American writer David Latt visits Havana and Cuba's capital impresses him with its public art displays.

NEGRIL, JAMAICA — He looked 10 days older than dirt. Bamboo thin, he barely cast a shadow in the waning Caribbean sun as it slowly descended below the horizon, thrusting fingerlike ribbons of light into the low-lying patchwork clouds.

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Pay no attention to the media stereotypes of disaster and the ridiculous utterings of a certain world leader. Known as the Pearl of the Caribbean, Haiti and its vibrant capital, Port-au-Prince, bursts with art and activity.

PLAYA LARGA, CUBA – Birds are giving the morning rave notices. Crows, kestrels, spoonbills, herons, woodpeckers, cuckoos and the Cuban national bird, the tocororo. Birds hang-gliding, flapping, hopping, hovering, fidgeting, chirping, cheeping.

GRACE BAY, TURKS AND CAICOS — As the plane breaks through the clouds, I’m treated to a spectacular view — a necklace of 40 low-lying islands sit below surrounded by turquoise water so clear that I can make out the web of coral reefs lying just below the surface. Let my holiday begin!

ELEUTHERA, BAHAMAS — The sweet scent of basil permeates the balmy late afternoon trade winds on Clyde Bethel’s organic farm on Eleuthera. The sky is a shocking cerulean blue, a not unusual phenomenon on this Bahamian outer island, though one that continually delights.

CAMBRIDGE CAY, BAHAMAS — From the deck of our friend’s 49-foot Beneteau sailboat, we admire some of the pristine private islands that dot the azure waters of The Exumas, that glorious necklace of 365 islands, or cays as they are known here, in the Bahamas that sailors like to explore.

CIENFUEGOS, CUBA — It was 56 years ago that American-backed insurgents landed on the beaches of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs. That invasion was a failure, but, thanks to the recent warming of relations between Cuba and the U.S., there’s a new American invasion taking place. How this one will turn out is anyone’s guess.

PHILIPSBURG, ST. MAARTEN - To paraphrase Shakespeare, how many times have I visited St. Maarten? Let me count the days.

KINGSTON - Soft strains of reggae guitar floated over the small, gravel-strewn courtyard in Jamaica’s capital. If I had been anywhere else on the island, I would have smiled and kept walking, but I was in Trench Town, in the same “government yard” that Bob Marley referenced in his song, “No Woman, No Cry,” so I immediately headed over to the musician.