It is difficult, in fact practically impossible, not to be moved by the incredible spectacle offered by these islands, from Barbados to Jamaica, from St. Lucia to the Bahamas, from Guadeloupe to Trinidad and Tobago. Allow yourself  to drift away to the sound of the lapping waves and perhaps indulge in some shopping and a spot of night life in trendy Miami or the mysterious Mexican Costa Maya. All of this immersed in an atmosphere where the clocks seem to have stopped long ago, plunging the traveller into an ancient world of colonial villages, rum plantations and pirates' coves.