So it seemed only natural that I head to the world’s oldest distillery for a tasting. Mount Gay, founded in 1703. I’ve recently come from the Scottish Highlands where I sampled some of their famous scotch whiskys. Now being anything but a whisky connoisseur, I couldn’t tell any difference among the several “drams.” After multiple tries, I slinked out of the distillery. But I like rum. I drink rum. I know rum?

The distillery tour started with a welcome rum punch. Doesn’t count for anything in my book. We had to go through a two-hour introduction to the whole history of rum and the very intricate process of making it to finally earn the right to actually taste some.

Some of it, thanks to our energetic guide, Romal — the sound of whose very name reflects his occupation — was actually interesting. From its first inception, recipes were never written down, put passed from blender to apprentice. Each blender takes what exists and builds upon it so that the results are more than just another version of the same rum — but also a whole new experience. Most of the information is proprietary to Mount Gay and, as we were told, the process emphasizes quality over quantity, meaning nothing is rushed. Their motto: It’s ready when it’s ready! I figured somewhere there’s a little old grandmother in charge.

But finally, we got to the tasting. Romal instructed us how to hold the glass, to twist it to reveal “legs,” to smell it. One rum, ages 3 to 7 years, was “robust and bold.” The second, older, was “more complex with a more definitive ‘mouth feel.'” That was the tasting. Not much to go on. At least my quasi-sophisticated familiarity with rum (after all, I had been in Barbados for almost two weeks) told me the second rum was smoother than the first. Did I taste the hints of salted caramel, cinnamon and fruitcake? Not a chance! More slinking…

However, after even a moderate imbibing of the smooth golden liquid, sustenance is required. And in keeping with Barbadian tradition, a food tour exploring typical Bajan specialties is called for. First stop was — well not food. Before, and during, our ingesting of island edibles (in this day and age, is it necessary to emphasize that, in this context, that refers to actual food?), 400 years of Bridgetown history must also be digested. The conquest by the British, the thriving slave trade along the Careenage, the UNESCO World Heritage site House of Parliament, the oldest Synagogue in the Americas and, of course, Roebeck Street where Mr. Rumball first transformed the world’s devotion to rum. But let’s get to the important stuff: Black Cake.

Paulette, our guide, led us on an enthusiastic journey, warning us that upon completion, they may have to roll us back to the bus. With an emphasis on spices, seasonings and sugar, we stopped first at “Crumbz,” because, according to Paulette, after eating Bajan food, that’s all that’s left. After a minced beef roll, coconut bread and the Caribbean’s famous rum Christmas specialty, Black Cake, about which a NY Times bestselling book has recently been written. I could have gone home sufficiently satiated.

Next onto a “hole in the wall” restaurant, the kind locals frequent, for chicken, macaroni pie, and casava. It was a full meal masquerading as a mid-day snack. Observed Paulette: “We need to have such a heavy diet to weather all the rum that’s drunk.”

At the thought of fish cakes yet to come, my stomach started to rebel. Until I tasted them. Okay, so apparently, I wasn’t done.

At the food market (go figure!), we sampled locally grown fruits and juices before moving on to another mini-meal of fish, peas and rice and more root vegetables. As delicious as everything was, I wasn’t disappointed to hear that we only had one stop left. For the first time since I had arrived in Barbados, I wasn’t thinking about where I wanted to go for dinner!

But tourists cannot live by food and drink alone. A little island culture is also required, offered by many tours. But do not even think about taking THIS tour after eating and drinking. That would be the Island Safari tour, part sightseeing, part adrenaline rush. As we got into the open-air van, our driver/guide Wayne casually mentioned we should be prepared for a bumpy ride, mud and water. Truer words were never spoken.

Yes, lots of history, horticulture (the only thing Wayne loves more than mud are trees), culture, tradition, legends punctuated by panoramic views of the island. Then he casually mentioned that we might go off-road a bit.

A mile of hair-raising, terrifying, mud-driven insanity just for the sake of adventure. Then on to more sight-seeing. But by the time my various organs returned to their normal locations in my body, we were off again. Wayne delighted in leaving the rough, pot-holed, winding supposedly paved roads to take rough, pot-holed winding muddy dirt paths that cut through sugar cane fields. His usual patter rescinded as did any attempt of mine to take notes. Hard to do when you’re holding on for dear life. Incredibly harrowing — but oh so much fun. Not for the faint of heart or body, however.

My favorite stop among many was an array of colorful carved animals sculpted into a mountainside along the road. A life-size giraffe, elephant, baboon, rhino, hippo, zebra — certainly legitimized the safari part of the tour name.

There are signs everywhere admonishing you not to sit or park under coconut trees. Now that’s something you pay attention to. But if you still crave the milky white liquid, there are numerous roadside stands — often tended to by men with machetes — offering juice without any threat to bodily injury (despite the machetes….).

Did I mention Wayne’s jovial discourse? A sample of Wayne humor: Royal Palm trees which reach higher in the sky than their less mighty cousins but lack their coconut bounty are a symbol of wealth. “Just like a politician,” remarked Wayne, “they stand high above you and do nothing.” Bada boom.

So much to see and do, and with a 2-1 ratio of Barbadan dollar to that of the U.S. — and very reasonable prices throughout the island — you can actually afford to do almost all. And yes, there are also beaches — lots of beautiful sand beaches. If you’re into that sort of thing….

For more information, visit mountgayrum.com, islandsafari.bb and lickrishfoodtours.com.

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Sunset is an airy, compact oasis in the middle of a jungle, wood-filled and woodsy, the abundant foliage making the transition from outside to inside seamless, with towering masses of greenery at every turn of the head. So different from the many large, bustling, antiseptic resorts often lining Caribbean beaches. Here, you’re a part of Jamaica, mon!

The beach a short walk away, free of the seaweed currently plaguing so many Caribbean shores.  Spotting a red flag usually indicates a warning sign of some kind. Here, placed in front of your chaise lounge, it simply means please bring me another Pina Colada…

Chase and Bonnie Pilcher from Blacksburg, VA were “super impressed with everything. The rooms are beautiful, everyone so friendly…” Their voices drifted off as their colorful Bob Marley drinks were served chaise-side. I didn’t blame them.

Tranquil was a word I heard a lot. Maybe because the all-inclusive resort is adults only – except for Betty’s kids of course, and they’re not likely to be running down the halls… And as appealing as reggae music is in the Caribbean, it is often ear-splitting along the beaches and the bars. Here, it is mellow – though, admittedly, for some, that might seem an oxymoron.

But it is just that mellowness that so appeals to Liz Smelts from Ontario, Canada. On her fourth visit, she loves the peace and relaxation, the environment and the food, the friendliness of the staff. “It feels like home,” she gushed.

The resort comes by its name honestly. All the rooms resemble palm-fringed treehouses. The hammock on our tree-topped balcony was just a bonus. One morning I was awakened by an unaccustomed sound only to find, Betty, husband Royal Brown and kids bleating greetings below our balcony.

Sunset is all about service. Everyone sports a badge saying, “I am your personal concierge,” which I initially mistook for … well… the actual concierge. And indeed there did seem to be a more genuine camaraderie between staff and guests than I’ve seen at other resorts, possibly because so many are repeat customers.

Taking the pampering of guests to an extreme, there is a crossing guard to usher you across the street to the beach. Admittedly I felt like I was in grade school again and petulantly assured the poor guard that I had been crossing the street by myself for decades without mishap.

Like every all-inclusive, there are a number of restaurant options, but how often do you go to a restaurant with no idea of what you’re having for dinner? Welcome to the Chef’s Showcase, where every night is a surprise. After an introduction, a request for food allergies, and assurances to those who pronounced themselves gluten-free to sit back and relax, the chef prepared a five-course meal in a candle-lit setting that sparkles with class and romanticism. But be prepared – it’s a while between courses. This is island-time, the precision timepiece upon which Jamaica runs. Overheard at a bar one afternoon, a local remarked that he’d be ready in 3 minutes. He then added: “That’s 6 minutes in Jamaican.”

Just sitting at the bar is an island experience in itself. Locals instinctively move to the music as if they were on a dance floor. And not just any dance floor but one in the middle of a dance contest. And perhaps not without some embellishment. Everywhere on the island there is that unmistakable whiff of the ubiquitous substance for which the island is so famous. It was nice to hear that possession of small amounts is now even legal.

There are three things for which Jamaica is famous: Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, the aforementioned ganja and Rick’s Cafe in Negril, where everyone at one time or another has to go to see the sunset. So go we did, despite the noise, the crowds, the commercialism and a sunset like many others (okay, so it was a pretty nice sunset…) for which the masses erupt in applause. What a marketing idea! Which is what I applauded as I happily headed for the exit. Check the Rick’s Cafe box – been there, done that.

A much more authentic experience happened on our Rasta Tour at Zimbali Retreat in Negril. Although Zimbali is a fascinating destination in its own right, based on organic farming and the Rastafarian philosophy, we were there to meet Fire. And to do that, we had to first climb a mountain. Lassie, a dog of course, acted as tour guide and led the way. The fact that Oneil Samuels also accompanied us was a plus as he, admittedly, was a tad more communicative about the plants we passed, the fields of food and the springs from which everyone gets their water.

To say we climbed to the top of a mountain is no exaggeration; to say it was worth it is also not an exaggeration, not only for the views and the excellent all natural meal prepared by Fire but mainly for his story. He’s been living away from civilization for 33 years in a lean-to that doesn’t even qualify as a hut. Long ago, he felt a need to get away from his mainstream life and learn how to survive – literally – in the 21st century. He grows what he needs to live, espouses a simple, less-stressful life living off Mother Earth, and adopts the Rasta approach of kindness, simplicity, eschewing financial gains and the concept of “Let food be your medicine; medicine be your food.”

When he started grating coconut on a grater, it sounded a lot like a Reggae beat – which somehow seemed fitting. Life as a Rasta, says Fire, became much easier after Bob Marley. The plantain, soy meat, carrots and callaloo flavored in coconut milk was perhaps not your usual luncheon fare but it was tasty. Fire lost me just a bit when he answered his smartphone. He acknowledged, with a smile: “There goes my reputation.” But technology is ubiquitous even on top of a mountain.

A more typical outing was the trip to YS Falls and the Black River, one of the hotel tour options. YS Falls offers a multitude of ways to swing over, jump into, swim under and play in a wide variety of waterfalls. And if none of that appeals, the falls alone provide sufficient photo ops. The boat ride along the Black River is billed as a “river safari” – using the term very loosely. I suspect just having crocodiles in the river justifies the safari designation. Otherwise, it’s nice boat ride with all the de rigueur bird sighting that accompany all such ventures.

As we left the resort kicking and screaming, our voices were overshadowed by the gentle bleating of the entire Royal Brown family who all gathered below our balcony to say good-bye. A fitting exit, mon! For more information, visit the Sunset at the Palms Jamaica website.

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BELIZE CITY, Belize- It was just three words, the Great Blue Hole, that stuck in my head. A giant marine sinkhole in the center of Lighthouse Reef, 40 miles off the coast of Belize, the 407-foot-deep hole was such a mystery that ocean scientist Jacques Cousteau led an exploratory expedition to the site in 1971, and filmed the adventure. Which I’d forgotten. Until last summer, that is, when my wife Val and I decided to celebrate the lull in the Corona-virus lockdown with a brief vacation, one we agreed had to be outdoors, on a mountain trail, or alternatively, in the water.

