Caribbean Archives - Page 12 of 19 - Jim Murty’s TravelTravelTravel

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Europe, Food & Wine

Hungry and Thursday – Martiniqis in Martinique?

20th May 202120th May 2021 funtime65

So what is their national cocktail? I took a stab at Martiniqis in Martinique.

It was all part of the Caribbean island’s quiz during their three-day webinar.

All of which I missed, of course, because of my technophobia. And has logging on and off ever worked for anybody?

So apols all you lovely Caribbeanies.

And, of course, not to put you off but my pals in Barbados and Tobago and Jamaica can tell you what I’m like.

No show without Punch

I do know though a lot more about Martinique now after trying to nail the quiz… and as ever I’ll share with you.

So the real national cocktail of Martinique apparently is Ti’ Punch which they’ll get you to do it yourself.

Ti’ sounds good. Ti’ Punch though isn’t patois for the it’s actually an abbreviation of petite. And remember this is the French Caribbean.

Ti’ punch is easy to make… it’s rhum agricole, a sweetish rum, with sugar syrup and a squeeze of lime.

Colombo… and another thing

It’s offered before meals, and if you want to go local you will, of course, be eating the curry, the Chicken Colombo.

Chicken Colombo has its roots in the Indian Sub Continent, the Colombo being the Sri Lankan capital.

The Sri Lankans and the Indians came here as indentured labourers who worked the sugar plantations in the 19th and 20th century.

And brought their spices with them, the coriander, cumin, yellow mustard seeds, fenugreek, fennel, pepper, turmeric and allspice.

And here’s how to do it courtesy of someone who knows.

Josephine of Beauharnais

Martinique will, of course, puts on its best face as The Island of Flowers.

Its most famous flower, the fragrant Josephine of Beauharnais, Napoleon’s squeeze, whose humble home you can visit.

Quite what she did to put old Boney off his stride we can only hazard a guess.

But perhaps if she’d put a Ti’ Punch and Chicken Colombo in front of him rather than that hoity-toity French cuisine we might have Un Petit Boney ruling France today.

So let’s get in a round of Martiniqis in Martinique.

Martinique is open, and welcoming, without isolation regulations to tourists for those with 72-hour PCR negative tests.

With Air France the flagship, or should that be flagplane, carrier?

Caribbean, Countries, Culture

Aruba and Mother Turtle

14th May 202114th May 2021 funtime65

Arriba, arriba Aruba and Mother Turtle…. we’re joining the countdown to the hatching of their chicks.

Now I’m indebted to my old friend (less of the old, Bandanaman) and award-winning Travel blogger and Caribbeanophile Tara Povey for showing me the marvel that is a turtle march.

Tara videod her turtles under the cover of darkness in Barbados, waddling out of the sea and onto the hatching beaches.

While the rest of us went snorkelling (translation: swallowing) off our catamaran on our expedition.

Although I did get to see me my turtles when I returned to Bim the next year.

Heroes in a half-shell

Now because we like to share the love in good old Caribbean style I’m shining the spotlight now on Aruba, off the coast of Venezuela.

Our Aruban friends have invited us to join them in counting down to their turtle hatches this summer and autumn on Eagle Beach.

Some of their breeds have in fact started early… with the first Leatherback nest laid this season for Bucuti & Tara resort.

Not Our Tara though… or is it?

Don’t worry that you might have missed out, the Green, Loggerhead and Hawksbill sea turtles are still to pop their heads up.

The turtle package

Now we’ve trodden the turtle path here before in our occasional Travel Pack series but make no apologies for going turtley overboard here again.

So pay attention at the back, there will be questions later…

Now our heroes in a half-shell really, really love Aruba which is a constituent part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Because they travel 1,350 miles every year from Canada to the warmer beaches of Aruba to hatch.

So what’s our excuse?

Mother Turtle

Well, it is their own birthplace and they obviously want their little ones to be Arubans too.

