To have not realised that Cuba is in the Caribbean?

[MeMyShelfandIkea]

Watching Blind Date tonight and one of the couples is on their date in Cuba. I commented to DH did he ever fancy visiting somewhere like that? He said what, the Caribbean? I said no, South America. DH then informs me that Cuba is a Caribbean island and despite showing me on the map I still can't get my head around it!

Tell me I'm not the only one whose geographical knowledge is hopeless

Close -ish . I’ve heard far worse : people confusing Switzerland, Sweden and Swaziland. Algeria and Alabania too

I don’t think that’s a huge mistake really. Cuba is part of Latin America, but South America makes up a huge chunk of Latin America so maybe not surprising to conflate the two.

I guess I would find it surprising if you hadn’t realised it was an island. But otherwise, at least you didn’t think it was in Asia!

I only realised recently, whilst helping DD revise the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. I thought it was part of South America too.

I’ve heard people not knowing what country is in front of them on a U.K. beach, not knowing what ocean is between here and USA, not knowing estimates of country populations and capitals, thinking there’s a sea between us and Eastern Europe.

I thought it was in South America also, until I saw your thread!

Is estimates of country populations a normal thing to know???

Also, being an island there surely is a sea between us and Eastern Europe??

I thought until recently that Costa Rica was an island and in the Caribbean area (it's in Central America between Nicaragua and Panama), so shall we swap?

I used to think Outer Hebrides was Caribbean, Skegness was Scotland and Billariccay was Ireland, just because of how they sounded

There IS a sea between us and Eastern Europe!!!

I thought Dunkirk was in Scotland

There's a sea between us and everyone or should it be

It's probably because you associate it with Latin America, I would imagine most people do the same.
As a side note it's a fantastic place OP, you should go.

Yes, I thought Cuba was in Central America until embarrassingly recently.

Wait..... Dunkirk's not in Scotland?

My mother's friend went to Cuba on holiday and few years ago. My mother asked me "Is Cuba still part of Russia or is it a country of its own now?"

Dunkirk just sounds Scottish. It SHOULD be in Scotland. If you separate the name it means 'brown church'. That's not very French to me.

thinking there’s a sea between us and Eastern Europe.

Please put me out of my state by explaining how there isn't a sea between us and every other region of the world. You're not in Britain, I'm guessing.

Apart from the North Sea, there is another sea between us and parts of Eastern Europe (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
It's the Baltic Sea.

@HildaZelda that’s probably down the the whole Cold War era

Should I admit that I didn't realise that the Caribbean is Latin American either

Mind you watching the rest of the Blind Date, the other date was in South Africa and one of the couple thought South Africa was part of Europe. I feel slightly better now!

Couldn't you throw a shrimp off the Florida Keys and hit Cuba? (Thanks to watching A Few Good Men!).

I remember the day i realised Haiti and Dominican Republic were two halves of the same island luckily i was alone, but i'm sure my forehead slap could have been heard in space

I had several people ask me about the Channel Tunnel: can you see the fishes?

@overnightangel, possibly, but she was under the impression that geographically Havana was just a few miles down the road from Moscow.

Well technically not all counties in the Caribbean are in Latin America, at least if you define Latin America as countries that speak the Latin-based languages of Spanish and Portuguese.

Skegness was Scotland

But it sounds like Inverness (throwing you a lifeline)