Notes from the Road Travelogue
A dog stands on a cobbled street at dusk in a colonial town in Cuba, between pastel pink, blue and yellow houses under a tangle of power lines.

Field Notes from the Caribbean Basin

Explore the West Indies

The West Indies arc from Florida to Venezuela, islands rich in history and complexity, revealing both resilience and fragility. These are my travel notes from across the Caribbean Basin.

Habana Vieja, Cuba

Habana Vieja and the Little Farter

In pursuit of the multicolored Pedorrera, I begin my quest in the historic center of Havana, Cuba.
Sancti Spiritus Province, Cuba

Sancti Spíritus and the Psychedelic Flyer

Through Colonial towns, mangrove forests and Caribbean jungle, I seek the Pedorrera.
Bahamas Dry Forest

Bahamas Dry Forest Journal

Notes and sketches of the Bahamian coppice forests particular to the northern islands.
Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas

The Wreckers, Pineapples and Pirates of Green Turtle Cay

Notes on the history of the lovely Bahamian island of Green Turtle Cay — pirates included.
Sandy Point, Bahamas

The Abaco Islands from Little Abaco to Sandy Point

Notes from my travels throughout the backroads of the Abaco Islands.
Wings to the Storm

Wings to the Storm

The Bakers Bay controversy unfolds on Guana Cay, as locals fight for their way of life.
Eyes of the West Indies - Examining Bakers Bay

Bakers Bay and the Eyes of the West Indies

I meet with locals on Guana Cay, as they are about to embark on a battle against a developer.
St. Lucia

St. Lucia and the Botanical History of the Antilles

St. Lucia's botanical history tells much about the history of the West Indies.
The Big Red Boat

Disney’s Big Red Boat and the Travesty of Treasure Island

Too bad, Disney, but when our boat broke apart, I become a witness to your abandoned island.

Great Guana Cay, Bahamas

The Fight for Guana Cay’s Reef

For ten years I covered a small Bahamian island’s fight against Bakers Bay Golf & Ocean Club, a golf course, marina and resort built beside one of the healthiest reefs left in the Caribbean. The club was built. The science, the court fight and the paper trail are all here.

Explore the Guana Cay section →

Elbow Cay, Bahamas

Hopetown and the History of Island Settlement

How did early settlers survive in the Caribbean? I pursue this question in Hopetown, Bahamas.
Cuba Journal

Cuba Sketch Journal

Sketches and illustrations, as well as notes on the U.S. conversation about Cuba, and its effect on Cuba and the Caribbean.
Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic Sketch Journal

Sketches and notes from a road trip through the interior of the Dominican Republic.
Chub Rock Wreck in the Abacos

Chub Rock Wreck

Red blood is green this far down. My Abaco, Bahamas eel attack story.
Line map of the West Indies on black: the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the arc of the Lesser Antilles down to Trinidad, with the main capitals marked.

The West Indies at a Glance

An Arc of Islands Between Two Continents

The West Indies curve some 2,500 miles from the Bahamas, off Florida, to Trinidad, off Venezuela, dividing the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea. About 44 million people live on these islands, in thirteen independent countries and a patchwork of territories still tied to Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States.

  • 13independent island countries
  • ~44 millionpeople
  • 72%of native seed plants found nowhere else
  • 7,000 yearssince the first people reached Trinidad

Lucayan Archipelago

Low limestone islands and cays on the shallow Bahama Banks. They sit in the Atlantic, not the Caribbean Sea.

Countries The Bahamas

Also Turks and Caicos Islands (U.K.)

Greater Antilles

The four big, mountainous islands, home to most of the region’s people and most of its species found nowhere else.

Countries Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica

Also Puerto Rico (U.S.), Cayman Islands (U.K.)

Lesser Antilles

A chain of small, mostly volcanic islands curving south from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad, plus the Dutch islands off Venezuela.

Countries Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago

Also U.S. Virgin Islands; British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat (U.K.); Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin, Saint Barthélemy (France); Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Saba, Sint Eustatius (Netherlands); Nueva Esparta (Venezuela)

West Indies or Caribbean?

Europeans coined West Indies to tell these islands from the East Indies, but I still like it as a name for both a geography and a shared culture. It covers the whole Caribbean Basin, including the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos out in the Atlantic. The Caribbean, strictly speaking, is the sea.

I also argue that these islands belong on lists of the birds of North America.