ErebusFact library / Countries
13 countries in Caribbean, each with a picture to fix its place, shape or name in your memory.
Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean, and its capital is Havana.
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A long green CROCODILE floats in the Caribbean, the biggest island there. It chews a CUBE ("CU-ba") of sugar and smokes a cigar at the end of its snout, in HAVANA, where it's HAVING A NAP.
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Jamaica is a Caribbean island south of Cuba, home to the Blue Mountains, with its capital at Kingston.
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South of Cuba, an island rises into misty Blue Mountains. A JAM jar ("ja-MAY-ka") sits on the throne in the harbour town: the KING'S TOWN, KINGSTON.
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Haiti, on the western part of Hispaniola, became the first independent Black republic in 1804; its capital is Port-au-Prince.
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On the western third of the island of Hispaniola, a crowd breaks its chains in 1804 and declares the first independent Black republic. They hold a party at the PORT for the PRINCE: PORT-AU-PRINCE.
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Trinidad and Tobago, two islands just off Venezuela at the southern end of the Caribbean, is the birthplace of the steelpan, and its capital is Port of Spain.
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Just off the coast of Venezuela, at the bottom of the Caribbean, two islands bang on oil drums and invent the steelpan. A Spanish galleon docks to listen, and the harbour becomes Port of Spain.
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Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a Caribbean nation of one main volcanic island and a chain of small ones, with its capital at Kingstown.
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In the southern Caribbean, Saint Vincent stands on his volcanic island, juggling a string of tiny islands like grenades: the Grenadines. A KING in a sunhat runs the harbour TOWN: Kingstown.
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Saint Lucia is an eastern Caribbean island famous for the Pitons, two volcanic spires, and its capital is Castries.
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On an island in the eastern Caribbean, Saint Lucy rests her chin between two volcanic spikes sticking out of the sea, the Pitons. Her cat, CAST-REES, naps on the harbour wall in Castries.
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Saint Kitts and Nevis is a two-island Caribbean federation, the smallest country in the Americas, with its capital at Basseterre.
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Two tiny KITTENS curl up on two islands in the Caribbean, the smallest country in all the Americas. A double bass player, "BASS-TERRE", plays them lullabies in the capital, Basseterre.
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Grenada, the "Spice Isle", is a Caribbean island famous for nutmeg (which appears on its flag), and its capital is St. George's.
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At the southern end of the Caribbean, an island smells of nutmeg, the spice so important it's on the flag. Saint George fights a dragon in the harbour, then sprinkles nutmeg on it: St. George's.
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The Dominican Republic shares Hispaniola with Haiti, and its capital Santo Domingo is the oldest European-founded city in the Americas.
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On the island of Hispaniola, a country takes the bigger eastern two-thirds and leaves Haiti the west. In 1496, a Spanish bishop plants a SAINT DOMINIC statue and builds the first European city in the Americas: Santo Domingo.
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Dominica, the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean", is a rainforest island with a Boiling Lake, and its capital is Roseau.
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In the eastern Caribbean, a wild green island of rainforest and waterfalls has a lake that boils like a kettle. A gardener with a ROSE in his hat picks flowers beside the capital, Roseau.
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Barbados, named after the "bearded" fig trees early sailors saw, is the most easterly Caribbean island, and its capital is Bridgetown.
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Sailors spot an island out east of the rest of the Caribbean, covered in fig trees with hairy roots like BEARDS: "Los Barbados", the bearded ones. A bride walks over a BRIDGE into town: Bridgetown.
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The Bahamas, about 700 islands southeast of Florida, is where Columbus first landed in the Americas in 1492, and its capital is Nassau.
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Southeast of Florida, about 700 islands float on shallow turquoise water. In 1492 Columbus leaves his first footprint in the New World here. Later, a sunburnt sailor bumps his NOSE on a sail: "NOSE-SAW!" in Nassau.
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Antigua and Barbuda is an eastern Caribbean nation said to have 365 beaches, one for each day of the year; its capital is St. John's.
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On an island in the eastern Caribbean, a tourist with a calendar tries a new beach every day: 365 of them, one for each day of the year. On New Year's Eve he ends up at the church of Saint John in the capital, St. John's.
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