Mother Turtle lays an average of seven nests in one season with each averaging 80 viable eggs.

After an incubation period of 55 to 75 days, hatchings emerge from the sand and make their way to the sea.

And little scene-stealers them they often use their moonlight as their guide.

Now Buculi & Tara know their turtles and their hatching habits and they help their visitors witness the turtle trail.

They will call, or text, you when a turtle shows signs of hatching so you can get out and see it for yourself.

Now Modern Man is told that witnessing his offspring being born is beautiful.

But hands up, squeamish old me found it a challenge… the Scary One should have been in my shoes.

A nice clean turtle hatch is more for feardies like me.

Godmother Turtle

Now every Mother Turtle needs a Godmother Turtle.

And in Kuramathi and Kandolhu in the Maldives that was German carer Vanessa and who, admission time here, did have her favourite… Selma.

Vanessa, and anyone who devotes their life to turtles, will tell you exactly what you need to do to protect them.

Godmother Turtle II: Vanessa in the Maldives

In Aruba, that would be Edith, president of Turtugaruba, who teaches visitors about the life cycle of sea turtles in Aruba.

And how best to protest them.

So Arriba, arriba Aruba and Mother Turtle.

MEET YOU BY THE BEACH

America, Caribbean, Countries, Food & Wine

Tabasco Irish Louisiana and the source of the sauce

7th May 20217th May 2021 funtime65

When you drink your next Bloody Mary you might just drift off to Avery Island and think of Tabasco, Irish Louisiana and the source of the sauce.

Every year I seek out Charlie Whinham of the Louisiana Office of Tourism.

Among the hundreds of exhibitors at IPW, the American Travel Fair to talk hot sauce.

And a certain Donegal entrepreneur, and as you know by now Donegal entreneurship is in my blood.

Saucy Edmund

Tabasco is the brainchild of Edmund McIlhenny.

Himself a descendant of the north-westernmost county in Ireland whose family then made good in Maryland.

It was commonplace for the names of the Irish diaspora to America to be altered.

Because the book keepers would not understand the thick brogue or decipher the signature.

The same was said to apply to the Irish streaming over to Britain.

Which is why it is possible that the Murtys started off life as Murtaghs.

What’s in a name?

I prefer though to think that we are descended from the ancient High King of Ireland Muircherach Mac Lochlainn.

Either way the Irish grew a reputation for being hot-headed.

And Edmund McIlhenney’s original Tabasco was guaranteed to make your head overheat.

Edmund had decamped to New Orleans around 1840.

And in true resolute Irish style he made a fortune as a banker.

He lost it in the Civil War, and went off to reinvent himself in a whole different field… as a gardener and inventor of a hot pepper sauce.

The bould Edmund had his in-laws to thank for both putting him and his family up in their plantation in Avery Island after the Civil War.

And giving him a garden to tend.

We’ll pass over the story that has it that Edmund was given the Mexican tabasco peppers and tabasco recipe by plantation owner Maunsel White.

And move to the 1870s when Edmund obtained a patent.

And started to trade the sauce around the US, before his sons expanded the business worldwide.

It’s more Guinness, Smithwick’s Ale and whiskey down at my Dear Old Mum’s old family bar, now the Ramblers in Brockagh, Co. Donegal.

And back to Tabasco Louisiana

But I dare say that if they do get some exotic out of the county type like said Mum asking for a Bloody Mary then they may have a bottle of the oul’ McIlhenny’s out back.

Because Donegal never forgets its sons.

So let’s hear it for Tabasco, Irish Louisiana and the source of the sauce.

We’ve done Mississippi but not to its terminus in New Orleans.

So off to the Big Easy for us in the future.

And we’ll make that two hour 45 minutes drive to Avery Island to take the Tabasco tour and finish it all off with the best Bloody Mary in the world.

