NATURAL WONDERS
OF THE BVI
[the opening page is A Natural
History Guide to Guana Island]
No Frames    Frames

The British Virgin Islands are blessed with an outstanding natural and marine environment. Gazing is one of the listed causes of auto accidents ashore and the marine environment is equally spectacular. The BVI consist of over 50 islands with an astounding variety of places from the expansive North Sound to the cozy Caves, from the classic beach at Long Bay to semi rainforest at Sage Mountain National Park, from the tropical gardens of little Marina Cay to the pristine coral island of nine-mile-long Anegada and its even larger reef.

Sharing a Caribbean biome from Puerto Rico to Venezuela and even up to the Bahamas and southern Florida, most lifeforms are common throughout this zone, such as the trademark Coconut Palm. The fact that the coconut was brought from the Western Pacific by Portuguese explorers illustrates the tropical latitudes as a common growing "belt" around the world.

Since temperatures and daylight are generally uniform throughout the year, life cycles are dictated by rainfall. The dry season runs from January through May when many plants lose their leaves and the hills turn earthy shades of brown.

Yet it is during the dry season, favorable to pollination, that most flowering plants blossom, with the resulting riot of color in tropical flower gardens. And at the beginning of the rainy season, as seeds germinate, the hills burst into a verdant green overnight.

To Underwater Paradise
To Sea and Shore
To Ashore in the Islands

National Parks.
The Baths.
Equally of sea, shore and land, The Baths are representative of the BVI in their complexity, offering the best of many worlds. A great snorkeling site, an anchorage where boaters dingy ashore in the surf, a beautiful beach for lounging and beachcombing, an interesting hiking area to nearby secluded beaches, and a location of beautiful villas, beachfront rooms and housekeeping cottages on stilts--The Baths are varied and interesting place. The Baths are part of the National Parks Trust system of natural and marine parks.

To Mount Sage National Park

Mt. Healthy National Park. Near Brewer's Bay on Tortola's Ocean Coast, Mt. Healthy has a well preserved example of an 18th century sugar mill--this one powered by a windmill.

J.R.O'Neal Botanic Garden rich in both horticulture and history, features specialty gardens, including palms, orchids, and a miniature tropical rain forest as well as tropical birds and the indigenous and rare red-legged tortoise (located a quarter mile from the Main Street Stores in Road Town)(above picture from Dan Burch). See Lose Yourself in the Botanic Gardens.

National Parks Trust.
The BVI National Parks Trust preserves the natural and marine environment--join today!. Read the fascinating story about The Return of the Flamingos to Anegada.

To Underwater Paradise