Montserrat marches on

Diver’s Haven, a majestic Moorish villa crowning the rise above Vue Pointe, could be the best deal on the island for those who plan to spend their days blowing bubbles. A maximum of 12 guests mingle in the open-air interior, kick back by the pool and share undersea stories at the honor bar (daily two-tank dives are included in the room rate). Run by South African expat Bryan Cunningham, who also owns and operates Seawolf Diving School, Diver’s Haven offers cool, casual ambience and magnificent views of the volcano.

The dives sites of Montserrat, while not endowed with the jaw-dropping walls or massive reefs of some other Caribbean destinations, are virtually free of the destructive results of shoreline development. Most excursions head to the west coast, in the lee of the island, where volcanic rocks form the base of patch reefs covered by soft sponges and corals. I take my first Montserrat plunge with Troy Deppermann of the Green Monkey Dive Shop in Little Bay. Also along are Roy and Lottie McDonald, the British owners of the bluff-top guesthouse Travellers Palm in Olveston, and Sam Dawes, an affable Brit I’d met the night before while prowling the island’s rum shacks. Sam, 21, and his family – mum, dad and younger brother – have been coming to Montserrat for 18 years, staying for a week of serenity before flying over to comparatively buzzy Antigua for a few days. It sounds like a smart, fairly hassle-free way to experience two distinct sides of the Caribbean in one trip.

As out boat motors away from shore, I look back at the simple beach settlement of Little Bay, which is expected to become the island’s new town center. A $2 million cultural complex nears completion, and a deepwater marina will be able to host 18 charter yachts when it is completed sometime in the next five years. Festival Park, home of carnivalesque St. Patrick’s Week celebrations, will be relocated nearby, and proposals for a boutique hotel, private housing and condos, a sports facility, and market and commercial space are all being considered.

We drop the hook in Rendezvous Bay off one of Montserrat’s rare white-sand beaches (most have fine, black volcanic grains). Down below, we see a spotted moray partially hidden in a cave formed by a pile of rocks. Sea fans and brain coral create a fairy-tale forest dotted with large barrel sponges, which are typically found in deeper water. A green turtle circles us as if in a holding pattern. On the way back to Little Bay, Troy points out one of the island’s most unique dive sites, a series of partially submerged caves where he says it’s possible to dive beneath thousands of fruit bats.

David Macgillivray Anchors aweigh with dive guide Bryan Cunningham.

Back on dry land, I meet up with James “Scriber” Daley, who all but guarantees he can put me on a black and orange Montserrat oriole, native only to the island. A naturalist with the Forestry Division, Scriber has been tending trails and leading expeditions into the lush Centre Hills for nearly 20 years. “Sometimes, I just walk the trails for days,” he says as we begin our two-hour hike on Oriole Walkway. To accommodate the growing emphasis on eco-activities, new trails are being cut and others upgraded in this part of the island. Others may be added further north, in the Silver Hills.

Though the no-go zone currently covers half of the teardrop-shaped island, the rest of Montserrat is not only safe; its jagged splendor and thick vegetation would make Kauai take a self-conscious look in the mirror. As we ascend through tropical highlands, we stop to catch our breath beside a rusty tin-roofed shack set in a field of waist-high ground cover. “You can see how some people lived after the eruption,” Scriber says. “There wasn’t enough housing in the north, so they did what they could to survive.” Scriber lost his own home in St. Patrick to the pyroclastic flows and now lives in a quaint cul-de-sac nestled in the forest.

Montserrat Tourism Board Under the volcano.

At the summit, a stunning panorama of green ridges, black cliffs and blue seas spreads out before us. Peeking out from the hills all around are the villas and guesthouses that make up the majority of Montserrat’s accommodations. Varied in size and design, they’re mostly spacious and secluded, and many have swimming pools. Visitors book them through rental companies such as Tradewinds Real Estate, which manages 40 of the properties, many of them close to the coast and open to sunset views. Princess Anne stayed at one, called Mango Falls for the petite cascade that edges its garden, during her visit to the island last year.

Scriber delivers on his promise on the way back down to civilization, charming both a male and female oriole with his warbling whistle calls. We encounter a number of the island’s 32 other species – Carib grackle, bananaquit and red-tailed tropicbird – but don’t spot any “mountain chickens,” enormous frogs rumored to be a local delicacy.

On my final night, I dine at Ziggy’s, Montserrat’s top restaurant in more ways than one. High in the hills of Woodlands, its white tenting and candlelight create an intimate, secret-garden feel. It’s the kind of place you bump into Governor Deborah Barnes Jones and her family – who are entertaining Bryan Cunningham – or honeymooners like Darrell and Edy Cummings, who live in Virginia and were married a few days earlier at the foot of Mango Falls along Woodlands Beach.

After several days of chicken roti, baked fish and “goat water” (a thick soup filled with chunks of goat meat that is thought to have its origins in Irish stew) the beef tenderloin prepared by owner John Punter sounds decadent and tastes exquisite, as does the locally famous “sludge” (molten chocolate cake). As the evening evolves, it’s more dinner party than restaurant, everyone chatting with everyone.

It turns out that Darrell and Edy discovered Montserrat in 2005 while doing some research for a geology class. They decided to visit on a whim after finding out it was very affordable compared to better-known islands. Now one year later, they have returned with 10 friends and the hopeful promise of beginning a new life together.

“It’s funny that some people view Montserrat as a volcanic wasteland,” says Darrel. “We never did. Even though the area around Soufriere Hills looks gray from the ash and pyroclastic flows, it’s really quite beautiful. It’s new earth. And someday the volcanic part of the island will look as green and lush as the rest.”

But it was the determined spirit of the place that spoke most loudly to the Cummings. “The driving force that brought us here to be married,” says Darrell, “was the commitment of the people who choose to continue their lives here.”

Caribbean Travel & Life is the magazine for anyone in search of the perfect tropical getaway. Each issue presents expert insider’s advice on where to find the Caribbean’s best beaches and attractions, its finest resorts and spas, liveliest beach bars and activities, and its friendliest people.

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