Quotessence
Home / Topics / Caribbean Quotes

Caribbean Quotes

Browse 178 quotes about Caribbean.

Related topics

PeoplePirateIslandsWorldIfsKnowsAmericaBlackStatesThinkingUnitedUnited StatesBeachCountry

Caribbean Quotes

“I call it the Margarita Road. It's the course your heart sets when you want to leave the past behind and start over someplace new and warm. Usually the path heads south to blue water and white sand, with any bumps along the way smoothed over by rum and tequila. It's not for everyone. This is a highway traveled mostly by runaways and drifters. I know, becuase I'm one of them.”

Life QuotesAdventureTravelLife And LivingMexicoTravel QuotesTravel WritingCaribbeanAdventure TravelMargarita
Book:Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road
Create image

“As I got to know my new neighbors, I found saints and sinners of every degree of good, bad, and strange. These aging adolescents thought of themselves as Peter Pan’s lost children, and the beach was their Neverland. Having run away from home, they now were refusing to grow up.”

Life QuotesAdventureTravelLife And LivingMexicoTravel QuotesTravel WritingCaribbeanAdventure TravelMargarita
Book:Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road
Create image

“Life down here is kind of a permanent Halloween where you choose a costume more fitting for your self-image than reality could ever offer. Do you want to be a captain or a cowboy? No problem. People will call you by whatever title or name you choose. You say you’re a reincarnated pirate queen or the abandoned love child of a famous entertainer? That’s fine with me. We believe each other’s stories about who we were and who we are. Being an expat means you can have a whole new life. It’s a little like being in the Witness Relocation Program only with flip flops and margaritas.”

AdventureTravelLife And LivingMexicoTravel QuotesTravel WritingCaribbeanAdventure TravelExpat LifeExpatriate
Book:Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road
Create image

“Most of the pilgrims I met in Mexico were running from something: financial woes, a pissed-off spouse, or a life that hit a dead end. Regardless of the reasons for the journey, the Margarita Road will take you far from all those problems. Still, there are no guarantees. A funny thing about the past--it can catch up to you even on a remote tropical seashore. Sometimes you bring it with you.”

Life QuotesAdventureTravelLife And LivingMexicoTravel QuotesTravel WritingCaribbeanAdventure TravelMargarita
Book:Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road
Create image

“For some time now, people like me had been drifting south, ending up in Mexico with Jimmy Buffett songs playing in their heads. They left behind mortgages, failed marriages, and a lifetime of disappointments. Some of them came looking for a fresh start, and some were searching for a place to hide. A few were pulled by a dream they could never quite understand, until they walked down the beach to that crystal-clear water for the first time.”

Life QuotesAdventureTravelLife And LivingMexicoTravel QuotesTravel WritingCaribbeanAdventure TravelMargarita
Book:Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road
Create image

“Oh sure, there was a gringo gulch where the sunbirds lived in the winter months. But if you avoided them, you might hook up with the small community of Margarita Road refugees: a group of wanderers from up north; a crazy Irish sailor; a few Italians; some young, fast-living kids from Mexico City; and one beautiful girl from Brazil. All in all, it was a nice place to stay—or hide, if that’s what you needed.”

AdventureTravelLife And LivingMexicoTravel QuotesTravel WritingCaribbeanAdventure TravelExpat LifeExpatriate
Book:Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road
Create image

“He kept ordering beers and making what he thought were humorous jokes about how Mexicans sleep all day, all the while telling me how great my life was without a ‘real job.’ After an hour or so of this, I was ready to pour the next drink over his head.”

AdventureTravelLife And LivingMexicoTravel QuotesTravel WritingCaribbeanAdventure TravelExpat LifeExpatriate
Book:Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road
Create image

“The Isle of Pines was Circe's isle, with white marble columns here and there in the dark, green, and pirates would be dueling with a flash of clashing swords and a flash of recklessly smiling white teeth. The Gulf, like the Caribbean, is haunted by the ghosts of the old buccaneers. Tampico, to Pete, wasn't the industrial shipping port his father knew. It had palaces and parrots of many colors, and winding white roads. It was an Arabian Nights city, with robed magicians wandering the streets, benign most of the time, but with gnarled hands like tree-roots that could weave spells. Manoel, his father, could have told him a different story, for Manoel had shipped once under sail, in the old days, before he settled down to a fisherman's life in Cabrillo. But Manoel didn't talk a great deal. Men talk to men, not to boys, and that was why Pete didn't learn as much as he might have from the sun-browned Portuguese who went out with the fishing fleets. He got his knowledge out of books, and strange books they were, and strange knowledge. ("Before I Wake...")”

KnowledgeBooksCaribbeanCirceGulf Of MexicoArabian Nights
Book:Masters of Horror
Create image

“The West Indian is not exactly hostile to change, but he is not much inclined to believe in it. This comes from a piece of wisdom that his climate of eternal summer teaches him. It is that, under all the parade of human effort and noise, today is like yesterday, and tomorrow will be like today; that existence is a wheel of recurring patterns from which no one escapes; that all anybody does in this life is live for a while and then die for good, without finding out much; and that therefore the idea is to take things easy and enjoy the passing time under the sun. The white people charging hopefully around the islands these days in the noon glare, making deals, bulldozing airstrips, hammering up hotels, laying out marinas, opening new banks, night clubs, and gift shops, are to him merely a passing plague. They have come before and gone before.”

