The Lost Treasure of El Diablo

“It’s just not there, I tell you!” Carl was getting tired of protesting the same issue. “Listen, we’ve been looking at this
globe for 20 minutes now. There is NO port of El Diablo in the Caribbean Sea!”

“Well, maybe there WAS one at one time. That’s why Professor Jenkins, the head of the Geography Department, is coming. In fact, he should be here any second.” Steve said, getting pretty defensive himself.

Before Carl could reply, a tall, slender man walked in the room, seemingly in a hurry. “Sorry I’m late, Steve. What was so
important that you couldn’t wait until my office hours tomorrow?”

Steve started, “You see, we were down at the beach just outside Tampa when we saw a bottle with a note in it, wedged in between some reef rocks. It’s kind of hard to make out what it says, but it DOES mention treasure buried on one of the Caribbean Islands, at the port of El Diablo. However, we can’t seem to find any such port on the map. Have you heard of it?”

“El Diablo?” Jenkins responded. “Well, I can’t say I have, but I have a bigger question to ask you two. You found an actual bottle, uh…with a note in it…and you think that it leads to treasure? Don’t you think that you two are a bit too old for that kind of stuff?”

“Show him the bottom half of the note, all the groups of islands, ports, and cities, Steve.” Carl interrupted.

Steve showed Professor Jenkins the bottom half of the a crumpled and worn piece of paper. This is what was written:

Martinique and Grenada

Anguilla, San Juan, Barbados, Grenada and Aruba

Port-Au-Prince, Puerto Rico, Caicos Islands and Aruba

Anguilla, Caicos Islands, Haiti, Fort-de-France, Port-Au-Prince, Aruba and Trinidad

Aruba, Santo Domingo, Port-of-Spain and Antigua

Aruba, Santo Domingo, Port-Au-Prince and Puerto Rico

Havana and Honduras

Port-of-Spain, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Antigua

Aruba, Port-Au-Prince, Caicos Islands, Santo Domingo, Port-Au-Prince, Santo Domingo and Port-of-Spain

The Bahamas, Jamaica and Haiti

Puerto Rico, Netherlands Antilles and Trinidad

At first, Jenkins merely snickered as he read the locations. Then his smile turned a bit more serious as he began moving his finger in the air as if he were figuring out a math problem or conducting a miniature orchestra. When he stopped moving his finger about, he smiled even bigger and handed the paper back to Steve. “Well, whether or not there was any treasure at an El Diablo is debatable. However, one thing is for sure…someone’s got a sense of humor! Good day boys. I’ll see you in class tomorrow, Steve.” And with that, Jenkins gathered his things and left the room, still smiling.

Carl and Steve looked at the paper, then at each other.

Why did Professor Jenkins say that someone had a sense of humor?

See the answer far below…)

ANSWER: Consider each clump of islands as a letter of the English alphabet. Now use a map of the Caribbean islands, following your finger from island to island to draw a letter within each clump. It will spell out a message.