Great-Inagua Travel Guide
COMPARE PRICES on all Great Inagua Hotels
Compare prices and availability on major travel sites with one click
COMPARE PRICES on all Flights to Great Inagua
Compare prices and availability on major travel sites with one click
The most southerly and the third-largest island of The Bahamas, flat Great Inagua, some 64km (40 miles) long and 32km (20 miles) wide, is home to 1,200 people. It lies 527km (325 miles) southeast of Nassau.
This is the site not only of the Morton Salt Crystal Factory, here since 1800, but also of one of the largest nesting grounds for flamingos in the western hemisphere. The National Trust of The Bahamas protects the area around Lake Windsor, where the birds breed and the population is said to number 80,000. Flamingos used to inhabit all of The Bahamas, but the bird is nearly extinct in many places. The reserve can be visited only with a guide. Besides the pink flamingo, you can see roseate spoonbills and other bird life here.
Green turtles are raised here, too, at Union Creek Reserve, then released into the ocean to make their way as best they can; they, too, are an endangered species. (Tours of the reserve are not well organized, and the operation is very informal, but if you're here, inquire about getting a look.) This vast windward island, almost within sight of Cuba, is also inhabited by wild hogs, horses, and donkeys.
The settlement of Matthew Town is the chief hamlet of the island, but it's not of any great sightseeing interest. Other sites have interesting names, such as Doghead Point, Lantern Head, Conch Shell Point, Mutton Fish Point, and Devil's Point (which makes one wonder what happened there to give rise to the name). There's an 1870 lighthouse at Matthew Town.
Little Inagua, 8km (5 miles) to the north, has no population and is just a speck of land off the northeast coast of Great Inagua, about 78 sq. km (30 sq. miles) in area. It has much bird life, though, including West Indian tree ducks. There are also wild goats and donkeys.
With Salt, Please--Salt means a great deal to Great Inagua -- not only for the Morton Salt Company's extensive operations (the company produces more than 1 million tons of salt each year), but also for the unique local wildlife.
First, seawater is pumped into the interior of the island and held in dikes. Great Inagua's salt ponds, about 80 of them, cover some 4,856 hectares (12,000 acres). As the water evaporates, it turns into heavy brine. The salt solidifies at night and melts during the heat of the day, and a crystallized bed forms at the bottom of the pond. In the final stage of processing, any remaining water is drained, and the salt is bulldozed into bleached-white mountains and shipped around the world for processing.
As the water evaporates from these salt ponds, brine shrimp concentrate and provide great meals for the island's colorful pink flamingos.