LifeExistenceSummerModernityCaribbeanTropicsWest Indies
Book:Don't Stop the Carnival
Create image

“You ain’t old yet but when you get old, all the women in the village start to look down on you when they find out you want to do something other than sweep the kitchen or cut up vegetables. Had this big starch mango tree when I was small. Anytime I set myself to climb it, there was always a woman passing by to yell at me and tell me to get down. Asked me why I leaving my poor mother to do all the housework. I never got to the top. It was like God was always watching, ready to send another hag to tell me down. Then, one day, they cut down the tree.”

ChildhoodVillageCaribbeanClimbTrinidadMangoLittle GirlsMango Tree
Book:Rune Mathura and the Case of the Village Jumbie
Create image

“And immediately we rushed like horses, wild with the knowledge of this song, and bolted into a startingly loud harmony: 'Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves; Britons, never-never-ne-verr shall be slaves!' and singing, I saw the kings and the queens in the room with us, laughing in a funny way, and smiling and happy with us. The headmaster was soaked in glee. And I imagined all the glories of Britannia, who, or what or which, had brought us out of the ships crossing over from the terrible seas from Africa, and had placed us on this island, and had given us such good headmasters and assistant masters, and such a nice vicar to teach us how to pray to God - and he had come from England; and such nice white people who lived on the island with us, and who gave us jobs watering their gardens and taking out their garbage, most of which we found delicious enough to eat...all through the ages, all through the years of history; from the Tudors on the wall, down through the Stuarts also on the wall, all through the Elizabethans and including those men and women singing in their hearts with us, hanging dead and distant on our schoolroom walls; Britannia, who, or what or which, had ruled the waves all these hundreds of years, all these thousands and millions of years, and kept us on the island, happy - the island of Barbados (Britannia the Second), free from all invasions. Not even the mighty Germans; not even the Russians whom our headmaster said were dressed in red, had dared to come within submarine distance of our island! Britannia who saw to it that all Britons (we on the island were, beyond doubt, little black Britons, just like the white big Britons up in Britannialand. The headmaster told us so!) - never-never-ne-verr, shall be slaves!”

HistoryEnglandBritainColonialismCaribbeanBarbadosCaribbean Literature
Book:Amongst Thistles and Thorns
Create image

“During the mid-1930’s Jorge's father arrived in Camagüey, looking for work. Being single, he asked some of the locals where he could find a brothel with some “Fun Girls.” After getting explicit directions, he started walking along the winding streets of the city, but the maze proved more confusing than he had expected. So, instead of finding the brothel, he wound up staring at the gates of the cemetery. He was at the dead center of town!”

CubaCaribbeanCaptain Hank BrackerSea StoriesCuban History
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "The Exciting Story of Cuba"
Create image

“Arguably, the Malecón is the most photographed street in Havana. It lies as a bulwark just across the horizon from the United States, which is only 90 treacherous miles away. It is approximately 5 miles long, following the northern coast of the city from east to west. This broad boulevard is ideal for the revelers partaking in parades and is the street used for Fiesta Mardi Gras, known in Cuba as Los Carnavales. It has also been used for “spontaneous demonstrations” against the United States. It runs from the entrance to Havana harbor at the Morro Castle, Castillo del Morro, alongside the Centro Habana neighborhood to the Vedado neighborhood, past the United States Embassy on the Calle Calzada. Since 1977, the renovated Embassy building has housed the United States Interests Section in Havana. The Malecón is also known as a street where both male and female prostitutes ply their trade. At the present time, most of the buildings that line this once magnificent coastal boulevard are in ruins, which doesn’t stop it from being a spectacular and popular esplanade for an evening walk by residents and tourists alike.”

CaribbeanCaptain Hank BrackerCuban HistorySightseeing
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "The Exciting Story of Cuba"
Create image

“A Most Dangerous Hurricane Columbus was aware of dangerous weather indicators that were frequently a threat in the Caribbean during the summer months. Although the barometer had not yet been invented, there were definitely other telltale signs of an approaching hurricane. Had the governor who detested Columbus, listened to his advice and given him some leeway, he could have saved the convoy that was being readied for a return trans-Atlantic crossing. Instead, the new inexperienced governor ordered a fleet of over 30 caravels, laden, heavy with gold, to set sail for Spain without delay. As a result, it is estimated that 20 of these ships were sunk by this violent storm, nine ran aground and only the Aguja, which coincidently carried Columbus’ gold, survived and made it back to Spain safely. The ferocity of the storm claimed the lives of five hundred souls, including that of the former governor Francisco de Bobadilla. Many of the caravels that sank during this horrific hurricane were ships that were part of the same convoy that Governor Ovando, had traveled with from Spain to the West Indies. However he felt about this tragedy, which could have been prevented, he continued as the third Governor of the Indies until 1509, and became known for his brutal treatment of the Taíno Indians. Having taken adequate precautions, Columbus’ ships fared somewhat better in that terrible storm, and survived with only minor damage. Heaving in their anchors, Columbus’ small fleet of ships left Hispaniola to explore the western side of the Caribbean.”

