The “Outback” of the Caribbean. We call it that because it’s very dry, warm, unpopulated, and teeming with nature. Inagua is one of the driest islands in the Caribbean, with less than 30 inches of rainfall per year, and more than 300 days of sunshine. Unlike many places in the Caribbean, the odds of your visit getting “rained out” are almost nil.

It’s dry, warm climate and steady trade winds are also the source of the Inagua’s main business (its not tourism), and the reason why the world’s second largest flock of flamingos calls it home – Solar Salt.

This fascinating industry, run by Morton Salt, has created a habitat for the bird species that was once on the verge of extinction. The flamingos, in turn, help maintain the salt pans that produce more than a million tons of solar salt (produced through natural evaporation of sea water) per year. When you visit you can learn all about this unique symbiotic relationship and take a tour of this fascinating operation.

Thanks in part to the continuous pumping of sea water into shallow salt pans and mangrove flats in the center of the island, Morton has helped create one of only a handful of RAMSAR wetland sites in the Caribbean and the only large nesting ground in the Caribbean for the West Indian Flamingos. More than 8,000 breeding pairs have been counted on the island.

Other nature you’ll encounter, and have essentially all to yourself, includes more than 130 other bird species, like the Scarlet Ibis and Bahamian Parrot, rare virtually everywhere else but found in large numbers here; some of the most pristine coral reefs in the Caribbean, literally teaming with fish and other marine life, including sea turtles, and some very large lobsters; wild donkeys, and if your adventurous enough to go deep into the bush to find them, wild boar and longhorn cattle, left here by settlers centuries ago.