tragedy. The island is probably best known for its legendary lost treasure which itself holds a great curse for whoever claim it.

### Features

#### Blue Lagoon

The Blue Bayou was a tropical water-body located not far from Puerto Dorado, namely the town's seaside fortress.

* **Blue Lagoon**: The Blue Lagoon itself was a tropical lagoon which held a graveyard of lost ships. It is possible that it was an extension of Dead Man's Cove's hurricane lagoon given its proximity to the cove along with its holding of shipwrecks.
* **Blue Lagoon Restaurant**: The Blue Lagoon Restaurant is an establishment which was run by Angelica Teach, the daughter of the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Angelica would later lose the restaurant in a duel to Captain Jack Sparrow who became its new proprietor.

#### Dead Man's Cove

Dead Man's Cove was a series of subterranean caverns and rivers within Isla Tesoro. It held a great number of spirits, ghosts, animals, and even mermaids.

* **Ghostly Grotto**: The Ghostly Grotto was a seaside cavern on Isla Tesoro's southern coast connecting Dead Man's Cove to the Caribbean Sea. It is sometimes shown to have been shrouded by a waterfall which would have cloaked it to the naked eye.
* **Hurricane Lagoon**: Hurricane Lagoon was a sea-side lagoon which was seemingly of perpetually treacherous waters and storms. It was a graveyard of ships and human corpses as a result.
* **Pirate's Lair**: The pirate's lair was a subterranean dwelling established by the pirate crew of the Wicked Wench after they overtook the isle. It held many chambers including an impressive treasure room which held the island's infamous gold. Following the pirates falling to the treasure's curse, their undead skeletons and spirits were left trapped within Dead Man's Cove.
* **Sandbar**: The sandbar was a subterranean beach which was home to seagulls and crabs. At some point in time it held a buried treasure though it would be taken by unknown pillagers and only the corpses of the pillagers' victims would be left behind, reclaimed by nature.

#### Puerto Dorado

Puerto Dorado was a Spanish harbour colony located on Isla Tesoro's southern coast along a bay and river coming from the Caribbean Sea.

* **La Cantina and Mercado**:
* **Castillo Del Morro**: The Castillo Del Morro fortress was constructed in 1643 and would serve as Puerto Dorado's prison and treasury. It would be robbed of its treasure and left in ruin while being filled with skeletal corpses.
* **La Plaza del Sol Caribe Bazaar**: This plaza was used as a shopping centre for the people of Puerto Dorado, being located adjacent to the Castillo Del Morro fortress. After the island was overtaken by pirates, the plaza was turned into a pirate's bazaar which sold artillery, weaponry, prosthetics and stolen goods.
* **Spanish Fortress**: The Spanish fortress as a seaside stone fort which protected Puerto Dorado's seaside coast. It was demolished by the Wicked Wench during the ransacking of Puerto Dorado.
* **The Torre del Cielo**: The Torre del Cielo (Tower of the Sun) is a clock tower which was located directly outside of the Castillo Del Morro fortress.

## History

Isla Tesoro is an island which was colonized by the Spanish at some point prior to 1643, establishing the town of Puerto Dorado. Through unknown means, Puerto Dorado obtained a large treasure of gold, silks, china, jewels and silver which it locked away in their fortress the Castillo Del Morro. For yet unknown reasons this treasure was cursed and resulted in those who claimed it to be given a sudden and violent death with no rest in the afterlife.

During the 18th century's golden age of piracy the isle's treasure became sought after by pirates. The pirate Captain Jack Sparrow came to the island first with his rival Captain Hector Barbossa following suit aboard his vessel *The Wicked Wench*. The Wench laid ruin to the town's fortress as its crew went to shore in search of the treasure in a race with Jack Sparrow. To gain information, several pirates began torturing officials such as the Magistrate; unaware that Sparrow was eavesdropping nearby. Other groups took to ransacking households, plundering the townsfolk and auctioning off the isle's stolen goods. Jack Sparrow however managed to get to the treasure first by reading a map over the shoulder of one of Barbossa's crew-mates and stealing his key to the treasury.

Through unknown means the pirates of the Wench would claim the treasure from Jack and hide it away in a lair which they build in Dead Man's Cove. By this point in time the Wench also appeared to have changed captains to an unidentified individual while Puerto Dorado was turned into something of a pirate haven. Due to the treasure's curse however, the pirates were all killed and left as skeletons and as ghosts with the island left a cursed and barren place. Along with the ghosts of the Wicked Wench's crew, the island would also host the spirits of Davy Jones and the undead Blackbeard. Years after the curse's striking, Jack broke into the Cove to steal the Wench's treasure from their lair and seemed successful though the further outcome of this event is a mystery.

## Appearances and allusions

### A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas

La Plaza del Sol Caribe Bazaar is a setting for several adventures in this interactive game where guests assist Captain Jack in locating the seven treasures of the sea goddess Calypso. Notably it is shown to be connected to the Treasure of the Arctic, an ancient sword taken by smugglers on the isle during its time as a pirate haven.

### Pirates of the Caribbean

Isla Tesoro is the primary setting of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. In all versions of the attraction guests enter from its present/future state where it is haunted and left in ruins. In Disneyland, they are brought to the island from New Orleans' Blue Bayou through the magic of the undead pirate, "Captain X" while in Disneyland Paris and the Magic Kingdom, the guests enter from the ruins of the town. After passing through Dead Man's Cove, guests enter the past seemingly due to the magic of Captain X, guests enter the past to when the Wicked Wench raided the town.

#### Captain Jack's

This restaurant is located on Isla Tesoro in a lagoon filled with shipwrecks, refereed to as the Blue Lagoon but possibly pseudonymous with Hurricane Lagoon. The restaurant was formerly owned by Blackbeard's daughter Angelica Teach however she lost it in a bet to Captain Jack Sparrow.

### Oceaneer Lab

Marc Davis artwork of Isla Tesoro and several members of the Wench's crew is hung up in the RV Oceaneer Lab.

## Connections

### Haunted Mansion

In Disneyland Paris, a member of the townsfolk of Isla Tesoro is shown to be possession of a portrait of 19th century pirate Jean Lafitte. Jean Lafitte is a frequently affiliated figure with the Haunted Mansion's history and was once proposed for a mega theme between the attractions.

Additionally, in Disney Kingdoms the Haunted Mansion is implied to be the presumed location for Isla Tesoro's cursed treasure. The treasure is the story's central MacGuffin, being hunted down by the ghostly, "Captain" only for the treasure to be revealed as being in a different location.

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

Several figures affiliated with residency on Isla Tesoro are alluded to in this bar of Trader Sam, a character from the Jungle Cruise. This includes a spy-glass traded from Blackbeard and Angelica Teach, one of the necklaces which belonged to Davy Jones and Calypso, and the Wicked Wench in a bottle.

## Trivia

* The name Isla Tesoro is Spanish for **Treasure Island**, likely a tribute to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel of the same name which heavily influenced the pirate subgenera and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/disneyindiana/24149294757/in/photostream/