CARIBBEAN

This part is presented courtesy of and in partnership with www.suslek.com.Detailed information about every destination described here, as well as photo gallery can be found on www.suslek.com.

PUERTO RICO
VIRGIN ISLANDS
DOMINICA
MARTINIQUE
BARBADOS
ARUBA
GRAND CAYMAN
JAMAICA

Puerto Rico is a beautiful island under the dominion of The United States of America, even though not entirely. Its capital is San Juan, and to be honest, the first time I flew there, I had no idea where I was going. I imagined it as a small town. The first time I laid eyes on the town, through the airplane window, the sight left me with an open mouth! Perhaps the fact that, in the exact moment when I had thrown a glimpse through the window, I spotted another airplane heading directly toward us, added to the impression… Can you imagine the feeeling…? Thankfully, it made a swift turn. Finally, I could enjoy a glance at the town. San Juan is tremendous, as are most towns that have been divided into old and new parts. The town is surrounded by the beautiful beaches where latino girls promenade in very slender swim-suits.
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The name of this group of islands, under American dominion as well, gives you already a hint what to expect… Criiistal clear sea and beauuutiful sand beaches. Major efforts are focused into preservation of the nature intact inspite of people's presence. Sole Virgin Island are divided into British and American ~, and the story you are just about to read refers to the lifestyle of American Virgin Islands. Even though a single visit to the British ones was worth of making several dozens of photographs, some of which are available on this very page.
USVI, what stands as an abbreviation for United States Virgin Islands, are composed of 4 islands. St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas and Water Island. The most precious part of every island refers to beaches. Yeah, I am talking about those mesmerizing sand beaches quite often used as a background for shooting of prestigious commercials for women swim suits or for postcards. Sunshine, palms, beach and of course cristal clear sea. That's exactly how it is. St. John was declared as national park, especially due to all these basins and coral cliffs, while the rest of that intact nature will irresistibly remind you on Dalmatian rugs. Similar to Puertorico, this group of islands had changed its proprietor several times, what was very common in that epoch. This was the best sanctuary for numerous groups of pirates who rampaged all over Caribbean as also a center of the slavery trading. But to cut the story short, Virgin Island come into proprietorship of United States in 1917 after reimbursing Danish with 25 million dollars for Denmark that kept it under the longest reign. After breach of contact between United States and Cuba in 1959 for reasons well known to all of us, Virgin Island became new turistic mecca to the American turist what actually boosted true development of these islands.
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Small island situated between French Guadalupe and Martinique, to my personal opinion most underdeveloped island of all the others. This is the last island colonized by the Europeans. In 1763 British came to this island, in 1805 it officially becomes British colony, and in 1978 it gains its independence. Full name of the island is Commonwealth of Dominica. There are two reasons why this specific island was colonized the last. Mountainous, rather impassable and difficult terrain was a tough challenge to any conqueror, as much as for the British, while there were Carib indians too, who had shown strong resistance.
This island is green - all covered with thick jungle, from the beginning to the end. That's where the name "Nature island" comes from. Not a day passes here without raining. As soon as the raining stops, damp appears, sun comes up and starts to burn. And who would say that this island has 365 rivers, or so the locals say, each for a day. The capital is Roseau, with 20,000 souls living in it.
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Forte-de-France, capital of Martinique. Obscure and filthy at first sight. You gradually lose interest to step off the ship. That would be one of two ways to reach this island, while the other one is naturally, by plane. There is a direct line from Paris. Martinique is one of the "larger" Caribbean islands, situated between Dominica and St. Lucia. Green is dominating colour of the mountainous scenery. Volcanic origin of the island gives it another dimension emphasizing the fact that still active volcano beetles as a master over the entire island.
Another name for Martinique is "flower island". It is simply miraculous how many colours you can see when you head to one of the excursions in the center of the island, in the jungle, if you like. But it is not wise to smell every flower since some sorts are poisonous even to touch it. Bananas are exported from here, and sure as hell the rum.