Caribbean, Countries

Saint Vincent and Grenadines appeal

28th April 202128th April 2021 funtime65

The Caribbean has given me so much since I first started visiting which is why I am now keen to give something back, at this their time of need, through the Saint Vincent and Grenadines appeal.

Each of the Caribbean islands is unique but they are all bound by the shared experiences of slavery, poverty and Nature’s wrath.

One love

I have witnessed how they have rallied to each others’ causes when hurricanes have hit, and now that the La Soufriere volcano has taken out its anger on the islands.

Glen Beache, CEO of The Saint Vincent and Grenadines Tourism Authority, reported that the scientists predict the crisis could last for another few months.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is the one entity, which is not uncommon in the Caribbean.

Twin islands

It is the best way to go for island collectors – Antigua and Barbuda, with Antigua, home of the great Sir Viv Richards carrying more swagger than its calmer twin island

We caught up too with St Kitts and Nevis where they make a virtue of the two-mile stretch of water that separates the islands.

Their annual swim between the islands was alas cancelled last month but all the more time then to practise for next year.

Goat and the GOAT

I’ve already savoured the pleasures of Trinidad & Tobago when this GOAT went local and went kidding about.

Island sharing

While these twin islands are a Caribbean island thing so too is island sharing.

Hailing from a divided United Kingdom and having spent 13 years in an Ireland of two parts I have always been obsessed with a split island.

The island of Hispaniola houses Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and as they say in the Caribbean, there’s no division, just one love.

And so the Dom Rep was the first to answer Haiti’s call after the earthquake of 2010.

Living with Nature

Of course our Caribbean friends have all learned to live with Nature.

And in St Lucia their volcano is the centrepiece of the island and a wonder to admire as well as respect.

Which is why you as a visitor too will be able to drive through.

And take of the soil of the land, the mudbaths and wash it off in the waterfalls

And if you’ve got the stomach for it here’s a muddy mess from across the world in The water of life, Petra, and the sands of time

With my pal from that unforgettable G Adventures trip St Lucian Jerry ‘The Big Rapper’.

Thanks to all who organised the Caribbean Virtual Meet the Media event and of course every island is a friend and we’ll be sure to cover you all.

MEET YOU IN THE CARIBBEAN

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Ireland, Music

Rainy days and songdays – Belfast and Jamaican Wailers

19th April 202119th April 2021 funtime65

Belfast is one of the last places you might expect to find a reggae footprint but The Wailers are alive and well on the banks of the River Foyle.

Nathaniel Ian Wynter was a regular visitor to Island House, Bob Marley’s home in Jamaica where he would jam.

There was jamming’ to be done too when Natty spoiled us all in the unlikely setting of my old homestead, Greystones, Co. Wickllow.

Natty look

Natty, you see, had been lured to Ireland by a caílin, and stayed.

He came to Greystones to play Bob’s hits before an intimate gathering a few years ago.

And we had the pleasure too to listen to Bob’s music, and the best Soca, at the One Love festival in Crop Over in Barbados.

They are few now of those who played with the Great Man Marley and we lost the last regular member of the band only this year.

Bunny on the money

Bunny Wailer left us last month, drawn away by the invitation to play the best reggae gig anywhere… in Heaven with Bob and Peter Tosh.

Nothin’ will stop a Jamaican jammin’ and our island friends have been putting on shows for us the past year.

And they are movin’ Heaven and Earth to get us back out there to jam with them.

Flying high

We already had the good news of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic announcing new services to Montego Bay from Heathrow and Gatwick.

Where at the top end of luxury resorts we were attracted by the Geejam Hotel‘s opening of their Marumba Studios, any musico’s dreams.

There are the 12 rooms and all the fineries but with a recording studio, events area, live stage and DJ booth.

If you want more old school then a Bob Marley tour is a must.

Tour de force

Get on a seven-hour trip to Marley’s Nine Mile from Montego Bay Hotels from £93.41.

Take in Bob’s home and hood and the Mt Zion of many a song where the Great Man visited.

