The Lake That Sits Below the Sea

The road climbs a dry pass, drops down, and then there is water. A great pale lake lies in a valley between two mountain ranges. Cactus and thorn bushes grow right down to the edge.

This is Lago Enriquillo, the largest lake in the Caribbean, and a strange one. Its surface is more than thirty metres below the level of the sea. This valley is the lowest place in the region. The lake has no way out. Rivers run in, but nothing runs out. The sun takes the water and leaves the salt. At its saltiest, the lake is almost three times saltier than the sea.

You can find the reason in the rock. On the low ridges there is coral, and there are shells, sitting in dry stone under the cactus, far from any beach. This valley was part of the sea once. It was a channel, open at both ends. Then a river filled the western end with mud, and the sea became a lake.

Polly walks along the old coral in the heat. The lake is flat and quiet. Then something moves out in the shallow water. It is much too long to be a bird.