Since the Colorado mountains where we live don’t offer much in the way of dive sites, the answer was a week in the Caribbean on a live-aboard dive boat. Our first live-aboard experience, it meant a 24-7 vacation with people we’d never met. But on the plus side, it promised non-stop diving, more than we would have done otherwise. It was snowing in Denver when we started to plan, but Weaver Dive & Travel Center, the Boulder travel agent we contacted, weren’t surprised to see us. These trips book up early in the year,said consultant Audrey Tobin, an experienced diver herself. After mulling over a half-dozen options, we settled on a week in Belize on the 110-foot Belize Aggressor III, one of Aggressor Adventures Company’s two Belize City-based dive boats.

Then, while studying the map, I spotted it, the Great Blue Hole, right where we would be. Competitive fishing and sunny beaches are the reason most tourists visit Belize, on the Central American coast. But it’s the 700-mile-long Reef that draws divers like a magnet. Little known elsewhere and second in length only to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Mesoamerican Reef is a diver’s dream, a vibrant coral forest alive with dozens of varied marine species. You’ll be seeing the Blue Hole, too, along with some of the Reef’s most popular dive sites,said Tobin, explaining that local residents call them atolls. These were Turneffe Atoll and Lighthouse Reef, both declared a Marine Reserve in 2012, and the site of the Great Blue Hole.Depending on the wind,she added. You’re likely to see the best places, Black Beauty, Silver Caves and Chain Wall, and Half Moon Caye, Tarpon Caye and Long Caye Ridge.

To our surprise, getting to Belize and going through customs was a breeze. The morning flight to Belize arrived on time, and thanks to our vaccination cards and Belize’s organized immigration officers – English is the national language – we went through customs without a hitch. Arriving at the dock and boarding the Aggressor III, we found our cabin, one of eight, located topside with windows, ideal for Val who sometimes feels claustrophobic. Traveling light and anticipating warm weather, we unpacked in less than ten minutes, leaving time to explore the dive deck. Organized down to the last square foot, it was divided into 18 separate stations, one per diver, with air and nitrox outlets and space for gearing up, hanging up wet gear and storing it afterwards. Locating our assigned spots, we felt ready for anything.

Before casting off, Captain Jerome introduced himself, his Dive Master Monique and the crew, and we followed suit, introducing ourselves one by one. Most surprising were our fellow divers’ range of ages and experience, from 30-something friends with fewer than 50 dives to a senior couple who counted more than 3500 dives between them. And it wasn’t long before the crew won our confidence. Gearing up for the first dive and waiting to get in the water, Val, a novice with just 19 dives to her name, suddenly clutched her mask as if she couldn’t breathe. In an instant, the dive master was there with a friendly word, helping her up and into the water. Popping up, she grinned at me through her mask. From there on it was smooth sailing.

As for the Aggressor III’s daily dive schedule – and that of many similar boats, I soon learned – it followed a pattern. Each day had two morning dives at one site, and two afternoon and a night dive at a second site, for a total of 26 possible dives over the week, all in the 30 to 80-foot sport-diving range. At each dive the boat anchored to a buoy, then we stepped off into the water one-by-one, looked around to locate the wall, turned right or left, and eventually, after finning along to the turn-around point (for air consumption or time), ascended to the top of the reef. Our second dive was similar, going the opposite way. Some divers kept up the pace, but there was no pressure to dive every time. The weather was so nice that a couple of us skipped a dive for a sunny afternoon on deck.

On Wednesday we dove in Great Blue Hole, our deepest dive , ranging from 125 to 135 feet deep. Descending in the gloom was spooky at first but you soon saw what intrigued Cousteau: Emerging through the light, numberless stalactites hung off the sides geologic features normally found in above-ground caverns. According to geologists, when sea levels rose eons ago, water gradually filled the cavern, eventually collapsing the limestone ceiling and creating the hole. To compensate for the extra-deep dive, we spent Wednesday afternoon on land, exploring the Moon Cave National Monument, a famous bird sanctuary.

The night dives were a fish of a different color. Nocturnal marine animals we hadn’t seen during daylight now swam in front of our torches, from lobsters, crabs and squid to a variety of other reef dwellers. As dusk fell, schools of Tarpons, big silver fish, gathered around the anchor line waiting for the boat’s underwater lights to blink on. In no time the rays attracted schools of smaller fish, the tarpon’s favorite meal. As the dive ended, clusters of Tarpons whizzed past, still on the hunt. Did we see sharks? Not at night. But yes, on almost every other dive, and not just one shark, but two or three. Love them or fear them, if you dive you’re going to see them said one of the crew. They’re more afraid of you than you are of them. Some were faint shapes in the distance; a few cruised close to the boat, but ignored us. One of them, which the crew called Patches, named for the two white markings on his head, was a frequent visitor.

Thursday’s schedule duplicated Monday and Tuesday, but the dive part of the trip ended Friday morning when the no-diving 24 hours before-a-flight rule kicked in. Still living on board, we spent the afternoon touring a Mayan Temple or taking a so-called cave tubing ride. Dinner was on our own, but we slept on board. Saturday morning, we packed to leave, and after many friendly email exchanges, headed to the airport for the flight home.

Like some of our fellow divers, Val and I took our own masks, fins, snorkels and my dive computer. The rest rented high-quality gear, mostly new Aqualung equipment from Aggressor. The only negative for us were the couple of nights that the bar, located next door, stayed open past midnight. My creature-sighting list included more hits than misses, with checks next to turtles, moray eels, eagle rays, stingrays, tarpons, groupers, entire schools of blennies, various angelfish, lobsters and little squid. Once in a while we spotted a small patch of dead coral, but most of the hard and soft corals were deeply colored, and healthy looking. Our fellow divers were companionable and the crew, from Captain Jerome on, were dedicated to showing us what they say is the world’s best diving. Unsung but appreciated were Chef Vanessa and J.R., whose superb meals, cooked in a tiny kitchen, earned high praise from everyone. If you want a closer look at the Great Blue Hole, visit Jacques Cousteau. Or spend a week in Belize, on a dive boat.  

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Such is one of the many highlights at the Dolphin Academy, one of several up-front-and-personal animal encounters available at the Sea Aquarium on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

Now I don’t usually like watching animals perform tricks that are alien to their DNA for the amusement of tourists, but at the Dolphin Academy, the residents are treated with such loving care, I swam alongside them with minimal guilt. According to trainer Yvette, the dolphins are the first priority. “They are on a very light work schedule and every day, it varies. Like humans, they react better when their life is not all that predictable. And if for any reason they don’t want to perform – perhaps they’re preoccupied with a personal family situation (I didn’t pursue that) – the program is called off.”

As if on cue, a participant related a past experience in which dolphins used to give rides to people holding on to their fins. Nope, not any more – although it doesn’t harm the dolphin (although some disagree), they got a lot of criticism in the past and clearly the dolphins didn’t like, it so it was stopped years ago. I nodded; point well taken… score one for the dolphins.

Prior to the snorkel, Yvette instructed us on how to proceed: be patient; let them come to you; stroke them along their flanks. She taught us how to encourage the dolphin to come alongside and then free dive in unison. Romeo and I shared a number of shallow dives together and in parting he gave me a kiss. Okay, so he did it because he got a fish but still I thought he was actually smiling at me at the time.

Dafne Greeven, a dive instructor from The Hague, Netherlands, said she had seen dolphin in the ocean, but had never interacted with them. “Most animal encounters are much more commercial,” she observed. “Snorkeling with them was a very special, personal experience. It was wonderful to see how well they treat the dolphins here and encourage us to be relaxed so that the dolphins will be.”

And it was only the start of my very personal connection with sea life in Curacao. My next encounter took me even further underwater.  I’ve been snorkeling before – but never in the past did the fish swarm to me rather than my having to swim out to them. But then again I don’t usually carry a supply of squiggly little sardines with me when I go, while at the same time making meaningful eye contact. Well, meaningful to me anyway.

But at the Dolphin Academy experience, getting up close and personal with a variety of denizens of the deep is the whole purpose. So there I was co-mingling with tarpon, common snook, French grunts, permit fish, horse-eyed jack and so many sting rays that I felt covered most of the time by a soft lightweight blanket caressing my body – only this blanket wanted to be fed fish which it ate with its underbelly.

I wasn’t really surprised to find the huge loggerhead turtles and sharks behind a Plexiglas shield and fed through small holes in the glass. Still, the shark didn’t look any less menacing for being behind protective covering. I carefully followed the instructions on when to feed them directly and when to take better care of my fingers. There’s not always a second chance to do that with a shark…

Ah so many fish, so little time – I fed as many as I could in the 35-minute feeding frenzy and came away with a new respect for the difference between just snorkeling – and actually swimming with the fishes…

Back on land, my next animal rendezvous was of a more playful nature. I got to meet and greet Snapper, the sea lion. I learned the difference between sea lions and seals and watched Snapper do a seal imitation as he flopped along on his belly. Sea lions are much more genteel when they move – they walk on all fours. Using flippers, of course, but still…

Snapper had a bit to say during our tete-a-tete  but his vocalization unfortunately resembled  a very loud, deep belch that tended to continue long after it was socially acceptable to do so. But still he was very cute – and, like Romeo, very affectionate. Yup, I got another kiss. Between the two, I got more action that weekend than I remember occurring at the height of my dating career.

And, of course, although all these activities are outside, all COVID protocols are being followed: mask wearing is required (the dolphins are exempt; not sure about Snapper….) and social distancing is maintained.

For more information visit Dolphin Academy.

Get more information about Curaçao Sea Aquarium.

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Those are just a few of the things you won’t find on the Caribbean island of Nevis. And all the more reason to go there. And now you can again. Nevis having happily escaped the scourge of Covid during its peak, re-opened to the international public the end of October – and has since worked hard to maintain all recommended protocols.

So yes, it’s a better description of St. Kitts, Nevis’ much more commercialized sister island, a 45-minute ferry boat ride away. And although Nevis may be synonymous with tranquility, that does not mean it’s boring. Far from it.

Case in point, we started our visit with a Pub Crawl from Nisbet Plantation, an inn founded on a former sugar mill plantation. But these are not the usual beach bars most tourists frequent. Instead they’re the local rum shops, small shacks along the road that seldom have a sign on them and rarely attract any drive-by traffic. My husband and I regularly seek them out when in the Caribbean because we relish the sense of island flavor and the excuse to talk to laid-back locals, but we’ve never seen them part of an organized activity.

Being with a large crowd detracts from that intimacy a bit but it nonetheless is a wonderful opportunity to feel comfortable going off the beaten path. Each of the five bars has its own ambience – or in most cases, lack of one –  which only adds to its appeal. As one imbiber exulted: “This is great because we’re visiting places we would never go to on our own.” Not sure how the local residents felt about the influx of tourists but everyone was welcoming and eager to engage in conversation.

The Pub Crawl was a perfect segue to the Funky Monkey Tour, a three-hour ATV tour with Waz who kept us all enthralled throughout the wild ride. First stop – Lover’s Beach, where Waz said, “They don’t promote nude bathing but…” The fact that there were no people on it at all precluded any prurient interest on my part. Lack of people was to become a theme.

Next stop, more historical, less lascivious.  The Thomas Cottle Church, built in 1822 and operated as the first integrated church on the island. Plantation owner Cottle believed that he and his slaves should worship together, not a common practice in those times. Okay, the inspirational part of the tour.

We traveled over a lot of roads that no self-respecting normal car would ever consider driving over. When I asked the name of the road, Waz responded, “The ‘I’m Lost’ Road.”  At one point, after an exceptionally rocky part, he forewarned us that the next stretch was going to get really bumpy. We were like, “HUH?” I’m not just talking back roads here but trails glutted with rocks and roots and gulleys so as to be seemingly untraversible – or so I thought until they weren’t. But the views at the end of the stomach-churning drive were worth it.  And the monkeys scurrying in the bushes provided additional distraction when needed.