Our room down there: Holiday Inn Resort, Montego Bay www.tui.co.uk

So which holiday provider to get on? Well, we’re nothing if not loyal, and always return to our first, TUI

Hey mon Damian

TUI is offering a week in the Holiday Inn Resort from €898pp.

And with us celebrating all things reggae today the world is indeed lucky to still have Damian and Ziggy Marley banging out their tunes.

Irie!

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Flying, Ireland, UK

Rihanna at the gate as Barbados Airport reopens

18th April 202118th April 2021 funtime65

Rihanna was there to meet me but where was my party?

Ri-Ri is the first face you’ll see as you walk into Grantley Adams Airport, Bridgetown, Barbados, through its open-air entrance.

She’s there draped on the wall in the arrivals area along with the world’s greatest-ever cricket all-rounder Sir Gary Sobers.

And from this past week she has smiling excited visitors to greet again as Grantley Adams reopens.

Sign here

We’ll be filling up soon

In the balmy heat of an early Bajan summer evening I found myself spending more time with the superstar than the party I was there to meet.

I hadn’t picked out Barbados tourism’s board or that the blonde Afro traveller a few groups ahead of me in the queue was heading that way.

Incoming flights from the UK and Ireland

And so I found myself on my own in the airport long after everyone else had left.

The friendly Bajan airport staff allowed me back through customs to double check if my party were there before connecting me with a taxi firm and my hotel.

That’s far

And a bottle of rum to go please

In said taxi I asked the handsome Twentysomething driver about his family and if he had a partner.

To which he said that the Bajan girls were all after the same thing.

I had heard from my West Indian pal that there were three women to every one man on the island.

I asked him to turn the taxi around to remove me from such temptation.

But I then thought better of it, and besides what would the poor staff at the Grantley Adams Airport make of me showing up again so soon.

Barbados Aer

And, of course, my Rihanna

And for our Irish friends, Aer Lingus are now on board too with new flights through Manchester from October 20. With fares from £199.

And you can attach on the connecting flights from Dublin and Cork from €249 and from Belfast from £239.

MEET YOU AT THE AIRPORT

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Ireland

Oh Ireland in the Sun – Montserrat

14th April 202117th April 2021 funtime65

There’s an advert on Irish television where the winner of the EuroMillions lottery buys a tropical island for his friends and family… oh Ireland in the sun!

Didn’t he know there was a Caribbean island there already which is more Irish than Ireland?

Montserrat is the tiny 39 and a half sqm Emerald Island of the Caribbean because of its Irish links which run deep.

The Irish have been around the Leeward Island since 1632, sent there from neighbouring St Kitts and later Virginia.

Fly the flag

Montserrat was to build a thriving economy around tobacco and indigo (that’s blue dye) and later tobacco and sugar.

Fast forward to today by way of Cromwell’s transportations, and if it wasn’t for the sun, palm trees, volcano and rain forest you’d swear you were in Ireland.

It’s there in the island flag with its figure of a cailín standing by a cross and holding a harp. We’ll gloss over the Union flag in the corner.

While a shamrock adorns Government House.

So why then is Montserrat not a throng of Irish visitors from the Old Country?

Possibly because they prefer the Canaries and there is a lot to like about them but say that it’s Tenerife you love then you’ll love Montserrat too.

Hot-Hot-Hot

There’s the volcano which gives you the distinctive black beaches shared by both islands, though there is one white beach that we all love too on Montserrat.

While there’s evidence of the volcano’s activity in the form of a buried city, and now St Vincent’s has awoken and is erupting the focus switches south to the ghost town of Plymouth.

The best place to view it is from the Garibaldi Hill viewpoint or the viewpoint from Jack Boy Hill on the east of the island following a short hike.

Combined, of course, with a trip to the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.

