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• The Caribbean Sea is one of the world's largest seas — 2,754,000 km², bordered by 28 island nations and territories plus the mainland coasts of Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela.
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• Cuba is the largest Caribbean island at 109,884 km² — bigger than Iceland or Portugal.
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• The smallest sovereign country in the Americas is Saint Kitts and Nevis at just 261 km² with ~53,000 inhabitants.
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• Saba (Dutch Caribbean) has only 1 road called "The Road" — built by locals after Dutch engineers said it couldn't be done.
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• Jamaica gave reggae to the world — Bob Marley remains the best-selling reggae artist of all time, with over 75 million records sold globally.
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• The Caribbean produced 4 Nobel laureates — Derek Walcott (Saint Lucia, Literature 1992), V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad-born, Literature 2001), Sir Arthur Lewis (Saint Lucia, Economics 1979), Bertrand Russell mentor Joseph Rotblat born in Trinidad.
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• Haiti was the world's first Black republic — founded 1804 after the only successful slave revolt in history.
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• The Dominican Republic and Haiti share Hispaniola — one of only 4 island countries divided between two nations (also Borneo, Timor, Ireland).
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• Maho Beach in Sint Maarten is famous for jets landing meters above sunbathers — Princess Juliana Airport runway ends right at the beach.
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• The Bahamas isn't actually in the Caribbean Sea — it's in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Caribbean, though culturally and politically grouped with the region.
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• Aruba averages 28°C year-round and gets only 425mm of rain — drier than parts of Mediterranean.
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• Trinidad has the largest natural pitch lake in the world at La Brea — 100 acres of liquid asphalt.
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• Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD) is shared by 6 nations and 2 British territories — one of the oldest currency unions outside the EU, since 1965.
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• Puerto Rican coquí frog is the unofficial symbol of the island — its 'co-quí' call is the soundtrack of every Puerto Rican night.
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• The Caribbean has 30+ UNESCO World Heritage sites — including Old Havana (Cuba), Old San Juan (Puerto Rico), Brimstone Hill Fortress (Saint Kitts), Pitons (Saint Lucia), Willemstad (Curaçao), Bridgetown Garrison (Barbados), Morne Trois Pitons (Dominica), Habana Vieja, and many more.
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