Hard to categorize the total appeal of Funky Monkey. Part nature tour, part exciting adventure, part history lesson – all intermingled in rapid succession. Oh and did I mention the rum punch out of the cooler in back?

Onto another stop at Nisbet where remnants of the 18th Century plantation windmill greet you upon arrival. Waz related the custom that if you get married on the property – and there are very few more beautiful settings – they plant a coconut tree with your names on it. And, of course, you’re welcome to come back anytime to watch it grow. How’s that for a marketing ploy?

We visited a local wild herd of sheep, which not surprisingly were missing the usual wool covering. Little warm in the islands for that. Which makes them almost indistinguishable from goats except, we learned, goats have tails that go up; sheep down. In my hometown of Washington, DC, there’s a restaurant called Tail-Up Goat. Now I understand it.

When I queried Waz as to how far our lodging was, he replied, “Nowhere on Nevis is far.” And upon actually seeing another car on the road in front of him, he lamented, “Traffic? In Nevis?”

And indeed, rush hour is more likely to be a herd of goats or a family of donkeys than another car. Making up for the lack of cars are an abundance of donkeys, monkeys, goats, sheep and chickens. Another reminder of Nevis’s laid-back charm.

Waz took us to a hidden area of woods that he claimed was his private sanctuary; no trails, no paths, no clearing. And once again, no people. Since we had seen not a soul on any beach or other destination, I was beginning to wonder where the 11000 Nevisians were. This is not an island where you feel over-run by tourists! Or people, for that matter. Rum, on the other hand, was still flowing freely. Also monkeys. There are 30,000 of THEM.

Exciting adventure #3 on this island that allegedly has nothing on it? A nature hike with Baba who provided lots of information about the flora and fauna as we walked. Unfortunately, I hate flora and fauna. I was in it for the exercise so my eyes glazed over pretty quickly. We walked about two feet and smelled four plants. There are plants to cure every ailment: hangover, mosquito bites, toothaches, constipation. I was beginning to feel a little ill myself…

But looking up from the medicinal plants are bushes and trees and leaves of white, orange, yellow and red flowers among towering trees all vying for attention with the medicine cabinet below, We were walking through the Golden Rock Estate, a sugar mill plantation from 1801-1815, the remnants of which are integrated into the buildings and grounds. An old in-ground windmill, we were told, is the highlight of the honeymoon suite – having the earth move takes on a whole new meaning…

So much greenery as to encapsulate every variation of the color in the largest box of Crayola crayons – and every shape and size of multiple leaves extracted from the world’s largest protractor. It’s like being in your own personal botanical garden. The entire setting is the very definition of romantic!

As we climbed higher and higher, however, I found myself longing for more medicinal plant information – urinary tract infection anyone?

So yes, most people coming to Nevis envision living by the following five rules: 1. Pack several books.  2. Take a deep breath, exhale, relax.  3. Order a rum drink.  4. Try to forget what’s happening in the rest of the world.  5.  Repeat.  But be open to my own Rule #6. Be prepared to have a hell of a lot of fun!

For more information, visit the Nevis Island website, Nisbet Plantation Pub Crawl and Funky Monkey Tours and Rentals.

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As the brutal heat of summer assaults our lives as if we were a roast in an oven, FAVORITE BEACH DESTINATIONS has been selected for our new T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s poll. Research revealed that the origin of the word “beach” is somewhat ambiguous, ranging from the Old Norse bakki (bank, as of a stream) to the Old English baece (stream) to “beach,” a mutation of “bleach” (as stones are bleached by the sun and water). In the period of King Henry VIII, the English used the word specifically for a pebble beach because ‘strand’ sounded more like a sandy beach. The modern-day definition is simple: an expanse of sand or pebbles along the shore of an ocean, sea, large river, lake, etc. I did further research and found that tourists’ second favorite activity while on vacation is going to the beach. Yes, shopping is number one. Indeed, tourism is the main source of income for smaller nations, particularly those in the Caribbean, renowned for their charm and enchanting beaches. As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, tourism has been brutally impacted, and we wait for better days to come. But, until then, let’s take a journey and experience our FAVORITE BEACH DESTINATIONS from the past. — EB

A favorite beach is very much in the taste of the beholder. For some members it meant basking in the sun, water sports or a simple dip in the water, while other preferences included colder, windswept beaches like Washington State’s NW Pacific coast.

Favorite Beach Destinations and its Players

Richard Carroll — T-Boy writer:

• Seven Mile Beach, Grand Cayman — Seven Mile Beach on the west shore of the island just north of George Town is a glorious strand of soft coral sand though not quite reaching seven miles (5.5 miles), is a setting offering a marvelous opportunity to walk the entire length of the beach greeting visitors from throughout the world. At dusk, as the sun drops below the horizon, the beach changes from a seaside stroll to a warm sensuous waltz as the sparkle of each new light is reflected in the glassy Caribbean. Ranked among the world’s best beaches and a starting point for more than 150 classified dive and snorkeling sites, a Grand Cayman highlight.
• Honeymoon Beach, Turtle Island, Fiji — A small secluded beach seemingly tucked away in it’s own world of towering coco palms with a gentle surf, accompanied by the songs of unseen birds and the rush of a gentle offshore breeze, is a sensuous beach with passion to share.
• The Beaches of Los Cabos — The coastline at the tip of Baja, Land’s End, stretching from San Jose del Cabo to Cabo San Lucas and miles further, has a collection of beaches unlike anywhere in the world with unusually diverse personalities thanks to the mighty Pacific and the Sea of Cortez. On the Pacific side many are unswimmable due to unpredictable strong waves, undertows and rip tides. My favorites, dating to my first media trip in 1978, is Divorce Beach, Playa del Divorcio in Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side. Located behind Lover’s Beach which faces the Sea of Cortez, accessed by boat, greatly secluded, and also unswimmable, Divorcio is a beach to enhance the strength of nature and the beauty of Baja. A long-lasting Cabo favorite, Palmilla Beach is overseen by the One&Only Palmilla Resort in San Jose del Cabo on the Sea of Cortez. Palmilla is swimmable, a Baja beauty and a popular beach for fashion shoots.
• Ka’anapali Beach, Maui — Ka’anapali in West Maui catches the eye with a wide swath of deep sand 1.5 miles long, bordered by a walkway that is often filled with joggers and strollers. The all-encompassing beach with views of both cloud-draped Molokai, and Lanai which appears like a large whale up for air, are soothed by the Maui trade winds that flow east to west on the Ka’anapali side of the island. The channel is tagged “Whale Soup” when December 15th to mid-April visitors can lounge on the beach and enjoy the acrobatic humpbacks breaching and slapping the water as they mate and birth. Ka’anapali is ideal for families, swimmers and water play. The north end of the beach at Black Rock you can spend the day snorkeling.

Stephen Brewer — T-Boy writer:

• Red Beach Matala, Crete — If you want a beach that dishes up some mythology and history along with sand and sun, the Greek island of Crete is a good place to be.  In the south coast settlement of Matala, about 12,000 years ago early fishermen and farmers dug caves out of cliffs that rise on one side of the beach to shelter from the sun and elements. A little later the beach gained renown as the place where the Zeus had his way with the princess Europa. Minoans made the caves into warehouses, and Roman legions under Brutus camped out in them. So much for ancient history. Jump forward to the 1960s, when Matala became a troglodyte mecca on the hippie circuit and Joni Mitchell sang, The night is a starry dome, And they’re playin’ that scratchy rock and roll, Beneath the Matala moon. These days Matala is a laidback resort with some simple hotels and waterside restaurants, and the beautiful beach is a little too crowded with beach umbrellas and day trippers. For a scenic getaway, follow the well-marked path over the headland to so-called Red Beach, a paradisaical slip of sand where goat bells mix with the sound of surf.
• Capri, Italy — The island of Capri has been associated with hedonism ever since the Emperor Tiberius tossed lovers of whom he’d tired off the sea cliffs in front of his palace. These days, seeing all the chain-bedecked Lotharios and glamorous Milanese models strutting around might evoke the words of onetime visitor D.H. Lawrence, who called this beautiful isle in the Gulf of Naples “a gossipy, villa-stricken, two-humped chunk of limestone.” Even we glamor-challenged visitors can partake of one of the great pleasures of an Italian summer and join celebrities, minor royalty, software billionaires, and just plain folks at La Fontelina, a beach club at the foot of the famous Faraglioni rocks. The best approach is the path from Capri Town through pine-scented forests to sky-high Punta Tragara, and from there down hundreds of stone steps cut out of the cliffs to the seaside. The routine is to swim from one of the platforms perched above the remarkably blue water, then to take a seat beneath bamboo awnings for a simple meal of insalata Caprese (invented here on the island) and grilled fish, washed down with the house sangria, followed by a nap on a lounger in the shade. As the sun sets and this memorable beach experience draws to a close, a motor launch will whisk you back to civilization and reality — well, as real as life ever seems to be on Capri.

Richard Frisbie — T-Boy writer:

I’m not a beach person, really — I’m a swimmer. Beaches are for walking across to get into the water. That being said, I’ve seen some fabulous beaches on my way to an invigorating swim.

In no particular order:

• Aguas Blancas Beach in Ibiza, Spain — With a laidback hippy vibe and gentle waves lapping the golden sand, it is a sweet little place to watch the sunrise as you recover from the disco nights (or so I’m told).
• Knip Beach in Curacao, where the cliffs break and a soft white sand beach spills into clear, cerulean waters. Pure swimming, cliff-diving, and beer-drinking hedonism.
• Buzios Beach, Rio de Janeiro (the state not the city) — Copacabana and Ipanema are nice enough, but an hour or so outside the city is a small fishing village with a cosmopolitan European vibe and the sweetest crescent beach. I could move there. (Brigitte Bardot did.)
• Gulf Breeze, Florida — The beaches of Gulf Breeze, especially the white talcum powder sand one where you have to shuffle into the water to avoid stepping on the rays. But they are all beautiful!
• Los Cabos — And finally — for beaches meant for walking, not swimming, go to Los Cabos. The beaches are beautiful stretches of endless sand with, for the most part, dangerous undertows and rough surf. Pretty to look at, but dangerous!

Allan Smith — Artist & T-Boy writer:

• St. Pete Beach, Florida — White sand, relaxing sound of surf crashing on the beach, incredible sunsets, pelicans, sandpipers, beach bars with cocktails and popcorn shrimp.

Tom Weber — T-Boy Writer:

• La Città Bianca, Ostuni, Puglia, Italy — For the 26^th consecutive year, the 20km length of Italy’s Adriatic coastline just below Ostuni, La Città Bianca (The White City), in southeastern Puglia — my adopted hometown — has been awarded the prestigious Blue Flag designation by the Federation for Environmental Education (FEE). From Torre Canne in the north to Torre Guaceto in the south, this unspoilt stretch is dotted with a series of long beaches, small inlets, rocks, dunes and Mediterranean vegetation. Only a 20-min. drive from my house to the coast, I can’t really favor one spot of sand or rocky crag over another. They are all so breathtakingly beautiful in their own unique way, regardless of the season. If your travels ever take you to La Città Bianca, make it a point to venture down to the coast and admire the Adriatic Sea. Why, you might even see me waving a blue flag.

