0_Wizard
I've always wanted to visit Jamaica! I think the Caribbean Sea is gorgeous!
Jamaica () is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea.
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Jamaica
Jamaica () is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Previously inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish transplanted African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. Named "", the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it and renamed it Jamaica.
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea (; ) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and south west, to the north by the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles, and to the south by the north coast of South America. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the numerous islands of the West Indies, and adjacent coasts, are collectively known as the Caribbean. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area of about . The sea's deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at below sea level.
Visa policy of Jamaica
Visitors to Jamaica must obtain a visa from one of the Jamaican diplomatic missions, or in certain cases from one of the United Kingdom diplomatic missions, unless they come from one of the 116 countries designated as visa-exempt countries or countries whose citizens may obtain a visa on arrival. Most Commonwealth Citizens can visit Jamaica for up to 180 days visa-free. Citizens of the following countries and territories can visit Jamaica as tourists without a visa:  6 months  90 days 30 days Holders of diplomatic or official/service/special passports issued to nationals of Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Russia and official passports issued to national of Chile do not require a visa for Jamaica.
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( or , local most common pronunciation ) is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean) and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. (See the list.) These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea.
Miscegenation
Miscegenation (; from the Latin "miscere" "to mix" + "genus" "kind") is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, or procreation. Because of the term's historical use in contexts that typically implied disapproval, more unambiguously neutral terms such as "interracial", "interethnic", or "cross-cultural" are more common in contemporary usage. The term "miscegenation" has been used since the 19th century to refer to interracial marriage and interracial sexual relations, and more generally to the process of genetic admixture. Historically, the term has been used in the context of laws banning interracial marriage and sex, known as anti-miscegenation laws.
Hurricane Dean
Hurricane Dean was the strongest tropical cyclone of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the most intense North Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Wilma of 2005, tying for seventh overall. Additionally, it made the third most intense Atlantic hurricane landfall. A Cape Verde-type hurricane that formed on August 13, 2007, Dean took a west-northwest path from the eastern Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lucia Channel and into the Caribbean. It strengthened into a major hurricane, reaching Category 5 status on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale before passing just south of Jamaica on August 20.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (Spanish for "Rich Port"), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (, "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico") and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. An archipelago among the Greater Antilles, Puerto Rico includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller ones, such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques. The capital and most populous city is San Juan. Its official languages are Spanish and English, though Spanish predominates. The island's population is approximately 3.4 million. Puerto Rico's history, tropical climate, natural scenery, traditional cuisine, and tax incentives make it a destination for travelers from around the world.
1_Apprentice
I've never been either but would love to! What is there to do in Jamaica?
0_Wizard
Montego Bay is a very popular beach for tourists. Jamaica is south of Cuba and west of Hispaniola so the water is a beautiful crystal-clear blue!
Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
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Montego Bay
Montego Bay is the capital of the parish of St. James and is also Jamaica's only other officially incorporated city, referred to as "The Second City" or more widely known as "MoBay" in local lingo and sometimes "Bay" by the locals. The city is however the fourth largest urban area by population after Kingston, Spanish Town and Portmore, all of which form the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, home to over half a million people. As a result, Montego Bay is the second-largest Anglophone city in the Caribbean, after primate city, Kingston. Montego Bay is a popular tourist destination featuring duty-free shopping, a cruise line terminal and several beaches and resorts.
Jamaica
Jamaica () is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Previously inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish transplanted African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. Named "", the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it and renamed it Jamaica.
Saint James Parish, Jamaica
St. James is a suburban parish, located on the north-west end of the island of Jamaica. Its capital is Montego Bay (derived from the Spanish word "manteca" (lard) because many wild hogs were found there, from which lard was made). Montego Bay was officially named the second city of Jamaica, behind Kingston, in 1981, although Montego Bay became a city in 1980 through an act of the Jamaican Parliament. The parish is the birthplace of the Right Excellent Samuel Sharpe (died 1833), one of Jamaica's seven National Heroes. When the Spanish occupied Jamaica, Montego Bay was an export point for lard, which was obtained from wild hogs in the forests.
Owen Roberts International Airport
Owen Roberts International Airport is an airport located in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. It is the main international airport for the Cayman Islands as well as the main base for Cayman Airways. The airport is named after British Royal Air Force (RAF) Wing Commander Owen Roberts, a pioneer of commercial aviation in the country, and is one of the two entrance ports to the Cayman Islands. Owen Roberts International Airport was the only international airport remaining in the Caribbean to have an open-air observation "waving gallery" until January 2017 when it was closed due to reconstruction. The new upgraded Owen Roberts International Airport terminal will no longer have an observation "waving gallery".