While Montserrat’s Irishness is all around you in its symbols (the shamrock stamp in your passport), names of villages and they say too in an Irish brogue it goes into overdrive around St Patrick’s Day.

When the Montserratians tie in their own commemoration of their slavery past with the saint’s day.

For the craic, yes, but also because it is steeped in their history.

St Paddy’s Day, mon

Irish pubs everywhere: Martin Healy and his band in Montserrat

On St. Patrick’s Day in 1768, the African slaves on the island rose up and it is alleged nine slaves were hanged.

And they have never been forgotten with St. Patrick’s Day now heradling a ten-day festival to honour their Afro-Irish heritage.

Again there are too few of the Irish who go out to Montserrat, and we mean to do something about it.

Martin Healy and his band have been pioneers over recent years.

And trawling through the records we’ve seen that Martin is a regular visitor out to the Emerald Island

Caribbean craic

Where he was a special guest at Governor’s wife Sujue Davis’s popular latest Coffee Morning on Tuesday, March 11 before that same evening performing at the Uncle’s bar/restaurant a popular night spot in Flemings.

And the Montserrat Reporter (are you employing?) chronicled that ‘the three-man Irish band performed throughout the week at probably every ‘rum shop and bar’ and is a major performer in the popular “Pub Crawl’.

So Montserrat, all 4,900 of them, celebrates their Irish roots with good trad music then, and also its Caribbean heritage with our favourite Soca Music.

Arrow hits the mark

Hot-hot-hot? Yeah, you now it, mon. It’s this classic from one of Montserrat’s favourite sons, the legendary late Soca star Arrow

So to get there… you’ll fly out of the UK to Antigua where it’s only a 15-minute flight out to your Ireland in the Sun.

And here’s where you’ll stay with a wide range of hotel rooms, guest houses, villas and apartments all flagged up on the Montserrat site.

And with less than 5,000 people on the island, everyone practically knows each other, and if you say you’re Irish you’ll get a warm welcome from Warren and Cherise!

Slainte!

And no, you don’t get away that easily… here’s why we love the Caribbean so, from Trinidad and Tobago to Barbados.

And next up is Jamaica where we’ll bring you all the news of how they’re jammin’.

Caribbean, Countries, Cruising, Deals, Europe, Ireland, UK

Cruiseday Tuesday – British isle be back

23rd March 202123rd March 2021 funtime65

And a return of an old favourite feature here on the back of MSC’s announcement of summer cruises around Britain.

The cruises which will be for us British only will begin with a series of short cruises from May 20 followed by seven-night sailings.

My old pal, the exquisitely named UK&I MD Antonio Paradiso assures us that vaccinated and non-vaccinated passengers will be allowed on board.

Just make sure you have a negative test within 72-hours of embarkation.

And MSC will even get you on shore for excursions though having enjoyed their on-board dining and entertainment….!

Barbados is plain sailing

Ruby do: With Ruby in Barbados

Barbados was my first jump-off point too… jumpin’ into the Caribbean to swim with turtles, and jumpin’ at the Crop Over carnival.

And it is the new jump-off too for Royal Caribbean for your island hopping.

Royal Caribbean is offering up to €350 off your stateroom.

They have a lead-in seven-night South Caribbean island hop holiday price.

On Grandeur of the Seas from €434 from Sunday, December 19.

We’re talking Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao (home of the blue liqueur), St Lucia and Dominica.

Greek island hopping

And we still have a few Greek islands to hop.

Travel Department is running a nine-night holiday staying in Athens and on board the medium-sized ship The Celestyal Experience.

The Greek Islands & Aegean Sea Cruise is all yours to book for September or October from €2,139pp.

Including everyone’s favourite cruise stop-off Santorini.

MEET YOU BACK ON THE SEAS

America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Ireland, Music, UK

Rainy Days and Songdays – Watching the Detectives

22nd March 202123rd March 2021 funtime65

Just like watching the detectives don’t get cute, just like watching the detectives, I get so angry when the teardrops start, But he can’t be wounded ’cause he got no heart. – Elvis Costello, Watching the Detectives

And with apologies to the Poet Laureate of New Wave.