Deb Roskamp — T-Boy photographer & writer:

Try as I might, it is not possible for me to come up with a ranking of my favorite beaches. I am someone who loves the beach and don’t recall one yet that hasn’t given me pleasure. Therefore, my list is not a ranking, but rather, a list of beaches experienced, in chronological order, that inspire vivid memories of the occasions that added meaning to my life.

• Unknown name, northern coast of Haiti — On a rare excursion from volunteer ‘duties’ one college summer, we scrambled down a tall scruffy hill to reach the sand and the waters which teemed with life I hadn’t realized existed. My first snorkeling and swimming in the raw experiences. I can still feel the freedom of the warm waters enveloping me and see the vivid colors of the creatures around me…
• Naples Beach, Florida — On an early winter trip to Naples with a UW college friend, we jogged and swam along the beach with the pier in view every morning. Coming from Washington state, I couldn’t believe the luxury of heat in December. I don’t know now if they remain, but the sands then were filled with varied shells so bountiful, one could have scooped them up and filled a bucket, easily.
•  La Push, Washington State — The opposite of tropical, this beach has such rugged beauty, with its sands ‘littered’ with trees & driftwood, to a backdrop of sea stacks, crashing waves, blisteringly cold winds, and (of course) rain.  I stayed with a friend from my first job as an RN at University Hospital, Seattle in a little cabin.  We warmed ourselves with an indoor fire and potato soup (which I still have the recipe for).
• Na Pali Coast, Kauai — Back to tropical. With another nursing friend — this one from my first job in LA, at the County Hospital. After deciding to hike the long Kalalau trail there, we got a late start and ended up literally running the last miles to try to beat the sun, which we could see rapidly falling towards the ocean in front of us. We arrived in the dark and awoke to a garden of Eden. It felt like the 60’s (I won’t describe why!), and we slept in the open on the sand, ‘showered’ in the waterfall. If we’d had food, we could have stayed forever. We didn’t, but the stains on our clothes from the soil on the hike were permanent reminders of that experience.
• Golfo dei Poeti, Lerici, Italy — There are many beaches in Italy that could have made my list, but this one is special for a number of reasons.  The history — dating back to Etruscan times.  The Shelleys, Byron, DH Lawrence.  The architecture — two castles on either end of the bay, the ‘usual’ churches, villas, shops in between. The fishing boats. The promenade.  The food. The Saturday flea market. The ferry to the Cinque Terre and Portovenere. My visit there was with my best friend from UCLA graduate school days and was too short.  I long to return and explore more.

James Boitano — T-Boy writer:

• Pacific Coast Beaches, Olympic National Park, Washington State — Incredibly beautiful and rugged coast line, sea stacks, tidal pools and giant logs of driftwood on the beach.
• Magens Bay, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands — Turquoise waters at a perfect temperature in a sheltered bay makes any tropical dream come true.
• Black Sand Beach, Vik, Iceland — Volcanic sand as black as night in front of basaltic columns meet the dramatic waves of the open ocean.

Annie Brouwer — T-Boy writer:

• Tortuga Bay, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos
• 1,000 Steps Beach, Laguna Beach, California 
• Lincoln City, Oregon
• Ruby Beach, Washington State

Ed Boitano — T-Boy editor:

• Monterosso, Cinque Terre, Italy — The Cinque Terre is a string of steep, hillside towns on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline, each with its own majestic setting of colorful houses and vineyards clinging to the terraces.  The Sentiero Azzurro cliffside hiking trail links the five towns and offers sweeping, almost unimaginable vistas of the sea – and you must try to experience each of the towns!  Monterosso, the first and largest of the five towns, is the only one with an expansive sandy beach, and is the best place to choose as your home base, with a recommended stay of a minimum of five days. After a day’s hike a refreshing swim is in order, followed by a Sciacchetrà, a liquored white wine from the vineyards’ slopes, a plate of fried anchovies (acciuga) caught that very day, and a bowl of Pesto alla Genovese at one of the many trattorias on Monterosso’s pulsating promenade.
• Concón, Chile — Like a Hitchcock film, an armada of unknown species of birds blanketed the sky as violent waves crashed along the rocks.  My Italian-Chilean uncle Rinaldo said it was his favorite beach in Chile, where he and his wife would often visit from their nearby home in Viña del Mar. He had gone to great lengths to make my Seattle family’s time in Chile a monumental occasion; adding later that we were the only relatives who had ever visited him.
• Svalbard Archipelago, Norway, Arctic Ocean — With towering glaciers bearing down on me, I waded out into the icy waters and took a headfirst plunge. As I came up for air, I rallied my senses trying to comprehend what I had just done. My instincts told me that I should hurry back to the shore, but noticed many eyes upon me, so I faked a stoic composure and gallantly waded back to the applause of the Hurtigruten Expedition Vessel’s  passengers. And for this, I was awarded Hurtigruten’s Arctic Swimming Certificate. Was it worth it? Well, with or without the esteemed certificate, it’s something I shall never forget.
• Brownes Beach, Barbados — The coast of the island nation of Barbados ranges from beaches with powdery sand and protected Caribbean waters to the powerful swells on the eastern Atlantic coast, good for surfing, but dangerous for swimming. Brownes Beach is conveniently set near the capitol city of Bridgetown, and serves as the perfect venue for a serious dose of Bajan flavor with nearby tropical bars and grills, local music and dancing, crowds of people swimming and snorkeling; and yet you can still find your own place in the sun. And all this from a former English colony; today a fascinating cultural fusion of the descendants of plantation owners and slaves, who serve elegant high tea and play cricket.
• English Bay Beach, Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC — A mandatory pilgrimage for me is to stroll down Robson Street in downtown Vancouver to Stanley Park, my favorite urban park in the world. In the days of my honeymoon, we knew it as Robsonstrasse, due to the number of its German and European delis and bakeries. Today, I continue further west towards the bay, and soon I am at Stanley Park’s English Beach. With the exception of a kayak trek, I’ve never once set foot into its waters; for the cool of the evening is my desired time to visit. Locals after work congregate on the beach or at nearby bars and grilles. Bicyclists and rollerbladers traverse the lanes along the shore, and I simply take a place on a piece of driftwood and bask in the beauty of what is Vancouver today.

T.E. Mattox — T-Boy music critic:

• Cannes, France — The beaches on the Mediterranean are pristine. Off season is spacious and restaurants and bars ring the sand. Beware-lots of naked people eating and drinking around you! It’s Europe!
• Moonstone Beach, Cambria, California — This central California stretch of sand is located between the tourist crowds of San Luis Obispo to the south and Carmel and Monterrey to the north. Perfect small town vibe, ideal for turning off your electronics and unplugging.
• Venice Beach, L.A., California — The Strand is iconic. Skaters, chainsaw jugglers, musicians, and bodybuilders for miles. So much activity that the beach becomes the perfect option to stroll and explore.
• Dog Beach in Del Mar, California — It’s got miles of sand and dogs, Happy Dogs… everywhere!
• Gulf of Fonseca, Tiger Island — This body of water is surrounded by Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua and the beaches are inviting. Albeit, I was there in the military and used this area for R&R. But I remember vividly how relaxing and safe I felt.

Rourke — Musician & composer:

When traveling I usually prefer walking in cities versus beaches, but here are my favs based on my limited experience:

• Kapalua Bay, Maui — Years ago, I was fortunate enough to be assigned Hawaii as a sales territory, which meant I would get sent there for a week at a time. So, what could be better; renting a car and driving to all the beaches and getting paid for it. My boss decided to come on the first trip, a total workaholic whose idea of fun is reading How to Win Friends & Influence People. While driving along the Maui coast to appointments, he suddenly had me pull over so we could watch the sunset. I had never seen a sunset in Hawaii and I had never seen my boss stop working. Years later I married my wife in front of that same sunset.
• Playa Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica — The rainforest meets the ocean.
• Mui Ne, Vietnam — White pristine sands, not too far from Saigon.
• St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands  — Any beach, on any of these islands could easily be on this list.
• Black Sands at Waiʻanapanapa, Maui — Pictures are better than words.

Alex Brouwer — T-Boy writer:

• Muizenburg, Cape Town, South Africa
• Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, California
• Islas Mujeres, Cancun, Mexico
• Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California
• Huanchaco, Ica, Peru

Ringo Boitano — T-Boy writer:

• Magens Bay, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands — Perhaps it’s due to being my first Caribbean beach, Magens Bay will always reign as my favorite beach on the planet. Stretching for nearly three quarters of a mile, the waters are calm, pristine and warm, and the beach is tropical, serene and spacious. As I waded out into the water, I noticed there was not a soul around, except for a Yoga class barely seen in the distance. Suddenly, a man charged through the beach path and dove into the gentle waves. Over his shoulder he shouted, I just flew from England to swim in this very beach. It made complete sense to me. It was a paradise worth sharing.
• La Push, Washington State — La Push is a mere seven miles from Twilight’s film location in Forks, close to the Olympic National Park. It’s sweater weather in the summer, and heavy clothing during the other three seasons. While sitting on aged driftwood with stories to tell, watching unforgiving waves assault rock formations in the sea; La Push is a place for deep contemplation with one of the world’s most magnificent seascapes before me.

Greg Aragon — T-Boy writer:

About 72 percent of earth’s surface is covered with water, which means there are a lot of beaches out there and most of them are beautiful spectacles of nature. A few of my favorites include the island of Lanai in Hawaii, Carmel-by-the-Sea in California, and the Cook Islands.

• Lanai, Hawaii — This tropical paradise can be reached by plane or ferry from the neighboring island of Maui. If you take the 14-mile voyage by across the Auau Channel to tiny Manele Bay Harbor the views of the Hawaiian Islands are incredible. A highlight on Lanai is mysterious Shipwreck Beach, known for a sunken, WWII oil tanker just offshore. The beach is only accessible via four-wheel drive vehicle. On my last visit, a friend and I rented a Jeep and drove up a mountainous road lined with volcanic rock and red clay. In a few miles we came to a narrow turnout, where the road became a tunnel of trees, paved with deep sand and bumpy rock.
• For the next 1.6 miles we bounced along the northeast coast with intermittent views of the ocean and an outline of Maui. The road ended at Big Rock, where we parked and continued on foot to find the sunken vessel. We then climbed over black volcanic rock and sand, then waded through warm tropical water until we saw the rusting vessel, leaning in a reef about 100 yards off the shore. Built in the 1940s, the ship was once a ferrous-concrete oil tanker that the navy unsuccessfully tried to sink after WWII. Today, it provides a hauntingly beautiful backdrop to Lanai.
• On my visit to Lanai I stayed at Lanai Hotel that was originally built as a retreat in 1923 by pineapple pioneer James Dole.
• Carmel-by-the-Sea, Northern California — Another memorable beach location is the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. This tiny postcard village of shady, tree-lined streets, charming hotels and inns, unique shops and gourmet restaurants, also boasts Carmel Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches around. Located at the end of the town’s main drag, Carmel Beach welcomes visitors with giant Monterey Pine and cypress trees, and gorgeous, rolling sand dunes leading to the water. The beach is great for surfing, dog walking, relaxing strolls and viewing sea live such as sea otters, which love float and roll on the surf just offshore.
• One of the best times to visit Carmel Beach is at dusk, when people from all over the world come to sit on the sloping sand dunes and watch the sun fall into the Pacific Ocean. It is an unforgettable nightly experience, similar to a concert in the park. But the stars of this show are the sun and ocean. On my last visit to Carmel I stayed at Hotel Carmel, a cozy, boutique hotel a few blocks from the beach.
• Rarotonga, Cook Islands — These enchanting islands below the equator are lost in time. They are that remote island paradise pictured on old postcards and posters from the 1950’s, when the South Pacific was a faraway dream. Located in the Tropic of Capricorn, the 15-island archipelago is spread out like stepping stones across the water, about 2,000 miles from New Zealand. The capital and largest island is Rarotonga, where a tiny international airport with a single runway connects the Cooks to the outside world.
• Rarotonga is surrounded by a large emerald lagoon. It has one main road and a jagged rock mountain known as “the needle,” which jets 650 ft from the interior. The island has a 22-mile circumference and is essentially one big beach!  On my last visit, I stayed at Rarotonga Beach Bungalows, where I found Polynesian paradise on the sand, steps from a turquoise lagoon with coral gardens. The bungalows boast coconut thatched roofs, woven bamboo walls, exotic wood furniture, native paintings, large bedrooms, kitchens and dining areas, and big wooden porches overlooking the lagoon. The bungalow’s best feature is its proximity to the crystal-clear lagoon, close enough to see and hear the water splashing on the sand.
• Because Rarotonga is encircled by a lagoon it is great for snorkeling. The water is filtered clear turquoise so you can see a rainbow of thousands of fish and you don’t have to worry about sharks. The reef is such an imposing boundary that one morning I walked two hundred yards into the water and it never reached my shoulder. It’s like a gigantic fishbowl. A great way to see Rarotonga is by the Island Bus, which runs every 20 minutes and can circle the island in about one hour.

