There are 50 seas around the world, and the Caribbean Sea is very close to us - just south towards Mexico and Central America to the west and south west and then the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles and then to the south is the north coast of South America.
So many North Americans are currently longing for their winter Caribbean vacation. The contrast between the monochrome winter landscape outside my winder with its gusts of snow and the jewel-tones of the water and landscape makes us think of the Caribbean islands as precious gems.
We don't think much about the Caribbean as anything other than vacation destinations, but there are 44 million people who live in the 700 Caribbean Islands (islets, reefs and cays included). There are so many countries that claim ownership of the islands - the U.K., the U.S., the Netherlands, France, Colombia, and so on. Within each "island" or country are many islands. Take the Bahamas - there are 700 islands, 2,400 cays and 30 inhabited islands. Cuba has 4,000 islands and cays surrounding the main island. I hadn't considered how complicated that might be.
All these countries having to host the rest of the world's population on vacation: that seems like a dilemma to me. But then, think of those aqua waters and palm trees of the Caribbean. Perhaps a good trade-off compared to our many economic opportunities in a landscape of snow squalls, frigid temperatures and blowing snow.
That was a brief but moment visiting the Caribbean via Wikipedia and other websites. I think the first picture expresses our winter dreams.
