Traveling from Haiti to Jamaica, you can notice an unusual island in the shape of a drop. It is the island of Navassa. It belongs to the United States of America.
Looking at it, it seems that the island is surrounded by a solid concrete wall. But, sailing closer, you see not a wall but rocky coast of the island. Somebody might place it on the surface of the Caribbean Sea. You are on the edge of this rocky coral limestone cliff 15 meters high, splashes of waves reach your skin, and you feel free.
Navassa Island is a great place for solitude, meditations, and admiring nature. There are no nightclubs, restaurants, noisy shopping centers, and dangerous volcanoes… In fact, the island has only mountains, forests, birds, reptiles, and goats inhabiting it.
From time to time, you can see a small village of Haitian fishermen. They drop a line, get fish, rest, and return home, leaving the island of Navassa uninhabited. You can listen to the silence and wash, sitting on the coast. The birds sing somewhere behind you.
Watching these birds is one of the attractions on the island. At the end of the 20th century, the island became a nature reserve to protect the local ecosystem. Sometimes, scientists come here to examine the population of wild birds and fish. They are very interesting, as well as coral reefs. There are few animals on the island, only wild goats peacefully chew grass.
Walking along the rocky shore, you can find the traces of a human. Once, there were a lot of birds, and people gathered guano, bird droppings. They used it as a fertilizer. Also, the island was functioned as a lighthouse. But, when the amount of fertilizer production declined, all the people left the island.
The island was discovered by Christopher Columbus. To be more precise, his sailors made it in 1504. A sailor ship crashed in Jamaica. The sailors were dying of thirst and dreamed to see freshwater. Columbus sent his team to the neighboring island of Haiti.
But they came to Navassa and tried to find water here. It all was in vain. Navassa does not have any freshwater sources. The island was discovered and left for the next 350 years. The second discovery took part in the 19th century.
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