Our climate makes us enjoy sunshine almost 365 days of the year. Our winter season, from January to the end of March, does not drop below 80 degrees except rarely, unless you are high up in the hills.

Although a relatively small island, Jamaica has the features of any other much larger and older country.

We are known internationally for our music, from the early beginnings of ska and mento, to reggae and dancehall. Worldwide, at the mention of Jamaica, immediately people say “Bob Marley”, especially in Japan where not much English is spoken. Even dreadlocks have taken on international appeal.

The debate now rages about our colorful language, Patois, and there is even talk of a Patois Bible.

In the field of sports, we have world-class athletes and Olympic gold medalists. How many other countries can boast this?

2008 – : World fastest man and woman are Jamaicans [Usain Bolt and Sherry-Ann Fraser].

Jamaica is the first Caribbean Country to gain Independence.

The Manchester Golf Club in Jamaica, established in 1868, is the oldest in the western hemisphere.

Jamaica is the first team from the English-speaking Caribbean to qualify for the Football World Cup. This was the 1998 championship.

Jamaica stands strong in third place on the list of countries to win the Miss World titles the most.

Jamaica was the first country in the Western world to construct a railway, even before the United States! This was only 18 years after Britain!

On his second voyage to the New World in 1494, the tip of the Blue Mountains in Jamaica was the first land sighted by Christopher Columbus.

Jamaica was the first commercial producer of bananas in the Western Hemisphere.

Jamaica also was the first island in the Caribbean to produce rum on a commercial basis.

Jamaica was the first country to impose economic sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa.

Jamaica is the third largest island in the Caribbean.

Jamaica was the first Caribbean island to enact legislation, ‘The Motion Picture Industry (Encouragement) Act’ to promote the making of films.

Jamaica is the first country to sign a Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria grant agreement.

Jamaica was the first tropical country to enter the IOC Winter Olympics. The bobsleigh team’s efforts inspired the film Cool Runnings.

Jamaica was the first colony England acquired by conquest. This was in the year 1655 when the Spanish were driven from the island.

We have the second largest butterfly in the world (the Giant Swallowtail).

Another of the interesting facts on Jamaica is that it was the first British colonial territory to establish a postal service (in 1688).

Jamaica was the first Caricom country to liberalize the telecommunications sector. Since then, other Caricom countries have opened up to competition.

And if you know none of the above, I expect you at least to know that Jamaica is the birth place of the great Robert ‘Bob’ Marley.

Although crime has given us a negative image overseas, the majority of our people are friendly and warm. Visitors who get to know us will attest to the fact that we are the first to offer help and always have a cheerful smile and a quick handshake.

You tell me, what’s wrong with Jamaica that is not wrong anywhere else? What an ideal place to vacation year round!

Resource: Jamaica Gleaner/Jamaica Observer

Nature lovers will want to take advantage of the various tours through lava formations, tropical forest areas, and seaside lagoons. Boating tours and scuba diving expeditions are also favorite activities. Plantation homes have been transformed into grand, intimate inns. Quaint shopping areas and beautiful Colonial architecture draw visitors to the tiny towns.

The peaceful calm of St. Kitts suggests nothing of the extraordinary history of the island. For centuries, St. Kitts occupied a critical position in the European struggle for the West Indies, combining exceptional wealth as sugar colonies with a vital strategic position as gateways to the Caribbean. As a result, the struggles and conflicts that marked their history are among the most decisive episodes in Caribbean history.

St. Kitts is a volcanic island, a fact to which it owes its dramatic central mountains, its rather unpredictable geologic history, and its lush tropical vegetation. In fact, St. Kitts’ pre-Columbian Carib inhabitants knew their island as Liamuiga, or “fertile land,” a reference to the island’s rich and productive volcanic soil. Today that name graces St. Kitts’ central peak, a 3,792-foot extinct volcano.

St. Kitts cultural heritage includes everything that has been handed down to us by our ancestors that continues to affect our patterns of behavior and the way we live. However, for a thought or action to be considered cultural, it must be commonly shared by some population or group of individuals. It includes the way we dance or sing or play music. It is the way we speak, the expressions and the languages we use. It is the special foods we cook, and the way they are prepared. It is the stories that we tell or write about ourselves and the land around us. It is the toys and handicrafts we create, the way we build our homes and the traditional methods we use to fish or farm. Our culture is made up of all these things, it even includes the way we enjoy ourselves. A great aspect of our culture is our folklore such as; Clowns, Moko-Jumbies, Masquerade, Bull, and Actors. All come on display in the tremendous exuberance at Christmas time during our carnival to entertain and educate the community about our culture.

Explore St. Kitts an experience like no other.