Harrison Liu — Atlas Ocean Voyages:

• Sunshine’s Beach Bar & Grill, St Kitts & Nevis — My favorite beach destination? Hands down, the idyllic Island of Nevis. Beautiful, uncrowded beaches; delicious, fresh seafood; and kind and welcoming Nevisians make this my Caribbean jewel. In fact, Alexander Hamilton was born on Nevis, but this island’s history goes further back to the earliest days of colonialism. And there is no place better place in the Western Hemisphere to see the most glorious sunsets at Sunshine’s Beach Bar, with his delicious, world-famous rum punch in hand. Located just a short walk from the Four Seasons Resort, the colorful Sunshine’s Beach Bar was not named just from its brilliant surroundings but also from its proprietor, Llewellyn “Sunshine” Caines. He acquired the name from his grandmother when he was born with a sunny smile lighting up his face. When work started on the Four Seasons, Sunshine catered to its hungry construction workers, and slowly expanded — by adding a few picnic tables and a thatched palm-leaf roof for better shade.  The luxury Four Seasons resort opened in 1991, and Sunshine’s small, humble shack on the beach became a popular hangout for well-heeled tourists, locals and world-renowned celebrities.

Fyllis Hockman — T-Boy writer:

I’m one of those bizarre people who actually love the brutal August heat! And I am very much a beach person (shopper not so much… meaning not at all) and one of my favorite activities in the world is diving into waves; any waves anywhere (Caveat: the water has to be warm enough to actually approach.) The problem is that I haven’t been able to find any in the places I’ve been the past few years.  So yes, I have on past occasions enjoyed them in Ocean City, MD and the Outer Banks, NC and very infrequently, on the Atlantic side of a Caribbean island but no luck recently. So I’m still lusting after them.

• Ocean City, Maryland
• Outer Banks, North Carolina
• Atlantic side of a Caribbean island

John Clayton — T-Boy writer:

• One Foot Island, Aitutaki, The Cook Islands — Have you ever had one of those dreams where you’ve fantasized about a gorgeous South Seas Pacific island beach that’s surrounded by pristine, crystal clear waters so beautiful it makes you wonder if such a beach might REALLY exist somewhere in the world? Well, dear friends and fellow adventurers’ let me assure you that YES, a beach like that DOES exist. With its breathtaking and idyllic landscape, powdery white sand, warm azure waters, and the gently swaying palm and coconut trees, the intriguingly named One Foot Island is my all-time BEST BEACH in the world. One of the 22 islands in the Aitutaki atoll of the Cook Islands, it is only 2,000 feet long and about 689 feet wide. One Foot Island was, in June, 2008 in Sydney, Australia, named, by the World Travel Awards Organization, the title of “Australasia’s Leading Beach.”

Brent Campbell — Musician and composer:

• Lake Chelan, WA at Campbell’s — I went there at least 25 times in my first thirty years).
• Hanalei on Kauai. — When the tide is right this is the best body surfing beach in HI.
• Cannon Beach, Oregon — Just spectacular natural beauty.
• Golden Gardens, Seattle — Until it was taken over by homeless and criminals, it is simply not safe to visit these days.
• San Blas, Mexico — I went there 40 plus years ago and it was an untouched gem. Probably not anymore.

Roger Fallihee — T-Boy writer:

• Secret Beach, Maui — We heard about this spot from friends. It’s called Secret Beach, also known as Pa’ako Beach. As you drive there you need to watch for a stone wall with a narrow passage. Park on the road just south of the more popular Big Beach, and continue walking south until you find a break in the wall – that’s the beach’s unofficial entrance.  Walk through the passageway and about 30 yards to the beach. When we were there it was just us and a family. There are no restrooms or food. About 1/4 mile before you arrive there’s a food truck.

David Erskine — T-Boy VP of advertising:

• Kailua Beach, East Oahu, Hawaii — Obama’s vacation home is there.
• Crane’s Beach, Plum Island, Ipswich, Massachusetts — Where I got engaged.
• Sharks Cove, North Shore Oahu, Hawaii
• Aghios Nikolaos, Crete
• Bellows Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
• Lifeguard Tower 28, Santa Monica Beach, California
• Laguna Beach, California
• Magnolia by the Sea, Magnolia, Massachusetts
• Good Harbor, Gloucester Massachusetts
• Stinson Beach, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California

Raoul Pascual — T-Boy writer:

• Dalipuga, Mindanao, the Philippines — The most beautiful beach I’ve ever experienced were the beaches in Dalipuga, on the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines. Our grandmother owned a whole stretch of sandy beach which was so clear and had coral reefs some 20 feet away from the shoreline. It was always nice and warm. I never saw so many exotic fishes in such pristine waters. But that was over 50 years ago. Now, civilization, industries and pollution have done their destructive deed. Construction companies actually harvested the sand and left the beach with nothing but barren corals. There are still several virginal beaches in the Philippines (a few you’ve seen in the reality TV show Survivor) but Dalipuga is no longer the paradise I remember.

• Nice, France — This was back in the 80s. I was traveling via Eurail and decided to visit a beach in France. Nice was a convenient stop. I walked towards the beach and I was shocked to see a few obese ladies with their tops off. Walking a little further the crowd started to get younger and I had my lunch on the cemented breakwater wall. Along comes this stunningly sunburned goddess who decided to take a shower right in front of me. I think she enjoyed me ogling at her because she really took a long shower. I may not have gone down to the sand and I may not have waded through the water but I will always remember my brief encounter with the topless beauty.
• Long Beach, Southern California — The beaches in Southern California are all too cold even in the summer. People go there more to sunbathe, to watch the sunbathers, to exercise and for the activities alongside of it.  Perhaps the one that I frequent the most is Long Beach. We don’t go for the water but we go to window shop.

• Laguna Beach: The Artist’s Beach, Southern California — I’ve been curious about Laguna Beach ever since I heard about the Pageant of the Masters — a 90-minute performance where live actors in costumes bring famous paintings to life on stage. My wife wanted to go to a beach where she could bring our dog for a stroll. We decided to finally go there. I did not expect to see so many art galleries. What was amazing was the variety of art.

• Robert Wyland, the conservationist painter of huge whale murals lives there on top of his gallery. I was unaware that he created furniture sculpture. I liked those better than his murals. There were other 1st class novelty shops like Art for the Soul that sells paintings, mixed media collages.  Elena Bulatova Fine Art  sells kitsch sculptures (similar to Jeff Koons) and nostalgic posters and crafts. The displays were excellent – they would fit well in a museum. No wonder the prices were in the tens of thousands for some of them. There was even a gallery where the artist was actually painting his masterpiece for the tourists. There was a gallery of huge nature photographs that blew me away with the composition not unlike Ansel Adams.

• By far my favorite gallery was Edward Bobinski’s Narrative Gallery who carried original art by the famous Dr. Seuss. He said this was just one of the many galleries that carried Dr. Seuss’ official artwork. He bragged it was a 40-plus million dollar business. The COVID scare did not slow down his sales. He just had more online business. Some of the limited edition serigraphs were priced as much as $50k. His cheapest piece was $300.  A little-known fact was Dr. Seuss also created sculptures and some of those are also in display. When asked why a pencil sketch costs more than some colored pieces, Edward said, “It is what that artwork means to the individual… if a child grew up reading the Cat in the Hat, that poster would mean more than this other more elaborate pieces.” He’s right.

• Despite the virus, there was a good enough crowd in some restaurants. You could tell which were the favorites by the crowd eating in the patio. There they were in their beach attire and alongside their family dogs.
• Laguna beach’s shoreline is a nice and cozy cul-de-sac compared to other beaches. I didn’t get to see the Pageant of the Masters because that was called off due to the pandemic. But what I saw more than impressed me.

The post T-Boy Society of Film & Music’s Favorite Beach Destinations appeared first on Traveling Archive.

First some background. The Parfumerie itself is a study in sensory overload; a cologne colony. There are over 300 individual oils to choose from. Of course, a little history is imparted before you’re let loose to create your own personal perfume. As an amateur “nose” — someone who uses oils to create new fragrances — you learn that heat, humidity and sunlight are the enemies of perfumes. There are natural essential oils and man-made fragrances. You must combine top notes, middle notes and base notes to fashion “an accord” that will constitute a pleasing perfume.

Becoming a chemist is no easy task. There are a whole series of intricate steps to follow in the search for perfection. First, you choose three bottles from a series of 12 pre-mixed oils sporting such descriptions as “warm, exotic, rich earthy base,” tropical, citrus blend,” or a “soft, floral base.” Then you select nine other oils — for three perfume creations — from a selection of a mere 300. I randomly — because really, how else can you do it? — chose Beach, Cashmere, Grass, April Rain, Vanilla Oak, Sunflower, Amber Musk, Aqua Spa and Rose. After a while, I didn’t know whether to eat the flavors, bathe in them or plant them in a garden…

And then using beakers and droppers — because yes, this IS a lab experiment — you yourself choose how to combine the different options of all the fragrances into three potential bottles of perfume. Once you determine which of the final prospects you like the best, you add a number of other chemical properties to solidify the perfume-making process so that your own personal perfume came be beautifully bottled and placed in a classy cloth carrying case. And of course, it all ends with a champagne toast because, remember, you’re still in France. Voila! You are a perfume-maker. And every time you use the perfume — which by the way, you have also named so that it is intrinsically yours — you will remember St. Martin.

But will you remember St. Maarten? Of course, thanks to the Amsterdam Cheese and Liquor Store, a very fine representative of all things Netherlands where the number of cheeses almost rivals the variety of fragrances.

Souvenirs from Dutch shoe key rings to windmill earrings; Dutch cookies and candies to soft clog slippers; tulip candle holders to Delph Christmas ornaments, and wooden shoes, large and small, in every iteration! And we haven’t even gotten to the cheese, yet. Fifty varieties of cheese, all imported from the Netherlands — as well as every kind of cheese-related item from slicers and skewers to cutting boards and serving dishes.

According to owner Etienne Rogers, the Dutch cheese market is huge and little known outside the Netherlands — and now St. Maarten, which boasts little of Dutch origin despite its heritage. Etienne is happy to offer not only tastings but pairings with its select liquors as well. He also offers knowledge — which cheeses with which rums with which crackers.

