Bahamas Scuba

Rough Guide to the Caribbean
Book Description
INTRODUCTION

Palm trees swaying over white-sand beaches, pellucid waters with teeming reefs just a flipper-kick from the shore and killer rum cocktails brought right to your lounge chair – this is the Caribbean, as per everyone’s favourite tropical fantasy. The ultimate place to flop on the sand and unwind, the region offers sun, sand and corporeal comforts aplenty, and has long seduced those after life’s sybaritic pleasures.

Given these obvious draws, a holiday in the Caribbean – anywhere in the Caribbean – is commonly proffered as the ultimate getaway. But buying into this postcard-perfect stereotype – and failing to recognize the individual idiosyncrasies of the islands that make up the archipelago – is the biggest mistake a first-time visitor can make. Drawing on the combined traditions of Africa and those brought here by Spain, Britain, France, Holland and the 500,000 people who arrived from India as indentured workers after the abolition of slavery, no other area in the Americas exhibits such a diverse range of cultural patterns and social and political institutions – there’s a lot more on offer here than sun, sea, sand and learning to limbo.

Culturally, this relatively small, fairly impoverished collection of islands has had an impact quite out of tune with its size, from the Jamaican sound-system DJs who inspired hip-hop, to the Lenten bacchanalia that have come to define carnivals worldwide. Over the last five hundred years, each country or territory has carved out its own identity (some much more recently than others, with the onset of mass tourism and the advent of the all-inclusive), and it’s hard to think of worlds so near and yet so disparate as the sensual son and salsa of Cuba compared to the dance-hall and Rasta militancy of neighbouring Jamaica or the poppy zouk of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Sport rivals music as a Caribbean obsession, and though golf is well represented by the scores of world class courses, the region’s game of choice has traditionally been cricket, introduced by the Brits and raised to great heights by the Windies team, who led the world for much of the 1970s and 1980s. Wins are rather less common these days, but cricket remains central to the Caribbean psyche, with international matches known to bring their host islands to a complete standstill. Other popular spectator sports include football, which has made massive inroads since Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz qualified for the 1998 World Cup, and baseball, firmly entrenched in Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Each island has a strong culinary tradition, too, and while you might come here to sample Caribbean classics such as Trinidadian roti, Grenadian "oil-down" or Dominican mountain chicken (actually a very big frog), you can also enjoy croissants and gourmet dinners in the French islands, Dutch delicacies in the Netherlands Antilles and piles of good ol’ burgers and fries in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas – and on every island with a fair-sized tourism industry you’ll find "international" restaurants of every ilk alongside hole-in-the-wall shacks selling local specialities.

The Caribbean’s natural attractions are equally compelling, its landscapes ranging from teeming rainforest, mist-swathed mountains and conical volcanic peaks to lowland mangrove swamps, lush pastureland and savannah plains. The entire region is incredibly abundant in its flora, despite the sometimes volcanic or scrubby interiors on certain islands. Heliconias and orchids flower most everywhere, while hibiscus and ixoras brighten up the hedgerows, and the forest greens are enlivened by flowering trees such as poinsettia and poui. Not surprisingly eco-tourism abounds, whether it be hiking through the waterfall-studded rainforest of Dominica or St Lucia, high-mountain treks in Jamaica, or birding in Trinidad, which has one of the highest concentrations of bird species in the world. The sea here is as bountiful as the land; besides taking in superlative diving and snorkelling around multicoloured reefs and sunken ships that play host to technicolour tropical marine life, you canturtle-watch on innumerable beaches that see nesting leatherbacks and hawksbills, go whale-spotting from St Lucia, Dominica and the Dominican Republic, or frolic with giant manta rays offshore of Tobago and stingrays in the Caymans.

Beyond their cultural and physical richness, the Caribbean islands share a similar history of colonization. The first known inhabitants, farming and fishing Amerindians who travelled from South America by way of dugout canoes around 500 BC, were swiftly displaced by Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who "discovered" the region for Spain in the late fifteenth century, touching down on the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamaica, and mistakenly assuming that he had found the outlying islands of India, bestowing the title "West Indies" to the region. Seduced by fantasies of innumerable riches, other European countries soon jumped on the bandwagon. The Spanish were followed by the British, French and Dutch, who squabbled over their various territories for most of the sixteenth century, their colonization of the islands hindered by pirates and state-licensed privateers who plundered settlements and vessels without mercy.

Nonetheless, European colonies were established throughout the region, and by the seventeenth century, the islands had begun to be developed in earnest. The British proved most adept at establishing huge plantations of sugarcane – estates which required far more labour than the colonists themselves could provide, and which gave rise to the appalling business of the slave trade. Plantation life for slaves was one of unimaginable barbarity, and eighteenth-century rebellions, combined with Christian tenets of humanity and charity, engendered the first moves toward emancipation – between 1833 and 1888 slavery was abolished in the Caribbean.

