Montserrat represents a unique opportunity to experience the forces of nature – both destructive and creative – that have forged the mountainous idylls of the Caribbean. After decades of dormancy, the island’s Soufrière Hills volcano erupted in 1995, causing widespread devastation. Ongoing explosions and other volcanic activity turned more than half the land into an “Exclusion Zone.” Incredibly, the northern half was largely untouched, its rugged landscape still as lush and green as the historic nickname of “the Emerald Isle” – also a nod to the many Irish who settled here – would suggest. On the northwest coast, the harbor at Little Bay is the site of a new capital to replace Plymouth. The ruins of that historic capital, buried in ash like Pompeii, are a fascinating, if sobering, sight. In the island’s unrestricted areas, the Centre Hills forest has great hiking trails, while dramatic seascapes such as those on the New Beach offer both birdwatching and snorkeling.
