The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: January tenth, exploring the natural Caribbean.

For many travelers, Caribbean islands conjure notions of pina coladas and sunny beach-side resorts. Yet the Caribbean is also a natural wonderland of rain forests, deserts, volcanoes and creatures found nowhere else. Increasingly, to preserve these bounties and the tourist dollars they attract, Caribbean countries are setting aside great swaths of territory as national parks and wilderness sanctuaries, where adventurous travelers can find unique treasures.

Consider Cabritos Island National Park, a seven-mile gem of olive green set in a long lake in the southwest mountains of the Dominican Republic. Ringed by mile-high peaks, shallow, salty Lake Enriquillo was a coral- filled inlet until the landscape around it lifted and cut it off from the coast. Now a closed ecosystem 150 feet below sea level, the lake's surface is the lowest point in the Caribbean. Its hardpan shore harbors the world's largest colony of endangered American crocodiles.

How about hiking up a volcano? Guadeloupe's National Park is a spectacular, well-run facility. Its acres of rain forest and thermal wonders are draped across the sides of the Soufriere volcano. Birders flock to Trinidad's Caroni Swamp National Park, where scarlet ibis often fill the air. Bonaire's Marine Park, which encompasses that tiny, reef-ringed island's entire coastline, makes it a diving mecca. Rhone National Park, an 800-acre marine preserve off the British Virgin Islands, harbors the wreck of an 1867 hurricane-sunk steamer.

FMI For information on Cabritos Island, Dominican Republic Tourist Information at 800-752-1151 or www.lacotica.com; For the National Park of Guadaloupe, call French Government Tourism at 212-838-7800 or www.cr-guadaloupe.fr/html (in French). For Bonaire Marine Park, contact the Bonaire Tourist Bureau 800-266-2473 or www.infobonaire.com. or www.bmp.org; Rhone National Marine Park at 800-835-8530 or www.bviwelcome.com

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