Virtual Tripping » Central America

Good or Bad news, The Dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean.

Mark — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:37:28 +0000

This is a Youtube video of the National Anthem of the Netherlands Antilles.
On the 10th October, 2010 Caribbean islands the Netherland Antilles will no longer exisit, this is due to the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. This a group of constitutional changes that will take effect on the date above. The Netherlands Antilles are a group of that form an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There will then become new constituent countries, like the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten, the other three main islands from the Netherland Antilles are in the BES islands, they are also to become part of the Kingdom of Netherlands they are Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba , now these island are going to become special municipalities of the Netherlands proper after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles.

Curaçao island is found in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Venezuelan. It is an Island Territory of Curaçao which includes the main island and other smaller, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao (“Little Curaçao”), and it is one of five island territories of the Netherlands Antilles, but not for much longer, it will soon become a new constituent country and as such, but will still have alot of connections with the Netherlands. Its capital is Willemstad. Curaçao island is the largest and and the most inhabited of the three ABC islands (for Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) which are from the of Lesser Antilles, specifically the Leeward Antilles. It has a land area of 444 square kilometers (171 square miles). As of 1 January 2009, it had a population of 141,766.
These two pictures have been taken fromflickr they are of the capital city of Curaçao island and the Netherlands Antilles it is Willemstad, day and night.

Photo by Jefferson Martina

Now the other new constituent country will be the Island Territory of Sint Maarten it happens to be one of five island territories of the Netherlands Antilles, encompassing the southern half of the island of Saint Martin. The 2001 Netherlands Antilles census, said that the population of the island area was 30,594. But official estimates that were taken on the 1 Jan 2009 was 40,917, and this was for a population density of 1,942 inhabitants per km². The official languages are Dutch and English; the local dialect is a form of Virgin Islands Creole. Sint Maarten in the south of the island borders the French overseas collectivity of Saint-Martin, which occupies the northern half of the island.

Photo by ConanTheLibrarian

This is a picture taken from flickr of Sint Maarten in the Netherland Antilles.
The BES islands are often used in the Netherlands to indicate the three Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba that are due to become special municipalities of the Netherlands proper after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010. They belong as as special municipalities that have been outlined in article 134 of the Dutch Constitution, this is specified in the Law on the public bodies of Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius. They mainly resemble alot of the dutch ways of life, but there are a few differences for example, the security of these islands are alot lesser that in Holland and also on the 1st January 2011, the US dollar will come into action, there was some concerns about the Netherlands carrying the risk of exchange rate fluctuations regarding cash flows between the state and the islands. But the peoples of these island can vote for Dutch rule and law as well as European Union elections.

Photo by Rylan S L

Photo by laszlo-photo

So will much change well yes on the polictical sides, and some travel sides, but most will continue as the same especially in the Curaçao island and in Sint Maarten ans I suppose not to much will change in the BES Islands.

Welome to the West Indian country of Barbados in the Caribbean.

Mark — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:10:50 +0000

This is a post about Barbados which is situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, it is known as a West Indian continental island-nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. In it’s past history this island once was had a brief claim by Spainish in 1492 and later Portugese, but in the end it became a colony and protectorate of the United Kingdom for over three centuries, finally in 1966 it achieved independence. The British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, is also the Queen of Barbados and this makes her the country’s head of state. Barbados is also considered as a part of the Lesser Antilles. This island country has alot of different neighbours close to them and here are just a few of them Martinique, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines to the west and if you head southwards your have Trinidad and Tobago, these two nations actually share a fixed official maritime boundary and are close to the South American mainland. The island itself is total land area is about 430 square kilometres (166 square miles), and is primarily low-lying island which has some higher areas in the country’s interior. The highest point in Barbados is Mount Hillaby (340 m) in the parish of Saint Andrew.

