Saint Vincent and Grenadines

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines combines a mountainous volcanic main island, dominated by the La Soufrière volcano, with a chain of smaller islands and islets stretching south, lower, drier and ringed by reefs. The interior of Saint Vincent keeps rainforest on the higher slopes, with a trail that runs through the Vermont valley and where the country's endemic parrot lives. The Grenadines, by contrast, offer sandbanks, seagrass meadows and reefs protected in the Tobago Cays park, where green turtles graze over the meadows in shallow water. Volcanic activity shapes life on the main island: La Soufrière has erupted several times in the last century.