Trou Caïman (literally " Caiman's Hole" in French), sometimes called Eau Gallée by locals, is a saltwater

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

known for its excellent

birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device such as binoculars or a telescop ...

opportunities.

Description

The lake is long, wide, and approximately in area. It is located northeast of Croix-des-Bouquets in the Ouest department in the

Plaine du Cul-de-Sac Plain of the Cul-de-Sac (, also known as the Cul-de-Sac Plain, or the Cul-de-Sac Depression) is a fertile lowland on the island of Hispaniola. It extends from southeastern Haiti into the southwestern Dominican Republic, where it is known as the '' ...

rift valley nearby much larger saline lakes, chiefly Lake Azuéi in Haiti east of which is Lake Enriquillo in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. The predominant headwater of the lake is at low level east within the neater suburbs of

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

, the country's capital. The lake is semi-

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

as seasonally it overflows into a straightened channel which is shallow to the east into endorheic (with no outflow to the sea) Lake Azuéi.

References

Lakes of Haiti Important Bird Areas of Haiti {{Haiti-geo-stub