Inagua

Great Inagua is the southernmost large island in the Bahamas, hot, flat and dry, and about half of it is national park protecting Lake Windsor and its surroundings. That park holds the largest breeding colony of West Indian flamingos anywhere, some tens of thousands of birds, brought back from a few thousand in the 1950s by a protection effort led by wardens whose family has run it for generations. The island also produces around a million tonnes of salt a year from evaporation ponds, and the two coexist: the flamingos feed in the brine shrimp of the salt pans. Inagua also holds one of the two surviving populations of the Bahama parrot; the other is on Abaco.

History

The Lucayans reached the islands between 500 and 800 CE in dugout canoes from Hispaniola or Cuba, and the Spanish called Great Inagua Heneagua, perhaps meaning water is found there, or by the Lucayan names Inagua and Baneque. Between 1500 and 1825 many treasure ships were lost on its reefs, among them the Spanish galleons Santa Rosa in 1599 and Infanta in 1788 and HMS Statira in 1815; salt was made and shipped to the Spanish colonies from the 1600s, Henri Christophe, king of northern Haiti from 1811 to 1820, built a summer retreat at the Northeast Point, and after the salt works failed by 1918 the Erickson brothers of Massachusetts revived them from 1935 (Wikipedia, Inagua).

Highlights

• The flamingo colony - the world's largest breeding population.
• Lake Windsor - the shallow lake at the centre of the park.
• The salt works - a million tonnes a year from evaporation ponds.
• Endemic birds - the Inagua woodstar and the local Bahama parrot.

When to go

November to April is cooler and drier, and the flamingos are most concentrated on the nesting grounds around March to May. Visits into the park require a permit and a warden, arranged through the Bahamas National Trust in advance.

Things to know

This is a genuinely remote island with almost no tourist infrastructure: a handful of guesthouses, one or two places to eat, and flights only a few times a week. Park access requires a permit and a warden, arranged well ahead. It is very hot and there is no shade in the park. Anyone not interested in birds will find nothing to do.

Nearby

Little Inagua is uninhabited to the north; Nassau is ninety minutes by air.

Key facts