Our travelers Justine Shapiro, Ian Wright and Megan
McCormick set out on a voyage around the massive gulf
that separates the North and South American continents.
They delve beneath  the perception many people have that
the Caribbean is merely a rich man's playground, to
bring you the Ultimate Caribbean experience.
There are hundreds of tiny islands strung out across
the Caribbean but the largest islands have the strongest
characters. We visit Trinidad, Jamaica, Puerto
Rico, Guadeloupe, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican
Republic to discover the history of the Caribbean
- and its decidedly dark underside. It was colonized by
European settlers who put the native Carib and Arawak
Indians to work on the sugar plantations; when they
were virtually wiped out the colonists brought over
millions of African slaves to work in them. Our travelers
visit Santo Domingo, a plantation on
Jamaica and meet the Maroons (descendants
of escaped slaves who still live in the hills).
The wealth generated by the cultivation of the Caribbean's
fertile land turned the Caribbean into a decadent playground
for the Western elite. Cuba was a favorite, as Ian discovers,
until  1959 when Fidel Castro overturned the government
and brought in communist rule. Haiti has fared less
well; it's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere
and has been dogged by dictatorship for 200 years. In
fact, the gulf between rich and poor has been a constant
source of conflict in this region; Justine goes to Grenada to find out about the coup that led to a US invasion
of the country in 1983.
Getting around the Caribbean can be challenge: Justine
risks her life on the Jamaican bus system, Ian chooses
the train over the bus in Cuba, home to the only rail
system in the Caribbean, takes a brightly-coloured Tata
in Haiti and then gives up on public transport altogether
and hires a car instead!
It's true that it's really hard to find genuinely budget
accommodation in the Caribbean, but if you do some digging
you can find some pretty special resting places. Ian
takes a quick tour of  some of them in Haiti, Cuba and
Jamaica. When it comes to food, however, you'll find
more than your fair share of bargains, for the Caribbean
is a natural treasure trove whose cooking culture draws
on traditions from across the world. Our travelers sample
Creole food, jerk chicken and curried goat, washed down
with rum.
Eighty per cent of the population are Christian but
at its heart is something much more African. Ian visits Souvenos in Haiti to discover the secrets
of voodoo while Megan meets a voodoo
priest over the border in the Dominican Republic. With
some religious rituals, the links is a little more tenuous;
such as the Shakespeare Mass on the
small island of Cariacou but if you
want to experience the mother of all religious events
go to Trinidad for the carnival! Justine
dresses up in a scanty costume and takes to the streets
with the tens of thousands of revelers.
If you want to avoid the crowds, head to some of the
smaller islands such as St Kitts, which
still has a seriously English feel, while Dominica remains a jungle paradise. Tobago is
a beautiful peaceful island and a great place to get
involved in local events - the Bacoo Goat Race is the place to be seen! Just outside the Caribbean,
the Turks & Caicos Islands are
the place to escape.
Animal lovers will find another sort of paradise in
the Caribbean, like exceptional diving, wimming with
dolphins, avoiding alligators, and communing with massive
leatherback turtles. If you want to go trekking, Dominica has the biggest rainforest in the Caribbean and big
tracts of it are still untouched, while Megan discovers
the Dominican Republic's pine forests
are a great place to go mule riding. Jamaica also offers
some wonderful views - for an amazing experience climb
the Blue Mountain in time for the sunrise
- a perfect way to end our Caribbean odyssey! |
