The island of St. John is a place to find beautiful and exotic animals, coral, and plants. Frogs, gecko, anole and iguana lizards are among some of the animals on the various islands. There are over 30 varieties of birds on the islands including the bananaquit, the ani (a black, parrot-like, smooth billed bird), and two species of Caribbean hummingbirds. Many birds seen in the continental US during the summer months are found in the forests in the winter.
Of the mammals on the Virgin Islands, the bat is the only native mammal. Bats are important to the island because of their ability to pollinate many of the island’s flowers and disperse seeds from fruit trees and shrubs. Insect control, including mosquitoes, is another important function bats serve on the islands.
Deer, sheep, donkeys, goats, cats, dogs, pigs and mongoose are not native to the islands. Their presence has altered the island including erosion, vegetation patterns, and has reduced the size of the natural species on the islands.
With over 800 plant types, there are plenty of diverse species of flora including the bay rum tree, the Teyer palm, and rare orchids. The bay rum trees’ fragrant leaves provided the oil for the manufacturing of bay rum cologne. The Teyer palm is the only native tree on the island of St. John.
Another important wildlife refuge for the islands are the coral reefs, which include fish such as parrot fish, tands, grunts, snappers, butterfly fish, angles, damsels, squirrel fish and wasses. Other animals such as sponges, starfish, urchins, worms, crabs, lobsters and anemones also inhibit the warm tropical waters around the islands.
While on the islands, a visitor might just run into dwarf herrings, great barracudas, mangrove crabs, snowy egrets, spotted eagle rays, and jellyfish. Only in certain areas is finless snorkeling allowed to protect the marine life. Off the island of St. Thomas, whales can be found breeding off the north end of the island from January to April.
The holiday of a lifetime. The company is Alaksa-owned and thhat makes a big difference to the experineces you get i.e. meet genuine First Nations tribes people. The amount of wildlife was beyond my expectation, and seeing everything on sucha small, intimate boat made it even more spoecial and unique.
Liz O
1 day ago
Adventure Life covered all the details in planning our trip to Ireland. Any questions we had were answered immediately. Any trip glitches, which always happen when traveling, were resolved immediately. There were no worries, just fun!
Kathleen Weller
1 day ago
It was an outstanding, up-close, educational vacation of nature, culture, history, animals and geology! It was everything they promised! Binoculars were plentiful on the boat, but I'm glad I brought my own. Food was excellent. Rooms had black-out shades. Pack/wear multiple layers of clothing (I carried a small backpack when off the ship). Crew were delightful and very accommodating! Remember to jump FEET FIRST first when taking the optional polar plunge! Spend as much time outdoors as you are able and ENJOY!!!
Janet Dutton
6 days ago
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
1 week ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.