I am in Amsterdam, immersed in Dutch memorabilia. There is so much diversity but everything says Netherlands. And as startling as the vast varieties of perfumes at the Parfumerie , so it is with these cheeses. Forget about your cheddar and your Camembert — there’s coconut, pepper, pumpkin, truffle, jalapeño, cumin and asparagus — to name a few. Even the colors are surprising. Green, black, brown, orange for starters. Still Etienne defends the Gouda. He says that people come in and say they don’t like Gouda. His response: “You don’t like American Gouda; Dutch Gouda you will love.”

So there’s French culture and Dutch culture but the island itself is Caribbean and what better way to celebrate that than with rum (or rhum, as it is locally known).

And since I wasn’t yet sufficiently intimidated by an over-dose of oils or cheeses, it was on to the family-owned Topper’s Rhum Distillery where there are as many different flavors of rum as there had been fragrances and wooden shoes. And then there’s the rum cake! But before we got to that, there was a lot to learn about the craft itself. A small price to pay.

Topper’s has been winning medals in international rum tasting competitions for years — quite a testament to a liquor whose origins began in Melanie Daboul’s own kitchen. She went from serving family and friends to making over 100 flavors of rum in a few short years. And a tour of the factory takes you on a rum adventure spanning more than 20 different samples ranging from the recognizable to the exotic — all from natural ingredients. From your basic coconut and spiced to white chocolate raspberry and banana vanilla cinnamon. And oh yes, of course, there’s also your bacon maple syrup and buttered popcorn varieties.

You can drink as much or as little as you want — no judgment. Eventually I just stopped taking notes so just know that the 17 rums I tasted were really, really good. Okay, maybe a little judgment…  But admittedly, at this point, my eyes were glazing over on the history of rum-making.

And if you need some diversion in between tastes, there are always the t-shirts: “Girls Just Want to Have Rum,” “All for Rum, Rum for All.” “I’m on a rum diet — I’ve already lost 3 days.” This is a very hands-on operation from brewing to bottling. Nothing is automated. And did I mention the rum cake?

So two chemists: John at the Parfumerie, a cultural product of the French side of the island, and Melanie at the rum factory, a very Caribbean creation — both inventing hundreds of products from scratch. Plus the hundreds of products directly imported from the Netherlands. Cultural overload. But the island has even more to offer.

Its claim to be The Friendliest Island deserves a truth-in-advertising award. Literally three times when we stopped to ask directions (a common occurrence as road signs are basically non-existent), the guy got into the car and took us to our destination. And not once did we get robbed or even asked for a tip, a de rigueur practice in many other Caribbean islands.

Indeed the island abounds in distinctive cultures — and oh yes, there are also beautiful beaches! For more information, visit St. Martin and Vacation St. Maarten.

The post St. Martin/St. Maarten – A Captivating Concoction of Caribbean Cultures appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The voyage began with Wind Star Cruises, aboard the company’s sleek, 342-passenger Wind Surf. Featuring motorized sailing yachts that are about a third the size of today’s average cruise ships, Windstar offers a unique, intimate traveling experience. The cruise traveled to the islands of Iles des Saintes, Nevis, St. Barthelemy, St. Martin, St. John and St. Thomas.

Iles des Saintes, my favorite island in the French Antilles, was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493. This charming little hideaway is painted with colorful fishing boats bobbing offshore and tanned, french-speaking residents traversing narrow, semi-paved streets with scooters, bicyclers and bare feet. The island canvas is completed with the tiny shopping village of Bourg, sandwiched between white sandy beaches, with turquoise waters, and verdant green hills, speckled with red-roofed dwellings.

While in Iles des Saintes, I hiked to the ruins of Fort Napoleon, an 1867 garrison built by the island’s inhabitants to defend against attacking Carib and English armies. I then found Pont Piere Beach, where I went snorkeling in a secluded cove and relaxed on a deserted beach, while the Wind Surf danced on the horizon and wild goats and fisherman strolled past.

Back on board the Wind Surf I explored the 617-foot-long ship. With seven triangular sails spread across five masts, and more than half an acre of fabric flying 221 feet above the ship deck, the Wind Surf is a classic sailing vessel. Designed and built in Le Havre, France by the Chantiers de L’Atlantique shipyard, the boat joined the Windstar fleet in 1998. In 2011 – 2012, and most recently in 2019, she underwent major renovations.

The ship’s sails are computer-operated and can propel her if the wind is right. If it is man-made power the captain needs, then four diesel-electric engines are at the ready.

Because of her size, the Wind Surf, like all Windstar ships, can drop anchor in exotic ports too small for the big guys. And because these vessels carry a fraction of the passenger load, embarking and disembarking takes minutes instead of hours.

After exploring the Wind Surf, I relaxed on deck with a glass of wine and watched the sun fall into the Caribbean Sea. In the morning, the lush green mountains of Nevis engulfed my cabin windows. Rushing ashore, I found a beautiful cone-shaped island with colorful buildings, friendly locals, uniformed school children, and wondering goats and chickens. I gathered my water and sun screen and joined an expedition into the island’s stunning rainforest in search of vervet monkeys, wild donkeys and Zebra butterflies.

The trek took us through a thick canopy of vegetation that wound past wild coffee and cherries, mango trees and bamboo, and a host of exotic medicinal plants. In a while, we dipped beneath the branches of a towering breadfruit tree and emerged from the jungles of Nevis. Here I peered down the mountain to see the glistening profile of Wind Surf, anchored in a horseshoe bay.

From Nevis the Wind Surf sailed to St. Barthelemy, where we anchored off the tiny French island around noon. Because of the ship’s diminutive size we parked close enough to see a hilltop sprinkled with luxurious retreats. While here, I joined a van tour of the island.

Also known as St. Barts, St. Barthelemy is a Caribbean haven for the rich and famous — or those lucky enough to have been born there. The island is highlighted by narrow hillside streets, with secluded coves; sandy beaches; and luxurious resorts, hanging above emerald lagoons. There is also duty-free shopping; chic sidewalk cafes; mopeds and tiny cars; and a continuous air show, in which planes skim the main highway to land on a mountaintop airstrip the size of a football field.

Back aboard the Wind Surf, the chef prepared a Caribbean buffet in the lounge. Highlighted a whole roasted pig, fresh crab and shrimp, and numerous coconut and curry dishes, the exotic feast brought everyone out of their cabins. Dinner was followed by a variety show, staring the ship’s crew.

In the morning we sailed into St. Martin, the smallest landmass in the world shared by two countries. The Dutch own sixteen miles and the French own 21. On the French side, I saw salt ponds and the largest lagoon in the Caribbean. On the Dutch side, I found gambling and great bargains on duty free alcohol.

Our last island stop was St. John, where I hiked over a mountain and ended up at Honeymoon Beach, a beautifully secluded paradise. While cooling in the clear, bath-like water, I was invited aboard a nearby sailboat and given cold beer.

For more info on a Windstar Cruise to the Caribbean or other exotic destinations, visit Windstar Cruises.

The post Exploring the Islands of the Caribbean Aboard Windstar Cruises appeared first on Traveling Archive.

The historical layers that built Trinidad and Tobago have created one of the most splendid melting pots in the world, with a remarkable degree of affability between the diverse groups that built the nation. Understanding those historical layers is key to appreciating the country’s many grand offerings to visitors.

Like many other Caribbean islands, the original population was Arawak and Carib Indians, after the latter came to the islands and conquered the former. Columbus landed on Trinidad in 1498 during his third voyage, during which he again missed India but discovered South America, thinking it part of Asia. In keeping with their usual pattern, the Spanish wiped out most of the Indian population, and assimilated the survivors. Trinidad was a magnet for French, free blacks and other non-Spanish, but Spain ruled it until the British captured it in 1797.

Tobago was much more in play. French, Dutch and British forces perpetually contested possession. During colonial times, the island changed hands twenty-two times, setting the record for West Indies turnovers. In 1803, the British took final possession.

African slaves formed a majority of the population, but after slaves were emancipated in 1838, the melting pot became much more interesting. The Europeans needed to fill a labor shortage, so in 1845 they begin bringing in both Muslims and Hindus from India as indentured servants in order to work the large sugar and cocoa plantations.

Meanwhile, Chinese started finding their way to the islands. A couple hundred came in 1806, on the ship Fortitude, part of an experiment in setting up a settlement of farmers and laborers, in anticipation of the eventual ending of slavery. It was a disaster, and the couple dozen who remained started shops or did carpentry or gardeners. A second wave came in the mid-1800’s after slavery ended, mostly from Macao, Hong Kong and Canton, as indentured laborers. A third wave came after 1911 and the Chinese revolution of that year. The pace picked up between the 1920’s and 1940’s, most of them families and friends of immigrants who’d arrived earlier. Instead of working on estates, they adapted to roles as peddlers, traders, shopkeepers and merchants.

Additionally, many Chinese from elsewhere in the Caribbean came to Trinidad after they’d finished their indenture obligation on other islands. When China started opening up to the outside world in the late 1970’s, a fourth wave of migration began. In 1960, Sir Solomon Hochoy was knighted by the Queen of England and became the only nonwhite British governor of Trinidad and Tobago, becoming Governor-General when the country became independent in 1962.

People from these divergent backgrounds have blended their heritages, and often their families. Although the number of unmixed Chinese Trinidadians, or Sino-Trinidadians, probably peaked in 1960 at eight and a half thousand, many more islanders have some Chinese in their ancestry. Among the much larger Indian population, it isn’t unusual for Muslims to marry Hindus, with a marriage in each religion to please the families. The families then just double down on the religious holidays. The racial and religious tensions found in much of the world’s regions are hard to find here. It’s a very refreshing experience.

If you ask a cab driver his family’s ancestry, be prepared to hear a long story about a well-branched family tree, likely to include Europeans, Amerindians, Africans, Indians, Chinese and others such as Portuguese, many of whose ancestors were also indentured laborers, and Arabs. They all bring something to the cultural mix, not always in proportion to the size of the population. For example, Buddhists may only be a percent of the population, but the country was recently fascinated by introduction of the Shaolin Martial Arts of Ch’an Buddhism.

One of the pleasurable spill-overs of this melting pot is the cooking pot, and its been simmering for centuries. Consider the dish of curry chicken and roti, inherited from indentured laborers from India, along with curry versions of crab, shrimp, duck and potato. The roti is of various ingredients, including cowpeas. Sometimes its served on a skewer with eggplant relish and tomato chutney vinaigrette. A sample from Africa is callaloo, a spicy dish made from dasheen leaves, okra, crab, coconut milk and cilantro. Many dishes are stewed, barbecued or curried with coconut milk.

Spice is king. Hot peppers concoctions, including a hot sauce called “mother-in-law” that makes some people’s faces sweat just from thinking the name, often figure in. Mango chutney and curry mango are among the treats resulting form fusing the brad array of delicious fruit with spice.

Breakfasts include fried corned beef with onions and tomatoes. Fried figs with saltfish – cod in a packet – is common. Homemade coconut bread with black pudding – a blood sausage including onions, pork fat, oatmeal and spices – is a hit.

Bake and shark is popular at breakfast and at any time of day. The moment the shark shacks open up at Trinidad’s stunning Maracas Beach, long lines appear in anticipation. The local shark is deep-fried and and stuffed in pocket of deep-fried batter that is similar to the fry bread of American Indians in Arizona and New Mexico.

Maracas Beach, one of the beautiful beaches on the north side of Trinidad, is protected by a deep bay. The broad beach is dotted with tall palm trees and hardwoods, with soccer games making the sand fly about. The hour or so drive to the beach from the capital, Port of Spain, goes through mountains covered with rainforest and along cliffs overlooking the coast. One overlook area has roadside stands selling dried sour prunes, red mango and other preserved fruits with hot spice that locals can’t resist.

