Jamaica

Jamaica, known as the “Little Jewel in the Caribbean" has a population of 2.8 million people and is the third largest island in the Caribbean. The island is 4,411 square miles, slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut in the U.S. The official language is English, but their national language is Jamaican Patois. The name Jamaica comes from a word of the Arawak Indians, "Xaymaca", meaning land of wood and water. Today, the sugar industry is the highest employer in Jamaica - in the eighteenth century the island was the world's largest sugar producer.

Jamaica is famous for many things including Bob Marley and reggae music, their bobsled team, very fast runners, Blue Mountain coffee, Rastafarians and Jamaican jerk spice. Here are a few more fun facts about Jamaica:

-Jamaica was the first country in the Western world to construct a railway, even before the United States! This was only 18 years after Britain!

-Jamaica was the first Caribbean Country to gain independence.

-Jamaica was the first commercial producer of bananas in the Western Hemisphere.

-Apart from the United States, Jamaica has won the most world and Olympic medals.