Post-emancipation, conditions for all but the planter elites remained abysmal, and the establishment of unions and subsequent labour strikes led, by the 1930s, to the creation of political parties throughout the region. This in turn nudged the islands to call for independence from their colonial rulers, increasingly so after World War II. The early twentieth century also saw tourism start to take root. Wealthy Brits and North Americans had patronized palatial resorts since the late nineteenth century, and the glitterati followed in the footsteps of Noel Coward and Errol Flynn to Jamaica and Ernest Hemingway to Cuba, thus creating the air of exclusivity which remains inextricably tied to the Caribbean today. But with the introduction of long-haul air travel in the 1960s, tourists began to arrive en masse. While the fenced-off all-inclusive enclave is still going strong today, the region now has as many budget-oriented bolt holes as it does luxury resorts, and as many possibilties for adventurous travel as it does for staid beach holidays.

Excerpted from The Rough Guide to The Caribbean: More Than 50 Islands, Including the Bahamas by Nicky Agate, Arabella Bowen, Maureen Clarke, Dominique De-Light, Gaylord Dold, Natalie Folster, Rough Guides. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
WHERE TO GO

Spanning an arc from southern Florida to Venezuela on the South American coast, the islands of the Caribbean are made up of two main chains which form a 3200 kilometre mile breakwater between the Caribbean Sea to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. Running south from Florida, the mostly limestone Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic and Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) comprise the largest and most geographically varied of the two chains, with white-sand beaches aplenty as well as rainforest-smothered peaks that are remnants of submerged ranges related to the Central and South American mountain systems. Dryer, somewhat flatter and boasting as many black-sand beaches as white, the volcanic Lesser Antilles are further subdivided into the Leeward Islands (Anguilla, St Martin/St Maarten, St Barts, Saba, St Eustatius, St Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat and Guadeloupe) and Windward Islands (Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent, the Grenadines, and Grenada). North of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos Islands sit alone, as do Trinidad and Tobago and the "ABC islands" (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), just off the Venezuelan coast, though the latter are also an autonomous part of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. Together with Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten, these islands are collectively known as the Netherlands Antilles.

Deciding which of the islands to visit, however, is the fifty-million-dollar question. Obviously, you’ll need to consider what you want from your holiday. If you’re after two weeks of sunbathing and swimming and don’t plan on doing any exploring, then you’ve the freedom to allow a travel agent to pick the cheapest deal available – or just flip through this book and pick which sounds the most appealing. If variety is on your agenda, bigger islands which boast a diversity of landscapes – Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic – offer more scope for adventurous travel, with possibilities for hiking, rafting, eco-pursuits and cultural tours as well as beachlife, and probably demand a single-island trip. However, as island-hopping can be relatively easy, either by short plane trips or the occasional ferry, it’s well worth seeing more than one island, especially if you’ve picked a destination in the Lesser Antilles.

Of the Caribbean islands, two are not covered in this guide; at the time of writing Montserrat was still recovering from recent volcanic activity, while unrest in Haiti has made travel to that country inadvisable.

WHEN TO GO

As visitors mainly flock to the Caribbean to swap snow, rain and wind back home for the sun and warm waters of the tropics, it’ll come as no surprise to find that the region’s busiest time is the northern hemisphere’s winter (roughly Nov–Feb). During this high season, the daytime heat doesn’t reach blistering proportions, and is tempered by cool breezes and balmy evenings, while rain is generally restricted to brief early-afternoon showers. The downside to this, however, is that the beaches and attractions are busy, hotels are often full, and flights can get oversubscribed, with fares at a premium. Prices for almost everything may decrease in the slow summer season, but it’s not an ideal time to visit the Caribbean: days are oppressively hot and humid and nights are muggy. Late summer also sees the start of the hurricane season, which runs roughly from July to November, and even if there’s no big blow, this usually means a lot of rain. While there’s never really a bad time to holiday in the region, the Caribbean is best enjoyed in the shoulder seasons (early Nov and Feb through June), when flights and hotels are plentiful (and less expensive), and the weather dependable. Spring is also the season for catching one of the Caribbean’s many pre-Lenten carnivals.

CARNIVAL MENTALITY

Balmy temperatures, stunning outdoor venues and a bacchanalian worldview – the Caribbean is a fabulous place to party, and there’s an extensive programme of annual events that cater to the hedonistic urge. The festival calendar may kick off with Christmas Junkanoo parades throughout the region, but the real deal is pre-Lenten Carnival, of which Trinidad’s is the main event, bursting with pure, unbridled energy and with the emphasis on participation. Buy a costume and "play mas" in a costume band with five thousand revellers, or get coated in mud, paint or oil at the rawer, early-hours Jouvert parade. Carnival culture runs pretty much year-round, too, with substantial events in March (Jamaica, St Thomas), July (St Lucia, Barbados, St Vincent, Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda) and August (Grenada). Other major happenings with a uniquely Caribbean flavour include Jamaica’s Reggae Sumfest (Aug), held next to the sea and under the stars – the ultimate way to enjoy the cream of reggae performers in their home ground. Caribbean scenery provides the perfect backdrop for other music, too, and there are major jazz festivals featuring international performers in Barbados (Jan), St Lucia (May), Jamaica and Aruba (June), while Dominica stages the World Creole Music Festival each October. Although you may not be here for the big events listed above, rest assured that as every island has its own sizeable roster, there’ll be something going on whenever you visit; see individual chapters for lists of major festivals and events.