Qualla: Bell Island (The Bahamas)

Bell Island (The Bahamas): Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Somewhere in the Exuma Cays, between the shallow sandbars and the deep blue trenches that define this chain of Bahamian islands, sits a piece of land that most people will never see. Bell Island - sometimes called Big Bell Island to distinguish it from nearby Little Bell, also known as Cambridge Cay - occupies 349 acres inside the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. It has a heliport, two large homes, extensively landscaped grounds, and guest cottages renovated at a cost of $8 million. In 2009, the island changed hands for $100 million. The buyer was Aga Khan IV, the spiritual leader of the world's roughly fifteen million Ismaili Muslims and one of the wealthiest people on the planet. What happened next turned a private Caribbean retreat into a case study in power, privilege, and environmental controversy.

Bell Island (The Bahamas): The Price of Paradise

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park stretches across 176 square miles of protected ocean and island habitat, established in 1958 as one of the first marine protected areas in the world. Bell Island sits within this park, a curious arrangement - private ownership inside public conser...

Bell Island (The Bahamas): A Prime Minister's Vacation

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Bell Island in December 2016, arriving on the Aga Khan's private helicopter. The visit itself was unremarkable - a political leader vacationing at a wealthy friend's island retreat. But Canadian ethics law prohibits prime ministers a...

Bell Island (The Bahamas): Company on the Cay

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Trudeau was not the only high-profile visitor. Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also spent time on Bell Island as a guest of the Aga Khan. The island's guest list reads like a diplomatic summit relocated to a beach - fitting, perhaps, for a host whose role bridges the sp...

Bell Island (The Bahamas): Water's Edge

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

From the air, Bell Island appears as a dark green jewel set in water that shifts from pale aquamarine over the sand flats to deep indigo where the ocean floor drops away. The Exuma Cays stretch southeast from Nassau in a long, narrow chain, each island a limestone ridge barely ri...