Many ships offer cruises from Fort Lauderdale to the exotic islands of the Southern Caribbean. The schedule of departures is provided below.
The islands of the Southern Caribbean are Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, and Trinidad & Tobago.
The region is known for casinos, dive sites, ship wrecks, championship golf and divi divi trees. Want to see pink flamingoes, sea-horses, and other wildlife? Bonaire is for you! It's also the diver's paradise. Curacao has famous pastel-colored buildings. Explore the historic city of Willemstad then relax on the beaches.
Discounted Travel to St. Lucia for 2016
When and Where?
Discounted rates on hotels and island attractions on St. Lucia through Nov. 30.
Sponsored By
St. Lucia Tourist Board, Castries, St. Lucia.
Vacation Pricing
Obviously this will vary, depending on your preferred accommodation. Reduced airfares can be purchased via American Airlines for departure from 6 September through to 15 December 2016.
Apartment Espoir
Could the Caribbean be Running out of Coconuts?
From Zero to Hero
As is customary in this developing and ever changing world, health ideas change and fluctuate often and much, one of the latest trends being the promotion of coconut and its byproducts for good health, reduced heart disease, increased metabolism, curing skin problems such as eczema and many, many more health benefits that I am wholly behind. So much so that I even make my own sunscreen now with a 25% coconut oil formula.
However, it seems that due to a lot of farm mismanagement and probably some neglect, mingled with the developed world's voracious demand, coconuts cannot be grown as fast as they can be sold.
One of the main problems stems from farmers not growing new trees, not investing enough in new, young, healthy trees, and using enough fertiliser to grow the healthiest and largest fruit possible. Unfortunately, some more endemic and difficult problems to manage include Lethal Yellowing disease, which is spread by plant hopping insects, drought and storms.
According to the UN's Food and Agriculture, production has fallen by 17 percent since 1994. To me, this doesn't seem like much, but with the increased world demand, the UN predicts that the Caribbean is, indeed, running out of coconuts!
From what I have read, many farmer, keen to get their products to market, are picking the fruit too soon and, when that happens, the coconuts are devoid of milk, rendering them useless on the discarded pile.
Sadly, there are even bottled "coconut water" companies that are simply selling water with flavorings in. Beware, consumers!
So, what's the solution? I don't know how the disease can be controlled other than noxious pesticides, but certainly the only way to curb this problem is to plant more coconut trees. And this needs to be done soon because from sapling to fruit bearer, a coconut tree takes between 6 to 10 years.