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This beauutiful Caribbean island is the easternmost. Its inhabitants love to say the following: ..."When God made the Caribbean, he decided to repose, but none of the islands he made by that time wasn't exactly his favourite, so he decided to create Barbados and distance it from the others, for him to repose in paradise alone." Barbados really is apart from this group of islands. Island is 21 mile long and "wide as a smile", or 14 miles. It has 266.800 inhabitants, and the capital is Bridgetown. Temperature here never drops under 25° Celsius! In this 10 minutes' walk, as much as you need to come to the center, you can really get into the lifestyle and philosophy of living in Barbados - simplicity and typically Caribbean attitude towards life, slowliness and inattention.
Tourism is one of the most important activities in the economy of this island. We all witness the "buzz" present for centuries now worldwide when one mentiones Barbados. This is the most idealized island when talking about total ease, on a sand beach near the sea. Everything related to tourism is precisely organized, it is determined who does what, when and where. It is no wonder then that all excursions or toure offered by several agencies are brought to perfection. You can experience this island in several ways. You may decide to take standard sightseeing of the island with the bus or a rented car. There are few ferries in the offer to give you a ride around the island, to the best spots to dive or just sailing, swimming in the warm sea.
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This is a breathtaking island! And everything becomes clear when they point their fingers towards the open sea, and if the wheather is fine, you start to perceive contoures of the coast on the horizon. Then they tell you it's Venezuela. Now you know where is it situated. Only 19 miles from the Venezuelan coast, 19.6 miles long and only 6 miles wide island that relishes eternal sunshine… Aruba. People here are always smiling, increadibly amenable, in one word - simple. Aruba is inhabitated with some 100.000 souls, what is more than enough for this small, but splendid island.
Official language is Dutch, and local language is Papiamento, a mixture of the English, Dutch, German and Spanish. The capital is Oranjestad - city of oranges. It is inhabitated with some 20.000 people.
First thing you notice is all those colourfull house, the way they have been painted, very merry colours… As in St. Thomas, countless jewelleries all around, specialized shops for precious stones as Amalite and Tanzanite, very favourable prices due to the same commercial reasons as in case od Virgin Islands. Restaurants and shops with various merchandise all around, so prepare yourself for major spending. Various faces look st you on the streets, Chinese, Latinos, Europeans.
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According to the last statistics only 44.270 lives here. This small island, totally flat, not a single hill to notice (highest point gets only 43 metres up, the rock which is part of the coast) was discovered by the Columbus in 1503, during his adventure voyage. Many things have changed since that time... Island became true mecca for the offshore banks and financial institutions. 600 offshore banks is registered here.
There are only couple of things to experience here. Tourists and businessmen come here for only two things. Tax evasion and lazy lying on the beach. Those are main aces of this island. Nothing much to be seen except for the 7 miles long beach, huge turtles which usually serve as food, perhaps 80% of those, and enormous stingrays, with their natural habitat in the middle of the sea at a place 40 minutes away with the ship. Amazing play of the nature. In the middle of the open sea the sand, sea gets only up to your waist and enormous stingrays swim around you. They look frightening since average size is about a meter. You can take them in your hands and take a picture with them. They actually love people around them. Everything seems to be all right until you step on one. They take it as a threat and fight back with their widely known weapon, electric flick from the tail.
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This island is always brought up when people talk about the fairy-tale vacation - sand beaches, cocktails and reaggee music.
This island has 2,7 million inhabitants, ravishingly green. Cruisers usually come to the place called Ocho Rios, two hours drive from Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. Locals like to show off with the fact that one of James Bond movies was filmed here... Nothing has really changed ever since. The view does not exactly loot.
Few steps ahead of Jamaica's streets, street vendors begin their solicitation with various things, souvenirs, pot. Sex at very favourable prices is also at disposal. Sometimes you just cannot but notice that almost every second man drives a taxi, because they offer ride to town, to the falls (biggest local tourist attraction) they come from all around. If you don't want a cab, simply kindly say no and you won't be bothered again. Cars pass through dirty, non often cleaned streets. Taxis that drive in the opposite direction has no problem to let sound in order to check are you having a ride or not.
Ocho Rios isn't exactly the place to spent some time in. Always hot, the only thing you can think of is finding a shop with A/C. Downtown, as in the Caribbean, is full of jewelleries, goldsmiths, souvenir shops, this and that. Low rusty buildings, usually dirty. By the coast there is a shopping centre common for Jamaica. Within this centre there is also the Margaritaville, well-known chain of bars where typical American loves to party.
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