Now some of you may know this and others may not, but the geological composition of Barbados is of non-volcanic origin, predominantly limestone-coral. A reef was formed around the island after a break of South America from Africa in the Mesozoic. The reef actually became more visible when during the Cenozoic time, both the Caribbean and South American plates moved westward, this then caused the two plates to impact, this then went on to cause the plates to press the reef upward. Barbados is part of a North Atlantic Ocean submarine mountain range located to the east of the Windward Islands. This range stretches from its close proximity of Puerto Rico in the north, to a south-easterly direction toward Venezuela. Because of everything that happened to this island, it actually now forms the only part of this mountain range that rises above sea level. Being sittuated where it is you will find that the climate is very Tropical, it does recieve quite alot of wind that comes from Atlantic Ocean and this helps to keep the the island country temperatures mild. If you were to venture towards some of the less developed parts of Barbados, you will find that there are tropical woodlands and mangroves. But there are other parts of the island that concentrate on agriculture and it’s industry, where you can see many large sugarcane estates and wide, gently sloping pastures, with panoramic views down to the coast also.
Finally even though the main industry in Barbados is Sugar the economy, but is now being dominated by services and tourism. Barbados is actually one of the largest global domiciles of captive insurance, there are also many different businesses and companies moving to this island and there are also a large number of expanding call centres in the country.

Welcome to the British Overseas Territory, the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean.

Mark — Sun, 02 May 2010 09:16:56 +0000

Well we all dream of going somewhere nice for a summer holiday and for alot of Brits they seem to get drawn to the caribbean, why?, well it is beautiful blue sky, golden sandy beaches, tropical gardens and friendly people, so I have decided to write a post about the Turks and Caicos Islands, which is a British Overseas Territory, so here we go.

Photo by gobucks2

The Turks and Caicos Islands consist of two groups of sub-tropical islands in the West Indies, the larger Caicos Islands and the smaller Turks Islands, known for tourism and as an offshore financial centre. These Islands are found in the southeast of Mayaguana in the Bahamas and north of the island of Hispaniola, and the main capital town of theses Islands, Cockburn is situated about 1,042 kilometres (647 mi) east-southeast of Miami in the United States. The overall land area is 430 square kilometres (170 sq mi).[7] The islands are geographically contiguous to the Bahamas, but are politically a separate entity.

Photo by qwghlm

Photo by vicsaez

Photo by peacenik1

In 2008, the estimated population of this nation was 36,000 of whom approximately 22,500 live on Providenciales in the Caicos Islands, this Island happens to be the largest populated island in the Turks and Caicos, and is also the third largest island. The capital town,Cockburn Town, is situated on Grand Turk Island. So if you fancy a nice warm holiday with tempretures ranging from 28 to 35 degrees celsius, and one of the lowest crime rates within the region. But even though it is a British Overseas Territory, they still use the U.S.A dollar as their currency. So if you fancy a peaceful and relaxing break, this is the place to go, and for all you young ones out there you have plenty to do day and night, wether it is surfing, diving, shopping, pubbing, clubbing or just eating out, you will find something to do and the hotels look lovely to, enjoy!.

This is part two of Port-au-Prince in Haiti.

Mark — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:29:54 +0000

Has i have written in my previous post about this earthquake i was lucky enough to find some information on Wikipedia: about what happened in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday 12th January 2010. As you can imagine it was a shock for many Hatians seeing their homes, gardens, business’s, shops, parks, pubs etc being destroyed and it would not have given the citizens much confidence, hearing that their President and Government had also been effected.
So what actually went wrong, well it all started in the small coastal city of Léogâne in the south of Haiti, it is about 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, it was around 16:53 local time when a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck the coastal city, it was at a depth of 13 km (8.1 miles). It past very quickly through the country to Port-au-Prince, by the 24th January it had been recorded that at least 52 aftershocks hit the country, measuring 4.5 or more.

Photo by United Nations Photo

It had been reported that the International Red Cross gave an estimate of around 3 million people had been effected. The Haitian Interior Minister, Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé, said on the 15th January that 100,000 or even 200,000 lives had been lost and then tragic news was broadcasted by the Haitian President Rene Preval on the 27th January the bodied count was “nearly 170,000″. Has you can imagine an earthquake can be disasterous, but imagine if you are also a poor nation and are just surviving before the quake. So much damage was done like in Jacmel and other settlements in the region.

