This Conservationist Is Keeping the History of the British Virgin Islands Alive Through Immersive Eco-Tours
Standing in front of a rum distillery’s crumbling ruins wasn’t my initial idea of the discoveries awaiting in the British Virgin Islands. I pictured myself face-to-face with blue angelfish and banded butterfly fish, studying the Caribbean’s coral reefs through thick-lensed goggles, later swapping my snorkel for a Painkiller. Brewer’s Bay, a quiet cove nestled along the northwestern coast of Tortola (the archipelago’s largest island), is famous for its marine adventures, but Mervin Hastings’s dream day is spent on land teaching visitors the history of his tropical backyard through Eco Adventures BVI.
“I know every single path, rock, rubble, and all of the Bay’s stories because I’ve spent my entire life here,” says Hastings, who’s family owned a campground in Brewers Bay and grew up exploring its terrain and leading visitors on hikes and snorkeling trips. His grandmother sparked his interest in botany; an herbalist, she taught Hastings which plants to pick for physical ailments—coughs, fevers, nausea—and their healing properties. “Back then, 30 to 40 years ago, we didn’t have pharmacies,” says Hastings. Instead, locals relied on plants for natural medicinal remedies.
Hastings is a conservationist by profession. As a marine biologist and Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change, he heads up all things environmental in the BVI. He’s a preservationist, however, by happenstance. During the COVID-19 pandemic, itching to get outside during lockdown, Hastings returned to the trails of his childhood. He recorded his adventures on Facebook Live, sharing folk tales and histories of landmarks he passed and pointing out the plants his grandmother had taught him about. His videos took off amongst his friends, who encouraged him to share his knowledge and these experiences with a wider audience, and Eco Adventures BVI was born. “I thought, Let me bring my 30 years of experience as a conservation biologist to educational eco-guided tours,” Hastings says.
As our tour group is looking up at the early 1700s brick furnace of the Brewers Bay Distillery, Hastings takes us back in time—the discovery of sugar and rum, how sugarcane and slavery came to the island—recounting the history in such vivid detail the once-booming facility rebuilds itself in my mind’s eye.
Hastings next leads us up the “guts,” tree-shrouded trails running beside rivers flowing down the mountainside. Every few steps, it seems, our leader grabs a leafy branch to give a botany lesson, its importance to the island’s eco-system, and his grandmother’s medicinal use for it. There’s the trumpet tree: “Traditionally in the BVI, we use it as a as a cold and cough remedy. It's excellent for heart failure or bronchitis. The leaves can be used to make a tea for lowering blood pressure. In certain cultures, the dried leaves are smoked to alleviate asthma,” Hastings recounts. And the soursop, a sweet fruit with anti-cancer properties. “In the BVI, traditionally, we use it for insomnia,” he says.
We’re immersed in the jungle and with every step, another story passed down from Hastings’s grandmother, another folk tale, another endemic plant, another friendly lizard or snake, another bite of BVI history until we reach our destination: the island’s only pineapple farm. A verdant field punctuated by tall arched leaves with spiky fruits sprouting from their crowns stretches up the mountainside. The farmer moseys down to our trail, greeting us with a wide smile and a machete, which he raises up and then whacks the top of a coconut, offering us a refreshing drink. Hastings pulls out a refreshment of his own to share, BVI’s famous guavaberry wine, and we toast. “These eco-tours are my passion,” Hastings says. “Getting people to exercise, experience the environment, and appreciate it.”
At the end of our tour, Hastings pulls out a cooler with jars of homemade lemonade, just another example of the island’s hospitality. (Whoever answered the most questions during Hastings’s tour may even win a prize.) We’re filled with so much knowledge we could probably teach our own class, but it wouldn’t be nearly as impactful as Hastings’s. We take a piece of the island’s spirit with us as we depart from our holistic journey through jungle and history.
How to Book a Tour
Hastings offers around 10 different family-friendly experiences through Eco Adventures BVI, from various jungle hikes to discovering marine life. Visit his Facebook page to book your adventure.
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