First things first, I do not live in Bermuda. It’s not in the Caribbean for a start, but way up by itself in the Atlantic - level where Florida meets the main US. It has a triangle and people disappear there, that’s all I know really. I also do not live in The Bahamas. I’ll let you off for that one, as I was thinking of moving there this year, and it is in the Caribbean, but it is an entirely different country from where I live. ‘The Bahamas’ is a plural, it’s a group of hundreds of islands right up by Florida, in fact a continuation of the Florida land mass. Shakira lives in The Bahamas now (in a tiny wealthy tax haven island), it has sharks, beautiful beaches and is a bit americanised but nice.
Where I live is Barbados. Yes, it also begins with a B (along with 16 other countries in the world), but this does not make it the same. Here is a map. Note the differences, the BaHamas is High, BarBados is Below, and BerMuda is in Middle of nowhere.
Barbados is one tiny island, much closer to South America than Florida, proper south Caribbean. They play cricket here, they have their own money, the accent has a kind of Geordie twang to it, there is good surfing, no sharks, but plenty of turtles. No Shakira unfortunately, but we do have Rihanna, who was born and bred here (with her umbrella), in a slightly dodgy neighbourhood by all accounts. People reminisce occasionally of when she used to be in local talent shows and older people raise their eyebrows at her skimpy outfits today.
Ok, more generally some facts about the Caribbean, as requested by some of you:
- Population: the big hitter islands are Cuba (11m), Dominican Republic (10m) and then unfortunate Haiti (9m). Mid range players are Puerto Rico (3.9M), Jamaica (2.7m), Trinidad (1.3M). The rest are much smaller, all under 500K if not under 200K.
- Languages: So, there are only a few Spanish islands, but they’re big -Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. Then the big Frenchy one is Haiti, but there are also a few French territories – Martinique and Guadeloupe in particular. The rest are pretty much English speaking, though there are a few tiny Dutch ones too.
- Caribbean non-islands: Guyana, Suriname and Belize, though part of Central American and S America on the map, culturally feel part of the Caribbean, so are included often in this.
- Pirates: there drug smugglers but no more pirates, BUT a certain Mr. Depp and Ms. Knightley were frequenting the islands for quite a while the last few years. In fact, I went to a couple of the islands they filmed in, was beautiful, although pretty remote. It could have got pretty dull spending months filming there.
There are many more facts, so just let me know if you’ve any further things you want to know. I cannot reveal the capital cities though, as I am saving this for pub quizzes when I get back to the UK. And now for some random photos.
Union Island, part of the St Vincent and the Grenadines, population 3000 people! They had a revolution and were independent for 2 days. Visited a friend there on a long weekend
Precarious runway on Union Island, way to close to the sea for my liking, but it works usually. A few years ago, a guy was sucked into the propellers of the plane as he cycled down the runway to wave off his girlfriend, pretty awful...
Tobago Cays - part of Grenadines still. Tiny uninhabited islands, national park. These were where some of pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. There are lots of turtles just hanging out under the water grazing on sea grass.
See giant coolbox at foot of picture. This was full of beer and rum and gin. Pirate like behaviour ensued.
Random sunset from Barbados. Sunset's my favourite time here.
