By Tamara Overbey

a narrow strip of land with sea on either side, forming a link between two larger areas of land.

a piece of land surrounded by water.

a grouping of the larger islands in the Caribbean Sea; Cuba, Hispaniola (containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands.

the name given to a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most form a long, partly volcanic island arc between the Greater Antilles to the north-west and the continent of South America.

of, typical of, or peculiar to the tropics.

A storm with a violent wind, in particular a tropical cyclone in the Caribbean.

A luxuriant, dense forest rich in biodiversity, found typically in tropical areas with consistently heavy rainfall.

The Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.Jul 6, 2012

Carib a member of a group of Indian peoples formerly dominant through the Lesser Antilles, now found in small numbers in a few areas of the West Indies and in parts of Central America and northeastern South America. Arawak a member of a widespread group of Amerindians living in northeastern South America

a multilateral system of trading in which a country pays for its imports from one country by its exports to another. used to refer to the trade in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that involved shipping goods from Britain to West Africa to be exchanged for slaves, these slaves being shipped to the West Indies and exchanged for sugar, rum, and other commodities, which were in turn shipped back to Britain.

the state of being a slave.

a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by. Force

a percussion instrument originating in Trinidad, made out of an oil drum with one end beaten down and divided by grooves into sections to give different notes.

Extremely poor

A member of the Roman Catholic church.

the commercial organization and operation of vacations and visits to places of interest.

1 East Caribbean Dollar equals 0.37 US Dollar

48-mile (77 km) ship canal in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean (via the Caribbean Sea) to the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade.