While Animalia Ambassadoria, together with Irena and Tyler, were taking a glass-bottomed boat to Skull Island for their inspection of Skull Island, Darla and Maya were swimming there. They were swimming because they wanted to both stretch their gills and know what the Gulf of Mexico "tasted like". But when Animalia Ambassadoria got there, there were some odd things found there.
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The first thing that they found that was odd was the electromagnetic crane that was found near the beach. Not only was it in perfect working condition despite being a 1980s model, it also had enough power to unload a whole cargo. Though why was soon revealed in a nearby boathouse by the ruined dock..
"What are modern metal cargo containers doing on an abandoned Spanish prison island?" asked Tyler.
"Let's see." said Malice. Upon opening one of them, they were left more confused than ever.
"Belgian Caviar, French Cheese, Turkish Coffee, Egyptian Dates." Said Jessica, pointing out the labels on some of the crates in the cargo container, "Now that's really weird, enough expensive food for a banquet and nobody around to eat it."
"Illegal archaeologists keep getting caught here, much to the annoyance of the coast guard." said Tyler, "But no matter what they do, they keep finding them here."
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During the inspection, they found the Spanish plantation designed to keep ships going to and from Spain supplied with food and water. It was ruined and overgrown with plant life, as was expected (there were plans to turn it into a museum after the island was officially given over to Dinotopia), but the back cellar door was found to be fully functional and only designed to appear to match the ruins.
Inside the cellar was found a tunnel that seemed to show no real purpose according to the original map/blueprints of Skull Island. Following it, which seemed to show that, according to Tyler's GPS app on his iPhone, they were heading underneath the rocky bluff where the prison was located. But what they found at the other end of the tunnel was really surprising.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" asked Abby, stunned at what she saw.
"Dios! A super-deluxe underground mansion!" said Irena.
"Why would there be a fancy place like this here?" asked Sarah.
"Look over here!" called Roger from one of the rooms.
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"Someone's actually been living down here." said Samson, leading the group to the bedroom, which was considered messy, "A lot of somebodies judging by the size of the place."
"Look at this, This is yesterday's newspaper." said Travis, pointing out a newspaper on the floor. "Whoever was here left in a big hurry."
"Here's a kitchen big enough for a restaurant." said Roger, from another room, "Not only that, it's crammed with fresh food."
"Who was eating it, and why would they come here of all places?" asked Tyler.
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After some more investigation, it was finally determined that one of the café owners in New Orleans was supplementing her own income by "catering" to the illegal archaeologists. The underground mansion was actually built by the Medellin Cartel during the mid 80s as a kind of back up base in case their main base was taken out, but the Cartel was taken down after they finished it but before they could relocate. Afterward, it was decided to allow the café owner to run the kitchen for the inevitable tourists that would arrive once the aquatic Dinotopians have settled in, but she was still getting a fine, a black mark on her record, and having to pay $50,000 to the IRS in back taxes for her new business.
Darla and Maya however had the biggest announcement ever. During their swim, they had found a sunken Spanish dreadnought near a reef near the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. Due to having learned how to read, it was determined to be named the Pride of Ferdinand. Checking through the Spanish Archives, it was revealed that the Pride of Ferdinand was designed to both transport large amounts of Spanish treasure from the New World and fight off pirates. Records show that it had restocked at Skull Island but never arrived at Spain. With Darla and Maya's help, it was determined that it lost its rudder in a hurricane and didn't have enough scuppers to deal with the storm waters while carrying large amounts of gold and Spanish colonial-era weapons. During the official press release, it was revealed that the Pride of Ferdinand sunk because it was simply "too elaborate", which was the common bane of most ancient naval innovations. It was also determined that the reason why the ship never broke apart was because it had settled near a reef which kept it largely intact.
"Well no wonder those stupidheads couldn't find the Golden Skull Hoard on Skull Island." commented one person on the internet on the video of the press release, "It wasn't even ON Skull Island in the first place."
During the press release, it was revealed to have shipwreck archaeologists salvage the ship, both to make it light enough to be "returned" to Spain, and set up a new shipwreck museum on Skull Island to showcase it's treasures as well as be a colony for the aquatic Dinotopians. While the "Holy Grail" of sunken treasures was announced to have been found recently, the finding of the Pride of Ferdinand officially gave it the title of "Ark of the Covenant" of sunken treasure.