Rich soups and stews are known as “blue food.” The seafood offerings are superb, particularly curried crab and dumplings, and king fish. A small fresh water fish, the cascadura, is used in a rare specialty dish, with the legend that those who eat it will return to Trinidad to send their days.

The most popular drink is a rum punch made from sugar water, dark rum, lime juice and Angostura bitters.

If you really want to make your lips quiver with the local cuisine, my pick is Jemma’s Treehouse, in Speyside, Tobago.

The historical melting pot has also brought forth unique recipes for music. Among them is the steel drum.  It’s a brilliant innovation that began in the 1930’s as orchestras of dustbin lids, prying pans and oil drums.  The tops of 55 gallon drum tops are hammered into a pitched percussion instrument called a steelpan, with pitched notes based on the size of the ovals in the pan. One might have thirty soprano-range notes, another only three bass notes, necessitating a player to have six pans. There’s a large range of instruments between them, and pan orchestras might have a hundred or more players. High tech techniques are continually developed to better tune the pans, and some are designed at the outset to be musical instruments, including by one manufacturer in Switzerland. The music a good orchestra puts out is a marvel to hear.

The pan evolved from traditions of African drums and sticks used by slaves to communicate, which were suppressed on the islands. Percussion bamboo sticks were banned in 1883 after they were used as weapons in conflicts between groups who lost control during the Mardis Gras carnival celebrations inherited from the French. Drumming traditions were also strong in India. After the initial bans, bottles and spoons were used until the pans were created.

Another of Trinidad and Tobago’s musical gifts, Calypso, has its roots in attempts at communication between slaves. Strongly harmonic and rhythmic, the songs are often in the language of a French creole that was created to allow the melting pot to better communicate, as the slaves from different tribes and the other inhabitants originally came with very different languages. Songs are led by a griot, a poet and wandering musician who is both witty and very knowledgeable on local history and events. The griot style has been traced to West Africa and the old Mali Empire of seven hundred years ago. After slavery was abolished on the islands, carnival festivals began to develop in the 1830’s, with large tents for Calypso concerts and competitions.

Soca music is a more recent local creation, from 1963. It originally included instruments from India, though they were used less when the form later adopted elements of American soul and funk. Good times are at the core of the songs. Soca is also the venue for lively carnival competitions.

Other variations on these musical forms include Extempo, a type of freestyle calypso war for which the lyrics are improvised on the spot. Singers don’t just compete for the carnival title of Extempo Monarch. Some wander the streets with a guitar or walk onto a bus and make up songs on the spot about the people they see. Rapso is another musical style, with more political and spiritual themes, and Chutney, which grew from the Indian populations. These and other styles are woven into the carnival competitions but are prevalent throughout the year.

Rapso is well-suited to the carnival street party J’ouvert, which uses any materials that are handy to beat out rhythms. The celebration starts around three or four in the morning and lasts until a few hours after sunrise. The calypso and soca bands that lead their followers are now often on large sound trucks, with beverage trucks close by. Celebrants, known as Jab Jabs, throw colored powders and water, and smear paint, mud or oil on each other. The customs come from a disturbance long ago that became a riot, with people disguising themselves, and from a festival held by the Indian population, Holi. There are often fire breathers, using a high alcohol rum, who punctuate the darkness with blasts of flame.

Throughout J’ouvert and the daylight carnival parades, there is a great deal of “wining”. Celebrants, in mud or in risqué costumes, often complete strangers, suddenly do a comical bump and grind with each other to the music, or with onlookers who get too close, for a brief moment, and then move on. At times, a dozen people might line up for some periodic wining as they dance along. It’s a lively reminder of ancient carnival traditions in Europe that centered on fertility, and on the chance for slaves and the lower class to cut loose. After Christianity gained control of carnival, the wildness and chaos led up to the sober period of Lent that leads up to Easter. But carnival, with its satirical traditions, always retains its resistance to authority, and its embrace of sex.

While the focal point of carnival is in Trinidad’s capital, Port of Prince, it has smaller celebrations throughout the island, including one in a village up in the hills where “blue devils” dance through the street and demand tribute from onlookers. If a dollar isn’t given – keep the rest of your money well-hidden, the devils will grab what they can – the devils will smear them with blue paint, (it doesn’t wash out of clothes, this writer attests).

In the evening, as with the steel pan competition, Panorama, with its huge orchestras, and the Soca and Calypso competitions, which include singers, bands and dancers, there is also a “Mas” competition for King and Queen costumes that can only be believed if seen. It’s often accompanied by elaborate music, dancers and impressive stagecraft. One person, aided by no more than two or three small roller wheels, wears a huge costume weighing hundreds of pounds, and it is not unusual to see someone collapse after getting his or her costume across the stage. The technical expertise that goes into making these huge costumes wearable is part of the art form, and it’s impressive, though everyone prays there is no strong wind that might sail a contestant off the stage. Themes are often drawn from China, India, Africa and American Indians.

No less impressive are the costumes worn by children at their carnival. It’s also a pleasure to see how inclusive it is, with a good number of children with disabilities, mental or physical, putting on elaborate costumes and joining the parade with everyone else. A large number of kids are up on stilts, often very high stilts, in tribute to the Moko Jumbies. Legends had them walking across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa, to eventually walk the streets of Trinidad in freedom. They also acquired a ghost persona from the Indian population, and powers to protect people by driving off evil spirits. Adults also have Moko Jumbie bands, and the very tall, costumed figures are remarkable dancers.

While many of the costumes are known for their brevity, one of the most fun is a satirical costume tradition that pokes fun at the wives of the French plantation owners of long ago, who liked to dress up as aristocracy. The carnival version adds wildly exaggerated rumps and busts, and sports parasols. There are many other traditional costume characters, including Navy sailors, Fancy Indians from North America, dragons, Minstrels with faces painted white, and Bats with big wing spans.

While Tobago, better known for a huge jazz festival in April, also celebrates carnival, it’s much less grandiose. For many Trinidadians, it is a post-carnival retreat where people can calm down. They hop a plane or ferry to get to the country’s alter ego island. While Trinidad’s modern economy leaned heavily on oil and now is focused on being a major producer of natural gas, Tobago’s riches are mostly in its unspoiled natural environment.

Among its natural offerings is the Main Ridge Reserve, created to ensure that sugar planters wouldn’t fell all the trees for timber. There was a remarkable realization by a mid-18th century scientist, Stephen Hales, that taking down the trees would eventually end the moisture cycles that brought rain, turning islands like Tobago into a desert and ending all agriculture there. It was a tough sell in the British Parliament, where many members also owned plantations in Tobago. But after eleven years of effort, one member, Soame Jenyns, convinced his colleagues that Hales was correct. Protected by law in 1776 not to preserve royal hunting and pleasures, but to protect the watershed, this is the world’s oldest legally protected forest reserve of its kind.

The act creating the reserve is a marvel of environmental foresight that much of the world could still greatly benefit from emulating: “Did also in pursuance of your said Instructions remove to Your Majesty a tract of Wood Land lying in the interior and most hilly parts of this island for the purpose of attracting frequent Showers of Rain upon which the Fertility of Lands in these Climates doth entirely depend. William Young assented to by his Honour the Commander in Chief this Thirteenth day of April One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Six.”

The reserve now covers over two-thirds of the island. Most of the forest is very similar to the type of forest that dominates in the Amazon. Unlike Trinidad, there are no poisonous snakes in the forests of Tobago, making them a worry-free pleasure to hike. Waterfalls abound, including Argyle Waterfall, which has 54 meters of stepped cascades and cold, deep pools one can swim in. Along the walk to the falls from a visitors center, one can see caymans in a river, and some of the 469 species of birds on the two islands, including many humming birds.

Beyond the local birds, from August to October the islands are visited by many migratory species form North America. There are also interlopers from South America, such as the nation’s national bird, the Scarlet Ibis. It breeds in Venezuela, which is so close it can be seen from Trinidad, but spends most of its time feeding in mangrove swamps on the islands.

Many visitors to Tobago spend their time at the western tip, Crown Point, with its restaurants and bars, and the beautiful beaches of the peninsula Pigeon Point. But this writer found a great retreat at the far eastern tip. One can meander on the drive there, visiting sites like old colonialist forts and the ruins of sugar mills being reclaimed by jungle. Be very cautious on the winding roads, it’s easy to be absorbed by the views of many stunning bays, cliffs and beaches, when you really need to have your eyes on the road. Better to stop at safe places to take in the sites, or to take a cab.

The North End of Tobago is the island’s most mountainous, and the beautiful bays on the Caribbean side are great for swimming, with extensive protective reefs for snorkeling. One might recognize locations like Pirates Bay that were used in the 1952 film, “Swiss Family Robinson”. You might have to hike a ways from small villages on the Caribbean side, but it’s not unusual to find coves and beaches that you can have entirely to yourself.

Just off the southeast side of the far end of Tobago is a small island, Little Tobago, across from Starwood Bay and the resort, the Blue Water Inn. There is good snorkeling and diving, with the world’s largest known brain coral and many leatherback turtles, but the Atlantic currents are powerful and one needs a good guide and experienced boatman who can keep you from harm’s way. The area attracts many sport fishermen.

Little Tobago is a bird sanctuary with boobies, terns and the red-billed tropic bird, and offers some challenging hiking up steep slopes covered in parts by cactus and dry forest, but with much denser forest toward the top, and huge ferns. Whether or not you make it all the way to Little Tobago, Tobago is well worth exploring if you seek an experience that truly gets you away from crowds for the chance to experience environments that have mostly disappeared from the Caribbean.

Trinidad and Tobago offer a tale of two islands. Between them the diversity of people and offerings is one of the most satisfying in the Caribbean.

The Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain is an excellent carnival headquarters that also organizes carnival involvement. It’s also frequented by business travelers and diplomats.

Blue Water Inn on Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago Tourism

There are various do’s and don’t and etiquettes, do some research on line. Avoid taking a nice camera to the paint-splattered J’ouvert, if you want images take a waterproof camera, and make sure your clothes are expendable.

Crime in Port of Spain is not unheard of, be aware and don’t press your luck. Ask folks who know the territory.

Carnival in 2019 comes later than usual, March 4 & 5, but check schedules for various music and mask competitions that might precede.

My best to Superblue. And to Caesar’s Army, you know who you are.

The post Trinidad & Tobago Carnival Marches to Many Tunes, Takes Prisoners and Packs a Rum Punch! appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Courtesy Christian Tolentino

The future of airport travel is happening now with more than 250,000 British Airways passengers using biometric tech on international flights from the US.

You’ve probably guessed that in the future, airports will have biometric technology to speed up those long queues. Well, you don’t have to wait too long (hopefully) as it has already begun. In the last 18 months, passengers have experienced a glimpse of the journey of the future by using their face as their identity to board flights from the US.

Biometric facial recognition technology has transformed the airport experience for customers travelling from Orlando, Los Angeles and New York, JFK by streamlining the boarding process — cutting the amount of time in half to board an aircraft.

Customers no longer need to present their passport or boarding pass at the departure gate. Instead, travelers simply look into a camera prior to boarding, wait for their biometric data to be verified and then walk onto the aircraft.

The commitment to this technology is part of the airline’s GBP 6.5 billion investment for customers. British Airways was the first UK airline to use biometric technology to board flights from the US, working in close partnership with the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to implement the technology, which has enabled the airline to hugely speed up its boarding process.