Photo by United Nations Development Programme

Lots of well known landmarks had been destroyed, some of them included the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, and the main jail. Also sadly some well known people died like the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot,and opposition leader Micha Gaillard, and worst of all the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which you will find in the capital city, was also destroyed causing many many deaths including the Mission’s Chief, Hédi Annabi.

Photo by United Nations Development Programme

Thankfully, though the news hit the world extremely quick and hard and many countries were offering help and assitance including humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel. But it was thanks to America and the rest of the world for supplying food, and hospitalization on board a ship, as you can imagine communication was very hard because most of the air, land, and sea transport facilities, hospitals, and electrical networks were all damaged. There were delays, with aid etc and their were many angry Haitians, but the aid and support did finally get through. Even though there was alot of looting going on and certain people taking more aid than was needed at that time.

Photo by US_Air_Force

Photo by IFRC

It was on the 22nd January that the United Nations decide it was time to stop the emergency aid and that the relief work was slowing down. This mean’t that they would stop searching for survivors, but a few survivors have still managed to get out of the situations that they were dangerously in. The following day it was then announced by the Haitian government that it was time to call off the search. Even today surprises are still happening when survivors come through and the way that the Haitians have mangaed to pull themselves through this dramatic time, thank you for reading this, and my hopes and prays go to the all the Haitian people and I hope things get better for them soon.

This is about Port-au-Prince, Haiti, central america in the caribbean, part one.

Mark — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:11:24 +0000

This is a post about the Island of Haiti in Central America the caribbean. Many of you have heard of the tragic earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 that stuck Haiti on the 12th January 2010. Thousands of homes, business’s and the two major building’s of the Presidential Palace and the Parliament were destroyed, it was a horrific and astounding experience for the people of Haiti, and with up to 150,000 deaths as well. Everybody on that island was effected from the President of Haiti to the really poor citizens, and so it is sad doing a post about a Caribean country which has had a disaster of this scale, normally the Caribean Island’s are beautiful, safe and fun to visit and the scenery is beautiful, warm tempretures, blue skies and golden beaches. I have tried to make this post to show you guys what Haiti and her people were like before the earthquake, in my next post I will show you pictures of after the quake. So lets begin.

Photo by United Nations Development Programme

Photo by vanberto

Haiti is a joint country with her neighbour the Dominican Republic, it is also a republic and occupies the Island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago. The country is in a mountainous region, with the highest point being Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft), and the overall total area of Haiti is 27,750 square kilometres (10,714 sq mi), and the capital city of this nation is Port-au-Prince. They also speak two languages their own language being Haitian Creole and French.

Photo by M_Eriksson

Some of you may know that Haiti was the first actual independent nation, gaining independance from being a Latin-America and the first black-led republic, when it moved into a successful slave rebellion. But the one thing that i find interesting is that this country which is surrounded by spanish speaking nations, apart from Canada, it has made French an official language.

Photo by ROLX23

Photo by caribb

The West Indies, Caribbean Island of St.Lucia on Virtual-Tripping.

Mark — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:26:42 +0000

The island of Saint Lucia is an island nation situated within the eastern Caribbean Sea, it is also on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Being within the caribbean, this island is quite close to other islands within this region, some of them are the Lesser Antilles, Saint Vincent, Grenadines, Barbados and south of Martinique. The island itself is a small area of around 620 km² and there is a estimated population of 160,000 people in St.Lucia. The capital city of the island is Castries city.
This poor island has had an awful history, when you read about what has happed. The British and French seemed to always go to war of places and surprisingly enough it happened on the island of St.Lucia. Around 1550, the first Europeans arrived and they were the French and they held onto the island for well over 150 years, but around 1663, the British decided to taken control and they held on to St.Lucia for 4 years. Then began the start of fourteen different wars to regain the island between the British and French. The wars went on for over 150 years and it was finally taken complete control of in 1814, by the British. Sadly because of the problems between the British and French, St.Lucia became known as “Helen of the West Indies” as it became so much like the mythical story of Helen of Troy.
Over time this nation grew and gained a government, between 1958 to 1962, St.Lucia became a member of the Federation of the West Indies and finally in February, 1979, the island of St.Lucia became an independant state of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Finally the island of Saint Lucia is one of the Windward Islands, named for Saint Lucy of Syracuse.

