Fodor's Exploring Caribbean

THE CARIBBEAN IS Landscapes Stretching in an arc from the bottom of Florida to the top of South America, the Caribbean archipelago is as varied as it is beautiful. Islands range in size from Cuba (4,124 square miles) to tiny Saba (3 square miles); mountains soar to over 2 miles high in the Dominican Republic, and flat sand-spits barely reach sea level. There are extensive rain forests in Puerto Rico and Dominica, and barren cactus-filled wildernesses in Haiti and Aruba. Even on one island, the landscape may change around each corner, as mangrove swamp gives way to pasture land and pine forests replace palm trees. Intensive agriculture and tourist development are gradually altering the Caribbean's contours and climate. Blessed with warm weather all the year round and cooled by the Trade Winds, the region is also occasionally cursed by violent rainstorms and hurricanes. Known for its coral reefs and its beaches (every island naturally claims the best), the Caribbean also boasts waterfalls, hot springs, and caves. Two of the more bizarre geological attractions are Trinidad's Pitch Lake, a seemingly inexhaustible pool of hot black tar, and Jamaica's Cockpit Country, an inhospitable area of limestone hills and hollows, still populated by descendants of runaway slaves. Changing nature Humans have left an indelible impression on the Caribbean landscape. Once covered in virgin rain forest, the islands are largely scarred by deforestation and erosion. In Haiti, the island described by Columbus as the most beautiful he had ever seen, tree-felling and over-farming have created virtual deserts, where drought and famine are constant threats. Different worlds The past has shaped the look of the Caribbean through a variety of influences. Cities, towns, and villages bear the unmistakable imprint of former colonial powers. Spanish-built Havana, with its colonnades and plazas, seems a different world from British-built Bridgetown, with its statue of Admiral Nelson in Trafalgar Square and its "tropical Anglican" cathedral. Differing histories have also molded the countryside itself. In the formerly Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, sugar plantations stretch to the horizon as they have for 500 years. In Haiti, however, where a slave revolution expelled the French at the beginning of the 19th century, precarious smallholdings have replaced the hated plantations. Despite the proximity of the U.S., European influence is still keenly felt. In the French departements d'outre-mer of Martinique and Guadeloupe you can buy baguettes, drink pastis, and see policemen in kepis. There is no mistaking the Dutch style of Curacao or Aruba, where gabled pastel warehouses lining the canal and port conjure up a tropical Amsterdam. And Britain has left much of the paraphernalia of colonial rule in its former possessions: red mailboxes, English place-names, and cricket fields. The People The Caribbean's people are all strangers in paradise. The original indigenous population all but disappeared within half a century of European conquest. Subsequently, people have come, willingly or not, from every corner of the earth. This process included one of history's biggest forced migrations -- the importation of some five million Africans into the Caribbean's plantation economy. Arawaks and Caribs Little remains of the people who predated the Caribbean's "discovery" 500 years ago. However, some of their words have entered the vocabulary -- barbecue, hammock, manioc, for instance -- but none of the placid Arawaks survived the cultural devastation of the conquest. Today, only a handful of Carib descendants are still to be found in Dominica and St. Vincent, scraping a living by selling theirFodor's Travel Publications, Inc. Staff is the author of 'Fodor's Exploring Caribbean' with ISBN 9780679030058 and ISBN 0679030050.