Flow (brand)
FLOW was formerly a brand of Columbus Communications providing residential and business telephone, Internet and television services across the Caribbean. The brand was used by individual companies operating in each country, registered under the Columbus Communications name. Cable & Wireless Communications however, purchased Columbus Communications in 2014, and began to replace its existing LIME-branded services under the FLOW brand beginning in July 2015 (in Barbados). FLOW is now the consumer-facing brand for CWC's operations in the Caribbean in Barbados, Jamaica, The Cayman Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Montserrat, Dominica, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Anguilla, Curaçao, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Roman Catholic Diocese of Montego Bay
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Montego Bay (Latin: "Dioecesis Sinus Sereni") is a Latin suffragan diocese of the Roman Catholic Church located on the northwest part of the island of Jamaica (Greater Antilles), in the Caribbean ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Kingston (which covers all Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Belize), yet depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Its episcopal see is the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, in Montego Bay, Saint James (civil) parish. Pope Francis appointed Burchell Alexander McPherson of the Archdiocese of Kingston the third Bishop of Montego Bay on April 11, 2013.
Highway 2000
Highway 2000 is a highway connecting Kingston, with Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, passing through the parishes of St. Catherine, Saint Ann, Manchester and proposed sections through St. James, Saint Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover. The highway is operated by the Jamaica Infrastructure Operators and developed by Trans-Jamaica Highway Limited through contractors CHEC and Bouygues Construction. The highway is a four-to-six lane controlled-access, tolled motorway with grade-separated interchanges and intersections built according to modern international standards. Tolling of the highway is governed by a Tolling Policy.
1_Apprentice
The water sounds beautiful! I think Hispaniola would be great to visit too!
0_Wizard
Yes, I love to see the Dominican Republic! I never realized it but Jamaica was under United Kingdom ruling until 1962! I thought they achieved independence way before then.
The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962.
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Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic ( ) is a sovereign state located in the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, that are shared by two countries. The Dominican Republic is the second-largest Caribbean nation by area (after Cuba) at , and third by population with approximately 10 million people, of which approximately three million live in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city. Christopher Columbus landed on the island on December 5, 1492, which the native Taíno people had inhabited since the 7th century.
History of the Dominican Republic
The recorded history of the Dominican Republic began when the Genoa-born navigator Christopher Columbus, working for the Spanish Crown, happened upon a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. It was inhabited by the Taíno, an Arawakan people, who variously called their island Ayiti, Bohio, or Quisqueya (Kiskeya). Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown, naming it La Isla Española ("the Spanish Island"), later Latinized to Hispaniola. What would become the Dominican Republic was the Spanish Captaincy General of Santo Domingo until 1821 except for a time as a French colony from 1795 to 1809.
Jamaica
Jamaica () is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the fourth-largest island country in the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Previously inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Many of the indigenous people died of disease, and the Spanish transplanted African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. Named "", the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it and renamed it Jamaica.
Haiti
Haiti (; ; ), officially the Republic of Haiti (; ) and formerly called Hayti, is a sovereign state located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Haiti is in size and has an estimated /1e6 round 1 million people, making it the most populous country in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the second-most populous country in the Caribbean as a whole. The region was originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno people. Spain discovered the island on 5 December 1492 during the first voyage of Christopher Columbus across the Atlantic.
Projects of the Caribbean Community
Three countries—Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago—had originally set 5 January 2005 as the date of signing the agreement relating to the CARICOM single market and economy (CSME). The ceremony had then been rescheduled to coincide with 19 February 2005 inauguration of the new CARICOM-headquarters building in Georgetown, Guyana, but this was later postponed after a ruling by the London Privy council caused alarm to several Caribbean countries. The prospect was that ten of the remaining twelve CARICOM countries would join the CSME by the end of 2005. The Bahamas and Haiti were not expected to be a part of the new economic arrangement at that time.
Decolonization
Decolonization (US) or decolonisation (UK alternative) is the undoing of colonialism: where a nation establishes and maintains its domination over dependent territories. The term refers particularly to the dismantlement, in the years after World War II, of the colonial empires established prior to World War I throughout the world. However, decolonization not only refers to the complete "removal of the domination of non-indigenous forces" within the geographical space and different institutions of the colonized, but it also refers to the "decolonizing of the mind" from the colonizers' ideas that made the colonized feel inferior.
