Barbados

In honour of this blog's sixth birthday, a blast from the past! This card from the archives was sent to me by my Mum when my postcard collection was really in its infancy, just a handful of cards tacked up to my bedroom wall. My Mum, well-travelled lady that she is, has contributed considerably to my collection, and I can never thank her enough for taking time out of her holidays to track down stamps, cards and errant post offices to indulge my postcard folly. Merci bien, maman!

Card shows Harrismith Beach on the southeast coast of Barbados.

Stamp on the left commemorates the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Barbados Museum in 1933. Stamp on the right from the 1989 definitive set of 16 features Centrosema virginianum, or wild pea, a common vine throughout most of the Americas.

Trinidad and Tobago

Postcard showing Carnival in Trinidad, the island's most important celebration and one of the largest Carnivals in the Caribbean. Many thanks to my Uncle Pierre and Aunt Ginette for sending it to me. – Despite the fact that the Caribbean is a popular place for holidaying Canadians, it's certainly one of the biggest black holes in my collection. Any Caribbean friends and readers, feel free to help me out. ;-)

Stamps from the 1990 definitive set featuring local birds. Pictured here is the bananaquit, Coereba flaveola, a common bird found in tropical South America and the Caribbean.

Cayman Islands

Postcard from Hell. This town in the Cayman Islands is thought to be named after the barren limestone rock formations that elicited the reaction, "This is what Hell must look like", when the area was first settled. The area is now a popular tourist spot with Hell-themed souvenirs.

Although the Caribbean is a fairly common winter holiday destination for Canadians, I've actually had quite a difficult time getting Caribbean countries crossed off my list. My many thanks, in this case, to friend Neil for sending this card while in the Cayman Islands for a work project.

Stamp from a 2001 set of three featuring Cayman Brac, the second-largest of the Cayman Islands three main islands. While the other two islands are mostly flat, Cayman Brac features a large limestone escarpment that runs the length of the island that has a number of caves, including Peter's Cave, pictured in this stamp. Also featuring a postmark from Hell.

Turks and Caicos Islands

Postcard of a beach on Providenciales, the most populated island in the British territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands, though not the capital, which is diminutive Cockburn Town with just 8,000 residents. The beaches in the Turks and Caicos are regularly voted among the best in the world, and are a popular winter holiday destination for North Americans. Turks and Caicos are also notable in that there has been, over the years, discussions of the territory becoming a part of Canada. When Britain began decolonising the Caribbean, the locals were not in favour of joining an independent Bahamas, which had been Britain's original intention. The islands not feeling they could become independent themselves, idea was therefore floated of giving them to Canada. The Canadian government was not interested in becoming a new colonial power, but the idea still pops up in the media from time to time. – No doubt the notion of owning a slice of palm tree paradise appeals to many in the Great White North!

The island group is on Britain's Tentative List for World Heritage. Many thanks to friend Scott who fled the Canadian cold for the turquoise shores of T&C!

Stamp shows Astraea brevispina, a species of sea snail found in the Caribbean, from a 2007 set of 15 featuring shells and sea snails. 

Belize

Postcard from the Belizean island of Ambergris Caye, located in the northeast of the country. The island is largely undeveloped, the main attraction being the Belize Barrier Reef and its beaches. The Belize Barrier Reef is the second largest in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

Many thanks to friend Rob who was visiting friends in Belize.

Both stamps are from the 2005 definitive series of twelve stamps featuring ecological and heritage sites around the country. Stamp on the left shows the House of Culture Museum, housed in the former British governor-general's residence built in 1812. On the right is Nohoch Che'en Archaeological Reserve, a Mayan site in a system of underground rivers and caves.

Dominican Republic

Postcard of Conde Street in the city centre of the capital, Santo Domingo. Part of the Colonial City of Santo Domingo World Heritage site. The street was one of the main streets in Santo Domingo during the colonial era and houses the first city hall and first cathedral built in the Americas. Santo Domingo is actually the oldest permanent European settlement in the New World.

Many thanks and much appreciation to friends Sarah who overcame many obstacles to get me this card. ¡Gracias, guapa!

Stamp commemorating Juan Pablo Duarte y Díez, a Dominican intellectual, poet and writer and one of the founding fathers of the country.

Netherlands Antilles

Another card from the archives that I was able to upload while home for the Christmas holidays, this time sent from the no longer extant Netherlands Antilles. My retroactive thanks to my then coworker, Tani, for sending this and helping me get the Netherlands Antilles into my collection before it disappeared off the maps.

There were two island groups in the Netherlands Antilles; the ABC islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao off the Venezuelan coast, and the SSS islands of Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius southeast of the Virgin Islands. Aruba became a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1986. The rest of the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on 10 October 2010. Sint Maarten and Curaçao became two new constituent countries of the Netherlands with their own postal systems. The other islands became special municipalities within the Netherlands and make up the new postal entity "Caribbean Netherlands".

Card shows the Fort Amsterdam Peninsula on Little Bay, which has been designated an important breeding area for brown pelicans by BirdLife International.

Top stamp from the 1988 definitives series featuring the component islands of the Netherlands Antilles, in this case the small island of Saba, which ironically has the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mount Scenery (877 m). Lower stamp from 2000 commemorates fathers.

Grenada

Postcard of Bathway Beach in the Saint Patrick Parish of northeastern Grenada. The beach is a very popular spot to relax during holidays, when a carnival-like atmosphere reigns. The other days of the year, it's likely to be as you see here, very quiet.

Stamp featuring Tithorea pinthias, or cream-spotted tigerwing, an uncommon butterfly living in the forest lowlands of Central America.

Cuba

Cuban flags flying in Havana during National Day celebrations. Also, somewhat unexpectedly, a Guatemalan flag flying on the right.

A 2010 stamp from a series about cultural diversity and tourism, here featuring the town of Las Tunas in western Cuba.

Puerto Rico

Secluded beach loacted on Puerto Rico's northeast coast, near Fajardo and El Conquistador Resort. Puerto Rico is a 35 by 100-mile island located in the eastern Caribbean, a thirty minute plane flight from the U.S. Virgin Islands.