This is a panoramio picture taken of Castries the capital city of St.Lucia.

This is a panoramio picture taken of a duty free shopping centre in Castries, St.Lucia.

This is a panoramio picture taken of the Pitons, volcanic plugs on the Island of St.Lucia.

This is a panoramio picture taken of Rodney Bay at night, St.Lucia.

This is a panoramio picture taken of Sandals regency beach, St.Lucia.

Welcome to Puerto Rico in the Caribbean

Mark — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:04:24 +0000

Puerto Rico is a small island in the caribbean , not to far from the United States of America and it is located in the northeastern part of the caribbean. The surrounding island’s are the Dominican Republic which is east of Puerto Rico and to the west are the Virgin Islands. It is officially known as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is an independant state, but it is administered by the U.S.A, the country has it’s own self-government, but it is an unincorporated territory of the United States. Which basically means it belongs to U.S.A, but is not part of the U.S.A.

Puerto Rico is composed of the main island, but it also includes smaller islands and keys, the largest of which are Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest by land area and second smallest by population among the four Greater Antilles, which also include Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica.

Puerto Ricans call their island Borinquen, which comes from Borikén, an indigenous Taíno name. The terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen respectively, and are commonly used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage. The island is also popularly known as “La Isla del Encanto”, which translated means “The Island of Enchantment.” Some information provided by Wikipedia. To learn more about this island, please refer to Wikipedia and Google Earth.

This is a satellite image picture taken from Google Maps of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.

This is a picture of a beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico taken from Panoramio.

This is a panoramio picture taken of hotels and a casino in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This is a Panoramio picture taken of a fountain in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The peoples dream, The Bahamas

Mark — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 11:51:28 +0000

The Bahamas are part of the Commonwealth of Nations, they are a group of Islands consisting of up to seven thousands small Islands and over two thousand cays situated within the Caribbean. Lying between Florida(USA) and Cuba. There are two Islands that are large enough to live on they are the largest Island Grand Bahama and the second largest Island with the capital city of Nassau, New Providence. The climate is normally quite warm, during the whole year, but even in the heavy rainful season in the summer months, it still stays warm.
Tourism is the main contribution to the Islands, with thousands visiting every year. But they also rely on exports such as offshore banking, ship registeration, petroleum and insurance to keep the Islands going.
The most earliest people to inhabit the Islands were the Arawak Indians. But it was not until 1492, as historian records say that Christopher Colombus arrived at Guanahani. The Spanish attacked the Islands killing hundreds of Arawak Indians, but for some reason they did not settle on there, they just moved on. It was around the year of 1629, when the British made the Islands apart of the Carolina Colonies. It was around 1648, when the British decided to finally settle there. They came from Bermuda.
At this time it is sad to say that the Arawak Indians started to die off. The Spanish of course said that these Islands belonged to them and it was not until 1717 that the dispute was finally sorted out and in 1717 the Bahamas became a British Crown Colony.

This is a satellite image taken from Google Earth of the Bahamas in the Caribbean.

This is a satellite image picture taken from Google Earth of the Bahamas in the Caribbean.

This is a satellite image of Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas on New Providence Island.

This is the national anthem of the Bahamas, taken from Youtube.

This is a beautiful picture taken from Panoramio of Nassau, Bahamas.

This is an amazing picture of Nassau Beach in the Bahamas.

