The Caribbean Sea is dotted with hundreds of islands and islets, from Cuba, Hispaniola and Jamaica in the West to the Lesser Antilles in the East. When Christopher Columbus first sailed into the region in 1492, he encountered several distinct but interrelated cultures of Taíno people who lived in villages with a collecting, farming and fishing economy. Carib tribes had rather migrated from the South American Orinoco area to the Lesser Antilles around 1200 AD, displacing and often exterminating the original population of Taínos. It all changed dramatically of course after 1492. At first, the interest to colonise the islands was very lukewarm, because the objective of the explorers was to find a Western route to the spices of Asia. But as the years went by, and more and more explorative missions came to the Caribbean, the appetite for the islands grew, in Spain, but also in other seafaring nations. French, Dutch, British and even Danish vessels entered the natural harbours of larger and tinier islands and each time their captains planted national flags. As from the late 19th century the US also started showing an interest and entered the geostrategic theatre, particularly after the Panama Canal had become operational in 1914.

There is no way, and also no interest to cover the entire string of islands from Hispaniola, Columbus's first port of call, to Barbados in the East, but with the places we visit in this report a proper level of 'Impressions of the Caribbean' is presumably achieved: from West to East, Santo Domingo, the very first colonial town in the New World, Hispano-American Puerto Rico, Danish based Saint Thomas, Franco-Dutch Saint Martin, British based Antigua, Saint Lucia with a French and British colonial past and the most British island of all, Barbados. A reflection of colonial rivalries, European nations waging war upon one another thousands of kilometres away, as extensions to conflicts and envies at home.

Geography of the islands differs, and so does their historical background. It is therefore no surprise that, beyond the attractive beaches, inlets and bays, sugarcane and rum, reggae music and -unfortunately- the hurricane season they have in common, the islands we visit are quite different from one another, in architecture, in cultural background and in atmosphere. You'll see.