American HistoryColumbusCaribbeanCaptain Hank BrackerCuban HistoryHispanic History
Author:Captain Hank Bracker
Create image

“The water off the northern coast of South America is typically choppy and is known to have relatively long wavelengths that are developed by a constant easterly wind. The Guiana Current is a result of this phenomenon and is strongest in April and May. Even at its minimum in September, it is relatively strong and persistent. Hydrographic studies show that the Amazon is sporadically responsible for lobes of relatively low salinity, which follow the current northwest and contribute to the Caribbean having less salinity than the Atlantic. As we got closer to the South American coast, we started feeling the effects of this current and prepared to batten everything down.”

CaribbeanCaptain Hank BrackerOceansTrinidadMarine Science
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Salty & Saucy Maine"
Create image

“Some say that because the United States was wrong before, it cannot possibly be right now, or has not the right to be right. (The British Empire sent a fleet to Africa and the Caribbean to maintain the slave trade while the very same empire later sent another fleet to enforce abolition. I would not have opposed the second policy because of my objections to the first; rather it seems to me that the second policy was morally necessitated by its predecessor.)”

PoliticsUnited StatesMoralityBritainAfricaImperialismIraq WarAbolitionBritish EmpireCaribbeanSlave TradeAmerican ImperialismAnti Americanism
Book:A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq
Create image

“Is this seat taken?” she asked him again, tapping on a chair at the table. “That’s where my Rum is sitting. He is my guest!” “But the bottle is in your hand, and not in this chair,” she spoke, pointing out the bottle. “So, it is!” he answered, looking at his Rum. Then, looking back at her: “But he was invited to this party.”

PirateCaribbeanShipSwashbucklingBlack FlagJolly Roger
Book:Captain Skull: From the Memoirs of Sir Charles of Riley
Create image

“When handled in a civilized fashion, Piracy on the high seas could become more of a wise business decision than of a sheer, chaotic, unorganized criminal act. And I saw very little difference in what we were doing than the royals and courtiers were doing in the midst of cities, and of calling what they were doing legal and legitimate.”

PirateCaribbeanShipSwashbucklingBlack FlagJolly Roger
Book:Captain Skull: From the Memoirs of Sir Charles of Riley
Create image

“There were many of the upper and noble classes who had also found this alluring lifestyle completely irresistible; so many, many folks – from all over the world – had made their way over to the Caribbean for one reason or other, to readily embrace this attractiveness which it had produced for them!”

PirateCaribbeanSwashbucklingBlack FlagJolly Roger
Book:Captain Skull: From the Memoirs of Sir Charles of Riley
Create image

“As a Caribbean-born, I understand the self as a multi-geometric entropic process always connected with the communal self. I do not seek history as a way to find points of origin, but to articulate historical locations in a traveling interconnected knowledge system that provides solutions for my subjective migrant experience. In a deeper process, the encounter with these places of intersection, the crossroads, could become turning points to return, to depart, to convey, and to arrive to the present. African Aesthetics still nurtures contemporary artistic practices in the Caribbean, as well as in the African Americana Diaspora and the US Latino Diaspora. Writing the Decolonial Mariposa Ancestral Memory CARIBBEAN INTRANSIT ART JOURNAL Vol. 1, Issue 4, Spring 2013.”

SpiritualityPerformanceCaribbeanDecolonialityLgtbqi
Author:Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet
Create image

“After crossing most of the North American continent our destination was Goldfield Nevada, a place in the middle of nowhere that I had been to some years before. This ghost town held a special place in my heart and I still feel nostalgic remembering how I got there from LA when I was in my teens. Now as we rolled into town I had the same feeling and thought that my son’s would capture the same aura that I felt years before. Entering the “Santa Fe Club,” an authentic old saloon, we were greeted as if we were neighbors that had just stopped in for a drink. It was as if I had never left but of course that wasn’t true. The bartender asked if we were there for some chicken? I had no idea what he was talking about until he explained that a chicken truck had run off the road and rolled over just outside of town. It took some doing but some of the men in town caught, killed, cleaned and plucked a wack of them and brought them to the saloon for frying. I assumed that he meant that he had fried the chickens and best of was that he offered them free to anyone who came through the doors. I still don’t know if they tasted so good because we were hungry or that they were free. The story of the chicken truck was told for years afterward but he also told me that he remembered me from before, when I was the kid looking for the publisher of the five-page newspaper. “Well, he’s gone and is now in the cemetery but we’re not, so have some more chicken” were his lasting words of wisdom!”

HistoryAdultCaribbeanMaineSea StoriesMma Captain Hank BrackerSeawaterFappa
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, Seawater series
Create image