This is Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Mark — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:56:04 +0000

This is a post about Newfoundland and Labrador a province in the north-east of Canada. I decided to write about this place because of a friend at work who has visited Newfoundland.

This is a satellite image taken from Google Earth of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

This is a satellite image from Google Earth of Labrador, Canada.

Labrador goes from the Hudson Bay all the way down to St.Lawerence, and this area is the mainland part of Newfoundland. This area of Canada, goes on for miles along the coastline of Labrador, it is around 1,125km or 703miles in length. Plus Labrador is about 300 metres above sea level. This part is mainly made up of barron rock and Tundra, although if you go to the river valleys it is noticeable that these parts are mainly forested. In Labrador you will also beable to see the Torngat Mountains which include the highest peakes within the east of the Rockies.
In the early part of the 20th century, there was a dispute between Quebec and Newfoundland over the area of Labrador, but by 1927 Labrador became Newfoundland. Finally fishing is a very important part of Labrador and the economy of Newfoundland, Canada. If you are lucky enough to go you will find different types of fish’s, ranging from Cod, Salmon and ranging through to trout.

This is a satellite image taken from Google Earth of the Island of Newfoundland, Canada.

Newfoundland is a large island in the St.Lawerence river, Canada. Around the year of 1000AD, this island attracted the then Vikings, but it was not really until around 1497, when the island was explored by John Cabot who was an Italian explorer. He went on to name this island as ‘New Isle’, ‘Terra Nova’ or as we know it ‘Newfoundland’. This island became Britain’s first colony, which was founded by Sir Humphrey Gilbert.
In 1949, Labrador and Newfoundland, joined together to produce the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
To learn more please refer to Wikipedia at the bottom of this post.

This is a satellite image taken from Google Earth of St.John's, Newfoundland and the capital city of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

This is a video taken off Youtube of the regional National Anthem of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

This is an excellent video showing the communtiies of Newfoundland and Labrador on Youtube, Thankyou. Brilliant video.

This is a panoramio picture of St.John’s Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

This is a panoramio picture of a part of the capital city St.John’s Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

This is a panoramio picture of Waterstreet, St.John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Alaska, North America’s winter wonderland.

Mark — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:36:25 +0000

This post is about the 49th and largest state of U.S.A, Alaska. Now in my eyes being British I feel that the Americans are very lucky having a state like Alaska, as it is probably one of the only places around today where you still have original Inuit’s living there and some of them still live in Iglu’s or Igloo’s and continue fishing just to get food like their ancestors, now I know that their are only a few left, but it is just so good of America to let theses people continue to live the lives they are used to living, plus the American government will always be there if they need assistance. Also this year will be the 50th anniversary of Alaska joining the U.S.A, so expect parties and celebrations their.
Alaska is in the furthest north-western part of America, surrounded by the Artic Ocean, Bering sea and the North Pacific and is extremely close to Russia.
Juneau is the capital of Alaska, but the most populated places are Anchorage, Kenai and Fairbanks.
Alaska was first found by the Russian explorer Vitus Bering around 1741 and also explored by captain James Cook, vancouver and many other explorers.
The state of Alaska was brought from the Russians in 1867 for then a whopping $2million and then in 1896 the Gold Rush began.
To learn more about Alaska, please refer to Wikipedia link at the bottom of this post.

This is a satellite image taken from Google Earth of Alaska, U.S.A.

This is a satellite image taken from Google Earth of the capital of Alaska, Juneau.

This is a picture of the capital of Alaska, Juneau.

This is a satellite image taken from Google Earth of Anchorage, Alaska, U.S.A.

This is the National Anthem of Alaska taken from Youtube.

This is a movie video of the original Alaskan National Anthem, known as the Tlingits National Anthem.

This is a panoramio picture taken of Flattop Mountain, Anchorage, Alaska.

This is a panoramio picture of Beautiful Alaska.

This is a panoramio picture of the Old City Hall in Anchorage, Alaska.

This is a panoramio picture of the Clarion Hotel, Anchorage, Alaska.