From the http://www.VideoSource.com Global Village Travel Guide and DVD, "Caribbean". Stock footage available from http://videosource.com/search.html Transcript: The British Leeward Islands once were all colonies, but today the only ones remaining under the Crown are Anguila and Montserrat. Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts, and Nevis are independent states. Antigua draws yachtsmen from all over the world to take part in the famous Race Week sailboat races. The French presence in the Caribbean began in Martinique, an island loved by the French painter Paul Gauguin before he ever saw Tahiti. It is a mountainous, volcanic island with a rough coastline that has dozens of coves and miles of secluded beaches. Gauguin's work here represented a break from impressionism, and was a prelude to his better known Tahitian work. Martinique, like many of the Windward Islands, is remarkably fertile. Almost anything that touches the ground grows, and there is a bounty of tropical fruit and flowers that staggers the eye. This lush natural beauty also abounds on Dominica and St. Lucia. Dominica is a large, undeveloped island of mountains and dense rain forest so rich that it contains many plants found in few other places in the world. It offers fabulous hiking trails through unspoiled jungle, lodges set in rain forest retreats, and a secluded preserve where the Caribbean's last remaining Carib Indians continue their traditional ways. Rivers and waterfalls tumble from the mountains to the sea, and legend says there are 365 rivers here, one for each day of the year. Hot springs and geothermal lakes complete the picture of the region's most untamed island.

• published: 11 Aug 2011
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