Caribbean and Central America Travel

Trinidad and its sister island Tobago, is the perfect example of contrasts. While Tobago is a sleepy small town, Trinidad is just bursting with life. Known largely for its annual Carnival, Trinidad and Tobago can be deserted during the off season.

The carnival, which takes its roots from West African festivals, is celebrated a week before Ash Wednesday. The pre-lenten festival has been adapted in accordance to the Roman Catholic teaching of carne vale - farewell to the flesh. Carnival celebrates life, and Trinidadians & Tobagonians do so with music, extravagant costumes and dancing in the streets.

Calypso is one of the mainstays of the Carnival. This musical genre that originated in Trinidad was the African slaves’ way of communicating with each other, as speaking among slaves are prohibited. Over the years, it evolved as a means of spreading news around the island. It became the people’s medium for expressing their thoughts on island life, current events, and even politics. In recent years however, it was Soca, or soul calypso that has been taking precedent in the carnival. Originating from the calypso, Soca mixes the island beat of the steel pan and electronic percussion which blends into a rich dance music that’s perfect for the festivities of carnival.

Like most islands in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago’s economy is boosted by tourism. However, unlike the other Caribbean islands, the other pillar of their economy is petroleum, not agriculture.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has its history tied with England, being one of the British colonies in the Caribbean. Today, however, they are now an independent nation and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Located in the Lesser Antilles, it is composed of the island of Saint Vincent, and two-thirds of the Grenadine group of islands.

Among the 600 islands, these are the Grenadine islands under Saint Vincent:

• Bequia
• Petite Nevis
• Quatre
• Bettowia
• Baliceaux
• Mustique
• Petite Mustique
• Savan
• Petite Canouan
• Canouan
• Mayreau
• The Tobago Cays
• Union Island
• Petit Saint Vincent
• Palm Island

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The island of Saint Martin is the smallest island in the world that is divided into two seperate territories. The southern half of the island is part of the Windward islands of the Netherlands Antilles: Sint Maarten. The northern half of the island is an overseas territory of France: Collectivité de Saint-Martin. This entry is about the French half of the island.

This small island however, was first sighted by an Italian, who was and explorer for Spain: Christopher Columbus. It was said that he probably discovered the island on November 11, 1493, on the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours. In honor of the saint, Christopher Columbus named the island after him.
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Named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse, Saint Lucia is dubbed as the “Helen of the Caribbean.” Likened to Helen of Troy, control over St. Lucia has switched between the British and the French so many times throughout the island’s history.

Unlike most of the other Caribbean islands, it wasn’t Columbus who was the first European who sighted the island. Due to the island’s location, which is outside Columbus’ route, historians deduce that discovery of the island didn’t happen until the early 1500s by the Spanish. It was approximately a hundred years later that the English attempted to colonize the island. They were met, however, with strong and aggressive resistance from the Caribs, the natives of the island.

It was the French who was able to successfully claim the island. The town of Soufrière, the island’s first, was established by the French in 1746. Shortly after, they start developing sugar plantations in Saint Lucia. The British overthrown the French in 1778, quickly establishing their naval base in the island, making it a strategic part of the United Kingdom’s attack against the French in neighboring islands. Since then, St. Lucia has been passed back and forth between the two conquering countries.
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Saint Barts is known by many names: Saint-Barthélemy, Saint Barths, or Saint Barth. This French collective is composed of the island of Saint-Barthélemy proper and several offshore isles. The Collectivity of Saint-Barthélemy (Collectivité de Saint-Barthélemy), was established just last February 22, 2007.

Named after Christopher Columbus’ brother Bartolomeo, the first European settlers of the island were the French colonist who came in from the nearby St. Kitts. The settlement didn’t last, however. The island was sold off to the Knights of Malta. They too, never stayed long in the islands. The fierce Carib Indians wrecked havoc in the colony, and killed off all the settlers.

A hundred years pass before the island was inhabited once more by European settlers. It was the French mariners from Normandy and Brittany who were able to successfully establish a colony. The community and economy of the small island began to flourish. Though unlike their Caribbean neighbors, St. Barts was too small an island, too rocky and dry; they were never part of the sugar economy.
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