The Caribbean with a twist: Volcano tours, sub-aqua sculpture and crocodile …

By
David Whitley

PUBLISHED:

10:39 EST, 23 September 2013

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UPDATED:

10:39 EST, 23 September 2013

The Caribbean doesn’t always have to be about beaches and cocktails. For those prepared to venture away from the sun-loungers and rum bars, there’s a world of West Indian weird to be discovered. From wildlife encounters to volcano adventures, we’ve picked out ten of the quirkiest.

Montserrat

A Caribbean ghost: The Montserrat capital Plymouth has been lost in volcanic dust since 1995

The other Pompeii

In 1995, the Soufriere Hills volcano in Montserrat began a series of eruptions that covered two-thirds of the island. Much of Montserrat’s population was made homeless, and the capital – Plymouth – was buried in ash and mud. It still is, and it stands abandoned in a no-go zone. But drive through the Belham Valley, up to a hilltop vantage point and it’s possible to see the church spire, rooftops and red phone boxes sticking out.

Jenny Tours (www.jennytours.webs.com) can organise day trips from Antigua, including flights and a Montserrat Island tour. Prices start at £190 per person.

Sulphur Springs in St Lucia

Mud for it: Sulphur Springs in St Lucia offers the chance to bathe close to bubbling tar pits

A drive-in volcano

If Sulphur Springs in St Lucia ever erupts, it’ll do even more damage. For now, though, it’s possible to drive into the collapsed crater. Once there, you can have a mudbath, ogle the hot water springs and the steam that rises up from them, then sidle up close to bubbling tar pits.

Viator (www.viator.com) offers halfday island tours that includes Sulphur Springs, for £48.69.

Snorkel with sculptures

Surrounded
by the reefs of Molinere Bay, Grenada’s Underwater Sculpture Park mixes
sealife and statues. It started in 2006 when British sculptor Jason
deCaires Taylor took life-sized casts of local children and arranged
them in a circle on the seabed. Since then, local artists have drowned
their own contributions to create the world’s soggiest sculpture
exhibition.

Dive Grenada Scuba Centre (www.snorkelingrenada.com) offers afternoon snorkelling trips from £29 per person.

Stingray

Touchy-feely: Divers can enjoy a close encounter with stingrays in Antigua

Stroke a stingray

Stingrays had plenty of bad PR when one killed Australian naturalist Steve Irwin, but on the whole they’re placid beasts. At Stingray City – a reef-protected natural pool off the Antiguan coast – they let visitors get up close, give them a cuddle and pose for photos. Getting there requires a boat trip from the village of Seaton’s. But once there, it’s a case of jumping in with snorkelling gear and letting trained handlers keep the dangerous tail barbs away.

Viator (www.viator.com) sells a combined Stingray City and island safari day trip for £102.59.

Crocs on the Black River

Animals you certainly don’t want to get in the water with can be found in Jamaica’s Black River, one of the Caribbean’s most important wetland habitats. And the undisputed king of that wetland is the American crocodile, which gobbles up fish and any other unfortunate beings that stray into its territory. The cruises dawdle along the river as you watch the toothy predators bask on the banks.

Negril One Stop (www.negrilonestop.com) offers tours from Negril, including the cruise. Prices start at £55 per head.

Tube down the layou

Boats aren’t needed for protection on Dominica’s Layou River. A rubber tyre tube will do the job nicely. Pushed along by the flowing rainwater coming down from the mountains, it’s possible to sit in one for a few miles, hand-paddling between mini-rapids and occasionally spinning around. As gloriously silly, simple pleasures go, it’s hard to beat.

A three-hour tubing trip with Wacky Rollers (www.wackyrollers.com) starts at £45.54.

St Maarten

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Yes, it’s a plane – St Maarten is famous for its close aviation encounters

Dodging planes

If extreme sunbathing ever becomes a sport, then Maho Beach on St Maarten will be its Lord’s or Wembley. It’s all perfectly normal until a plane starts careering towards the sand – the runway for the Princess Juliana International Airport is right behind the beach. Signs warn of possible death or injury from rocks sent flying in the jetblast. The less brave or foolhardy plane-spotter is better off watching the jumbos come in with a beer and a burger in the neighbouring Sunset Bar.

Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico

Bond moment: Arecibo Observatory, the world’s largest radio telescope, had a starring role in GoldenEye

Bond in the jungle

The fight scene at the end of GoldenEye, where Sean Bean and Pierce Brosnan slug it out on top of a giant satellite dish, wasn’t filmed in a secret villain’s lair. That dish is the Arecibo Observatory, set between jungle-covered hills in Puerto Rico’s wild interior. It’s the largest single dish radio telescope in the world, and if we ever discover extra-terrestrial life, it’ll probably be from here. Exhibits explain how it scans the universe for signals, but the views over the mammoth dish are worth the detour in themselves.

Eco Action Tours (www.ecoactiontours.com) offers day trips to the Observatory, including the nearby Camuy Caves, for £48.

Bioluminescent jellyfish

Marine light show: The Laguna Grande on Puerto Rico has bioluminescent inhabitants

Light up your life

In the north-east of Puerto Rico, Laguna Grande is better known as Bioluminescent Bay. That’s because it’s full of microscopic plankton called pyrodinium bahamense, which light up if disturbed.

And when you’re in a kayak, that means that every time your paddle hits the water, the end lights up like a magic wand. Trips through the mangroves and out to the bay are best at night, when the illumination of the water is more pronounced.

Kayaking Puerto Rico (www.kayakingpuertorico.com) runs tours for £29.

Shelling out in Grenada

Between April and July, gigantic leatherback turtles return from epic globetrotting journeys to give birth on the beach where they were born. They crawl up Levara Beach in northern Grenada, dig a hole, drop their eggs in, then painstakingly fill it back in before heading back to the sea. It’s exhausting just watching…

Mandoo Tours (www.grenadatours.com) runs tours, starting from £42 per person.