“Las Tortugas” that’s what Christopher Columbus first called three islands he spotted in the Caribbean Sea May 10, 1503. He recorded that the islands were “full of tortoises, as was the sea about, inasmuch as they looked like little rocks.” Turtles were so plentiful on the islands, that legend has it sailors avoided them, thinking they were haunted: Apparently, there were so many turtles along the shores and banks of the islands that from a distance the land appeared to be moving.