Natasha Said­wan

Pro­duc­tion Ed­i­tor

natasha.said­wan@guardian.co.tt

On the is­land of Cha­cachacare, Trinidad’s most west­er­ly gem, lies a nat­ur­al won­der: a hy­per-saline in­land pond.

The is­land it­self lies about 5 miles off the north­west coast in the Bo­cas del Drag­on, the far­thest and largest of all the Bo­cas is­lands.

Span­ning 900 acres, the is­land was once a thriv­ing cot­ton es­tate and whal­ing sta­tion. It lat­er served as a lep­er colony from 1924 to 1984, where pa­tients were cared for by the Do­mini­can Sis­ters of Chartres.

While some swear the is­land’s aban­doned ru­ins are haunt­ed, mod­ern-day ad­ven­tur­ers know Cha­cachacare for its un­touched hik­ing trails, ex­cel­lent fish­ing spots, un­spoilt beach­es, and its crown­ing jew­el: the in­land salt pond. Tucked away on the south­west end of the is­land, sur­round­ed by the dense for­est yet sev­er­al yards from the sea, this tri­an­gu­lar-shaped pond sits in­land with­in a 145,152 sq feet area. The pond it­self is bor­dered by man­grove veg­e­ta­tion and sea-is­land cot­ton as well as the poi­so­nous ma­chi­neel trees.

Nat­ur­al salt ponds such as this one form when a body of wa­ter be­comes ge­o­graph­i­cal­ly iso­lat­ed, pre­vent­ing salts from be­ing flushed out.

En­ter­ing the pond may be the most chal­leng­ing part due to the marshy and mushy grounds, but once in, the wa­ter is a nat­ur­al sauna.

Be­lieved to be cre­at­ed by a sand and shin­gle bar that trapped sea wa­ter from the bay, the salt pond’s high salin­i­ty lev­els (sev­er­al times the salin­i­ty of the sea) al­low for unique fea­tures com­pared to fresh­wa­ter ponds: warm wa­ters re­gard­less of the weath­er and the abil­i­ty to eas­i­ly float with­out fear of sink­ing. And while the buoy­an­cy means you will not drown, the pond can eas­i­ly de­hy­drate you.

Though vis­i­bil­i­ty be­neath the sur­face may be lim­it­ed, you need not wor­ry about any un­ex­pect­ed sur­pris­es, as few species are cut out for the ex­treme­ly salty habi­tat. The pond re­mains most­ly undis­turbed by crea­tures and hu­mans alike.

Note: this salt pond is not a mod­ern dis­cov­ery.

His­to­ry has it that First Peo­ples reg­u­lar­ly vis­it­ed Cha­cachacare to col­lect blocks of salt formed from the evap­o­ra­tion of salt wa­ter. We in the Caribbean be­lieve a “sea bath” is the ul­ti­mate rem­e­dy for every­thing from the com­mon cold to mis­for­tune. Imag­ine the restora­tive pow­er of a bath in this salt pond! Some vis­i­tors have even com­pared the pond’s ther­a­peu­tic prop­er­ties to those of the Dead Sea near Jor­dan.

How salt ponds are formed

Salt ponds are nat­u­ral­ly formed when a bay gets en­closed by sand or coral rub­ble along a coast­line. Even­tu­al­ly, man­groves grew along the edges, sta­bil­is­ing the sub­strate even fur­ther. Ground seep­age main­tains the flow of sea­wa­ter in­to the pond and evap­o­ra­tion makes the wa­ter ex­treme­ly salty.

There are few or­gan­isms that can tol­er­ate such salty con­di­tions, in­clud­ing mi­crobes, species of worms and crus­taceans and even some birds.

How to get there:

Cha­cachacare is a favourite des­ti­na­tion for campers, hik­ers, and recre­ation­al fish­er­men. Clos­er to Venezuela than it is to main­land Trinidad, this is as Down D Is­lands (DDI) as it gets.

Time: Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 40 min­utes from the Ch­aguara­mas main­land by boat.

Ac­cess: Ei­ther pri­vate or through the many DDI tours avail­able.

For sailors: Co­or­di­nates 10 de­grees 41’ N Lat­i­tude, 61 de­grees 45’ W Lon­gi­tude.

Ex­plore but be­ware!

And while you are there, check out the pic­turesque La Tin­ta Bay and Per­ruquier Bay, but be­ware of the poi­so­nous manchi­neel trees, which can be found all over the is­land. Do not touch, eat, or shel­ter un­der them. Their sap, leaves, and ap­ple-like fruit are high­ly tox­ic and can cause se­vere skin blis­ter­ing.