5 Barbados
Barbados is a country that is proud of the fact that it gave the world a successful singer - Rihanna -, that it was chosen as the place where the famous golfer Tiger Woods got married in 2004, and, above all, that it was never invaded by a foreign power (although it was a British colony until 1966 when it became independent).
In fact, the first time the British set foot in Barbados (the name of the country comes from the "bearded figs" - Los Barbados, who once dotted the territory), in 1625, they found an island completely covered by jungle and fully populated with… wild boars. They founded the first town, which was originally called Jamestown (after King James the First) but which quickly became known as Holetown because the ships that docked were cleaned and washed in a small canal near the town, a real nasty "hole" smelly
In Barbados, we started with a short tour of the capital Bridgetown, which was originally called "Indian Bridge" - the Indian Bridge, because of the rickety bridge that had been built over the Careenage River by the Indians.
4 Antigua
Probably when you hear of Antigua & Barbuda, the thought takes you to a mysterious territory, located somewhere in the middle of expanses of blue water, which you cannot precisely locate. Antigua & Barbuda includes two main islands (which give it its name), plus 35 other islets.
Two things I learned about Antigua. You can see the first one on the license plates of the cars, on which it is clearly written: " Antigua & Barbuda. Land of sea and sun ". The land of the sea and the sun. Which, by the way, is instantly suggested to you just by looking at the flag of this small Caribbean nation. Then there are the 365 beaches of the island, one for each day of the year. You wouldn't be bored if you lived in Antigua, if only if you went to a beach every day. Because, above all else, this is about the beach.
3 St. Martin
St. Martin (or Sint Marteen, according to the Dutch name) is the smallest island in the world shared by two countries: France and the Netherlands. The north is French, the south is Dutch. To be fair, the French have about 60% of the 88 square km territory, although slightly more inhabitants live in the Dutch part (39,000 compared to 31,000). The French capital is at Marigot, while the Dutch capital is at Philipsburg.
The interesting part is that there is no border between the two territories. From a geographical point of view, it can be said that thanks to the island of St. Martin, France borders the Netherlands, which is not the case in Europe. Both territories have their own currency (the Dutch use the guilder and the French - the euro, as the American dollar also circulates throughout the island) and people live in good peace, each according to their national rules.
2 St. Lucia
Do you know which is the only country in the world named after a woman? And holy, on top of that? Exactly. Santa Lucia. About St. Lucia, I didn't know much, except the image with the two sharp rocks, which from any side your photograph, with the setting sun, from the sea or from the interior of the island, looks in a big way. The volcanic spurs are called The Pitons, and unfortunately, I didn't get to photograph them because the tour itinerary I chose on this island simply didn't include them.
The frequent Franco-British brocades clearly left their mark on the society of St. Lucia, from the spoken language (English is the official language but 95% of the locals also speak a dialect called French Creole (Kwéyòl) or Patois (Patwa) to the gastronomy. An interesting thing is that St. Lucia is the second country in "density " of Nobel Prize winners, relative to the number of inhabitants: two, per 165,000 (first place is occupied by the Faroe Islands, which produced one winner). Sir Arthur Lewis received the Nobel Prize for economics in 1979 and the poet Derek Walcott, for literature in 1992. It's something the locals boast about, along with the fact that in 1964 they abandoned sugar cane plantations (reminiscent of slavery abolished in 1834) and replaced them with banana crops, which today represent the main product of the island, followed by coconuts, cocoa, citrus fruits, spices, and fish. But probably nothing would be possible in St. Lucia without tourism.
1 Dominican Republic
When you say the Dominican Republic, in terms of tourism, you are primarily talking about Punta Cana, the famous resort that attracts hordes of tourists from all over the world, But Punta Cana, with its 5-star all-inclusive resorts, is hardly representative of the essence of the Dominican Republic. A visit to the Dominican Republic should necessarily begin with a visit to the capital, Santo Domingo.
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