We are not really that familiar with the Caribbean even though it is considered part of North America. I guess that is why we chose to travel here. Below is a primer.
The term “West Indies” refers to a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, generally known as the Caribbean. It is an unofficial grouping, a holdover from colonial terminology, that includes the Greater Antilles, Lesser Antilles, and the Bahamas. The name originated because Christopher Columbus, the first European to reach the islands in 1492, mistakenly believed he had arrived in the “East Indies” by traveling west.
Greater Antilles
The Greater Antilles is a group of large islands in the Caribbean Sea, located in the western part of the region. The main islands are Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, and the Cayman Islands. They are situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea and make up most of the West Indies’ land area.
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles is a chain of small islands in the eastern Caribbean Sea that arcs from the Virgin Islands in the north to Trinidad and Tobago in the south.
This arc is divided into the Leeward Islands and the Windward Islands and the Leeward Antilles.
The Leeward Islands: U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, and Guadeloupe.
The Windward Islands are Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad, and Tobago.
The Lesser Antilles runs close to the coast of South America and includes islands Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao often referred to as the ABC Islands.
Lucayan Archipelago: The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands are islands, cays, and islets in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Caribbean is controlled by a hodgepodge of different countries.
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