At Orlando, British Airways is boarding almost 240 customers in 10 minutes — becoming the first carrier to set up permanent facial recognition gates at the airport.

Biometric Boarding at Heathrow Airport

British Airways was also the first UK airline to use the technology on domestic (UK) flights. More than three million customers have boarded an aircraft this way — with all domestic departures from the airline’s home hub at Heathrow Terminal 5 now boarded biometrically.

For international flights, self-service boarding gates have now been installed at the terminal, allowing customers to scan their own boarding cards to gain access to their flight. It’s the first step towards biometric boarding on international flights from the UK.

“The airport of the future”

Raoul Cooper, British Airways’ senior digital design manager, said: “We are continuing to pioneer the use of technology and automation to enhance the airport experience and ensure that our customers’ flights depart on time.

“The airport of the future will be built upon biometric technology, from check-in and baggage drops to security checks and boarding. These days, automation is a part of everyday life, as is biometric technology via our mobile phones.

“We’re working with our technology partners and the US government to explore how we can use this technology in new and innovative ways to give our customers the stress-free, easy airport experience they tell us they want while ensuring security is always our top priority.”

7 Things You Should Never Do on a Plane

Courtesy Caroline Costello

Your plane ticket is your pass to far-flung destinations — on several conditions. Check your airline’s contract of carriage; there, buried in pages of text, you’ll find a list of violations that’ll get you banned from boarding or even kicked off a plane. Contracts of carriage vary slightly by airline, but most contracts have some kind of language prohibiting passengers from doing anything that endangers the safety or comfort of fellow flyers. This is all subject to interpretation by airline employees, which is why we often see so many wild stories of passengers getting the boot. So what, specifically, shouldn’t you do? The following seven behaviors should be avoided at all costs.

1. Refuse to Buckle Your Seat Belt

If for any reason a passenger can’t or isn’t willing to buckle his seat belt, flight crew will probably show him the door. It happened to a three-year-old boy who wouldn’t buckle up on an Alaska Airlines flight. It also happens when passengers are too large to fasten their seat belts. Travelers are required by federal law to wear a seat belt on some phases of all flights. And until recently, passengers of size could bring a seat belt extender onboard to help with fit. But in August, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared that flyers must be able to buckle up using the aircraft’s original seat belt or with an extender offered by the airline, if available.

2. Bring a Crying Kid

Passengers who get loud, become aggressive, and spoil the comfort of fellow flyers could get kicked off a plane — even if they’re still in diapers. The crew of a JetBlue flight to Turks and Caicos forced the family of a tantrum-throwing toddler to debark the plane in March 2012. According to SmarterTravel editor Caroline Morse, “The parents tried to hold the screaming toddler down in her seat with the seat belt on, but the pilot and flight attendant made the decision to kick the family off the flight and leave without them. Undoubtedly, the people trapped near that toddler on the plane were grateful, but the Daily Mail reports that the family ended up paying more than $2,000 for a new flight and hotel room for the night.”

3. Wear Something Inappropriate

Airlines generally leave it up to flight attendants to judge whether or not a passenger’s attire is inappropriate for wear in the air. As a result, instances of flyers getting the boot due to unsuitable attire are relatively common. In the past, we’ve reported on flight crews banning passengers for wearing low-cut tops, rocking baggy pants, and sporting offensive T-shirts. For more in-flight style tips, read 9 Things You Should Never Wear on a Plane.

4. Get in a Fight

When a man smacked a fellow passenger in the head on a United Airlines flight to Ghana in 2011, the pilot, like a parent driving a car with feuding kids in the backseat, turned that plane around. But unlike your average parent, the pilot had the wherewithal to call up a few fighter jets as backup. The Air Force was summoned and two jets trailed the plane as it circled for half an hour, burning off fuel. The aggressive flyer, naturally, was removed from his flight once the plane touched down.

Here’s the most unbelievable part of this story: The whole brawl started when one passenger reclined his seat into the space of the guy behind him. Some travelers might even argue he deserved the smack.

5. Ignore the Request to Turn Off Electronic Devices

You’ve undoubtedly heard the notorious tale: Alec Baldwin was kicked off a flight for neglecting to pause his game of Words with Friends when the flight crew requested that passengers power down their devices. It’s important to note, however, that you likely won’t be removed from your flight if you simply forget that your device is turned on and your phone rings on the tarmac. It’s not that easy to get booted. But Baldwin seemed determined. He reportedly became aggressive and ignored repeated requests before the captain decided to leave the 30 Rock star behind.

6. Neglect Your Hygiene

You don’t have to wear a naughty T-shirt to offend fellow passengers. Simply skip the soap. A few years ago, a flyer did just that, and ended up on the wrong side of the boarding gate. According to ABC News, when passengers on an Air Canada Jazz flight to Montreal complained about a foul-smelling flyer, the malodorous man had to forfeit his flight before departure. A person on the flight told ABC News, “People were just mumbling and staring at him. The guy next to me said, ‘It’s brutal.’”

7. Drink Too Much

Visibly intoxicated passengers aren’t welcome on flights; most airline contracts of carriage contain clauses that specifically state this.

Some people apparently missed the memo, like country singer John Rich (of Big & Rich), who was removed from a Southwest flight for being too drunk to fly, and an intoxicated Bahraini prince, who lost his seat on British Airways. (It’s safe to say that these airlines offer no special treatment for the rich and famous.)

Even if you appear drunk but are really sober, your ticket could be in jeopardy. In July, we reported on a sober woman who was removed from a Southwest flight because a gate agent thought she was intoxicated. After being booted, the women obtained a toxicology test from a hospital, and her blood alcohol level was less than 0.003. Nevertheless, she wasn’t permitted to board that initial flight.

Loro Parque’s World Population Clock

The Loro Parque Foundation warns that the enormous pressure of the growing population is driving animals out of their habitats. For example, it’s estimated that in Africa, before the Europeans arrived, there could have been over 29 million elephants. However, as early as 1935, the population had dropped to 10 million and now stands at less than 440,000, according to a 2012 study conducted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

This same scenario happened with the blue whales, whose population in Antarctica passed, in less than a century, from 340,000 to just over 1,000 specimens. Fortunately, thanks to international protection, the population of this species is slowly recovering. However, some cetaceans such as the Mexican Vaquita or Gulf porpoise have not been able to improve their numbers and are on the verge of extinction with less than 50 specimens registered.

At this point in time, United Nations estimates show that 57 per cent of the world’s population already lives in cities, far from contact with nature and animals. In addition, it’s estimated that by 2050 that percentage will have exceeded 80 per cent, making contact with nature even scarcer, with many people never having the opportunity to bond with wild animals.

Asia is the most populous continent on the planet, with 4,478 million people and a density of 144 people per square kilometre, followed by Africa with 1,246 million and Europe with 739 million. Population densities in Europe and the Americas do not exceed 30 people per square kilometre, yet the enormous amount of infrastructure and agricultural use have fragmented and reduced natural habitats.

This problem of overpopulation affects all individuals, as resource depletion, deforestation and pollution are just a sample of the consequences that affect everyone.

For this reason, the role of wildlife conservation centres such as Loro Parque is more important than ever — necessary to maintain living contact between animals and the public. Therefore, the mission of modern zoos is to fight to preserve endangered species, work to increase scientific knowledge about animal species to protect them, and seek to inspire love and protection of the animals in all their visitors. Thus, in an increasingly populated and urban world, zoos are the embassy of animals and nature.

Passport Book vs. Passport Card: Which Do I Need?

Courtesy Ed Perkins

The U.S. State Department issues two versions of a passport: a traditional passport book vs. a passport card. The passport book has lots of pages for visas and arrival/departure stamps; the passport card is a one-piece credit-card-sized ID card. Which you should get, passport book vs. passport card, depends on how you plan to travel and how much you want to pay for your travel documents.

Passport Book vs. Passport Card

The standard passport book covers all the bases: It’s all the U.S. government requires for you to enter a foreign country and re-enter the United States on your return trip. First-time application fees total $145. Many foreign countries require nothing more for entry than a U.S. passport book, although some also require visas.

The passport card can be used only to re-enter the U.S. from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda at a land border crossing or sea port-of-entry, although these areas generally accept it as valid ID for entry as well. You cannot use it for international air travel, even when you re-enter the U.S. by land. The first-time fee for a passport card is $55.

You can get both a passport book and a passport card for $175.

Related:

Cruise Passport Requirements: Do I Need a Passport to Go on a Cruise?

Passport books or passport cards are both valid for 10 years after issue for adults, and five years for travelers under age 16. The State Department’s website offers complete details and an online application form.

Obviously, it’s far more useful to have a passport book vs. passport card in most cases where you plan to travel internationally. But if your international travel consists entirely of surface trips in the limited areas covered by the passport card, the card is both cheaper and a tad more convenient to carry and use versus the passport book.

Mexico and the Caribbean Dominate the 10 Most Popular International Summer Destinations for American Travelers in 2019

Travel to Cancun Declines, While London and Paris Disappear from Top International Destinations List, Shows Travel Data by Allianz Global Assistance.

Despite a decrease by five percentage points in travel to Cancun, the hotspot still claims the #1 spot for the third year in a row on the 10 most popular international summer destinations for 2019. It is joined by Mexico’s third destination on the list, newcomer Puerto Vallarta (#9), and the Cayman Islands (#10), nabbing a coveted spot on the list for the first time, after placing #14 in 2018, according to a new survey by Allianz Global Assistance.

Allianz Global Assistance, a leading travel insurance and assistance company, analyzed customers’ trips planned from May 24, 2019 through September 3, 2019*, and found that all 2019’s top 10 international destinations are in Mexico and the Caribbean. Past favorites of London (#9 in 2018 and #7 in 2017) and Paris (#8 in 2018 and #10 in 2017) were absent from the Top 10 for the first time.

Mexico’s defunding of the Mexico Tourism Board and closure of its international offices are dramatically impacting visitation, at a time when U.S. State Department alerts have spiked due to crime and drug violence. Summer travel to Cancun will drop significantly this year, with just 10.5 percent compared to 15.7 percent in 2018.

Meanwhile Aruba Island, Aruba (#2) saw an increase from 4 percent in 2018 to 6.6 percent this year, and travel to San José del Cabo, Mexico (#3) increased from 4.3 percent in 2018 to 6.2 percent in 2019. The following round out the list of top international getaways: Nassau, Bahamas (5.7 percent), Higuey, Dominican Republic (5.6 percent), Montego Bay, Jamaica (5.2 percent), Providenciales, Turks and Caicos (3.8 percent), San Juan, Puerto Rico (3.7 percent), Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (3.1 percent) and Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (2.9 percent).

Americans traveling domestically this summer are still planning trips to Orlando (7.4 percent), which has topped the list every year, and New York City (4.7 percent), #2 for the second year running. The next most popular domestic destinations are: Seattle (4.0 percent), Las Vegas (3.9 percent), Boston (3.5 percent), Los Angeles (3.5 percent), Maui (3.1 percent), Honolulu (2.8 percent), San Francisco (2.5 percent) and Portland (2.3 percent).

“Americans are staying closer to home this summer, with all top 10 international destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico for the first time,” said Daniel Durazo, director of communications at Allianz Global Assistance USA. “Summer means shoulder season in much of the Caribbean and Mexico, so deals and discounts make it a great time to visit our tropical neighbors. With hurricane season beginning in June, it’s especially important to consider travel insurance for your summer vacations. Remember that once a storm or hurricane has been named, it’s too late to get hurricane coverage, so it’s important to buy travel insurance when booking your trip.”

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