Ramón Emeterio Betances
Ramón Emeterio Betances y Alacán (April 8, 1827 – September 16, 1898) was a Puerto Rican nationalist. He was the primary instigator of the Grito de Lares revolution and is considered to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement. Since the "Grito" galvanized a burgeoning nationalist movement among Puerto Ricans, Betances is also considered ""El Padre de la Patria"" (Father of the [Puerto Rican] Nation). Because of his charitable deeds for people in need, he also became known as "El Padre de los Pobres" ("The Father of the Poor"). Betances was also a medical doctor and surgeon in Puerto Rico, and one of its first social hygienists.
1_Apprentice
I didn't know that either! I know both the DR and Jamaica are very popular vacation spots. I bet tourism is a big part of their economy.
0_Wizard
I'm sure that it is, especially with the cruise industry utilizing both islands' ports. The two islands have something in common! They were both discovered by Christopher Columbus!
Previously inhabited by the indigenous Arawak and Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494.
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Columbus's letter on the first voyage
Columbus's letter on the first voyage is the first known document announcing the results of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus that set out in 1492 and reached the Americas. The letter was ostensibly written by Columbus himself, on February 15, 1493, aboard the caravel "Niña", while still at sea, on the return leg of his voyage. A post-script was added upon his arrival in Lisbon on March 4, 1493, and it was probably from there that Columbus dispatched two copies of his letter to the Spanish court. The letter was instrumental in spreading the news throughout Europe about Columbus's voyage.
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are a part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way, i.e., ports of call. Transportation is not the only purpose of cruising, particularly on cruises that return passengers to their originating port (also known as a "closed-loop cruise"), with the ports of call usually in a specified region of a continent. There are even "cruises to nowhere" or "nowhere voyages" where the ship makes 2–3 night round trips without any ports of call. By contrast, dedicated transport oriented ocean liners do "line voyages" and typically transport passengers from one point to another, rather than on round trips.
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire () was one of the largest empires in history. At the time, it was not known as that by the Spanish, but rather the Spanish Monarchy ("Monarquía española") with the monarch ruling kingdoms in Spain, his possessions in Italy and northern Europe, and in the "Spanish Indies," its New World territories. From the late fifteenth century to the early nineteenth, Spain's kingdom of Castile controlled a huge overseas territory in the New World. The crown's main source of wealth was from gold and silver mined in Mexico and Peru. The empire reached the peak of its military, political and economic power under the Spanish Habsburgs, through most of the 16th and 17th centuries, and its greatest territorial extent under the House of Bourbon in the 18th century.
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer. Born in the Republic of Genoa, under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages and his efforts to establish settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the permanent European colonization of the New World. At a time when European kingdoms were beginning to establish new trade routes and colonies, motivated by imperialism and economic competition, Columbus proposed to reach the East Indies (South and Southeast Asia) by sailing westward.
Origin theories of Christopher Columbus
The exact ethnic or national origin of Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) has been a source of speculation since the 19th century. It is generally agreed upon by historians that Columbus' family was from the coastal region of Liguria, that he spent his boyhood and early youth in the Republic of Genoa, in Genoa, in Vico Diritto, and that he subsequently lived in Savona, where his father Domenico moved in 1470. Much of this evidence derives from data concerning Columbus' immediate family connections in Genoa and opinions voiced by contemporaries concerning his Genoese origins, which few dispute. In a 1498 deed of primogeniture, Columbus writes:  Many historians, including a distinguished Spanish scholar, Altolaguirre, affirm the document's authenticity; others believe it apocryphal.
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery, or the Age of Exploration (approximately from the beginning of the 15th century until the end of the 18th century) is an informal and loosely defined term for the period in European history in which extensive overseas exploration emerged as a powerful factor in European culture and was the beginning of globalization. It also marks the rise of the period of widespread adoption in Europe of colonialism and mercantilism as national policies. Many lands previously unknown to Europeans were discovered by them during this period, though most were already inhabited. From the perspective of many non-Europeans, the Age of Discovery marked the arrival of invaders from previously unknown continents.
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
In 1492, a Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition led by Christopher Columbus encountered the Americas, a continent which was largely unknown in Europe and outside the Old World political and economic system. The four voyages of Columbus began the Spanish colonization of the Americas. For a very long time, it was believed that Columbus and his crew had been the first Europeans to make landfall in the Americas. However, they were not the first explorers from Europe to reach the Americas, having been preceded by the Viking expedition led by Leif Erikson in the 11th century; however, Columbus's voyages led to the first ongoing European contact with the Americas, inaugurating a period of exploration, conquest, and colonization that has lasted several centuries.
1_Apprentice
Wow! Christopher Columbus sure did discover a lot of places!