But it’s not the bespectacled one but the new run of Line of Duty, shot in Belfast, which has got me thinking.

About my favourite detectives in the cities they are associated with.

So here are seven deadly detective shows, their music and their cities.

Van’s the man

Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam

Van der Valk, Amsterdam: So good they kept a sample of the Simon Park Orchestra’s original score ‘Eye Level’ for the reworking of the original series.

And even then purists lambasted the modern version and Marc Warren’s ‘Piet’ as opposed to Barry Foster’s.

And don’t you just love the cluttered narrow bars they all drink in.

Hutch more New York

Starsky & Hutch, New York: Starsky & Hutch was the breakthrough police show for young people more used to oldie cops.

Good, yes, like the lollipop-sucking Theo Kojak. And, yes, we loved you, baby, too!

But Starsk and Hutch and Huggy Bear brought a street vibe, slapstick and more New York life.

As did the Stiller and Wilson remake with Snoop Dogg as Huggy Bear captured the excitement and warmth and music of the original.

Glasgow is No Mean City

Taggart, Glasgow: And who would have thought they could have made grey post-industrial Glasgow cool in the Eighties?

But they did and you knew you were in for something different when the credits rolled.

And Maggie Bell gave us a smoky, bluesy No Mean City, a homage to a gangster novel about Twenties Gorbals Glasgow.

London, you’re nicked

The Sweeney: Regan and Carter were the Line of Duty of their day, the water-cooler show before water coolers.

Again another they made a remake of, with only Ray Winstone able to reprise John Thaw, while Plan B took on Dennis Waterman.

The Winstone opening scene had a car chase around Trafalgar Square while Thaw’s played out more on wasteland.

But London sizzled from the moment the Thames TV with its iconic St Paul’s graphic came up… and who can forget the theme tune?

Monsieur Bean?

Maigret, Paris: And it was always going to require us to make a shift to see Mr Bean as Monsieur Maigret.

Mais oui, Rowan Atkinson pulled it off, with that brooding sense of contemptuous arrogance we so love about Parisians.

And who doesn’t love an accordion?

Naturellement, you would want to show off the City of Lights if you set your show here.

Which is why it was shot in Budapest with Szentendre doubling for the Montmartre.

Across the Channel

Bergerac, Jersey: And a little bit of sun came into our lives in the Eighties.

In the only part of the UK where they get sun… in Jersey, on the doorstep of France.

As none of us can identify a Jersey site from a Jersey cow then their first image was a map of the island.

Before we get action clips of dunes and John Nettles running after high-end crooks.

Old at the time, Johnnie then retired to Midsomer.

Deadly Caribbean

Nylon Pool, Tobago

Death in Paradise, Guadeloupe: No mon, it’s not Saint Marie, but Guadeloupe.

It lies halfway down the eastern Caribbean chain between Dominica and Antigua.

And it has some of the features you’d expect in a West Indian island, a volcano, sandy beaches obvs and a rainforest.

And you’ll get some of this and more of the other in Tobago and Barbados

All good and varied locales for misdemeanour and murder.

And all set against an uplifting score and, if you know your stuff, homages to the film The Harder They Come.

So to cheer your day up here’s some Jimmy Cliff ‘You Can Get It If You Really Want‘.

Africa, Caribbean, Countries, Culture, Europe

World Book Day – a leaf through the world

4th March 20214th March 2021 funtime65

Happy World Book Day… I’ve been turning over a new leaf by re-reading some old favourites from around the world.

Some will be yours, others I’d recommend as they namecheck places you’ll want to visit, and the people too.

Czech’s in post for this classic

Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis: Or you can have The Trial.

OK, I’ve not read either, but I have checked out Kafkaesque Prague, his home city.

And he’ll be glad to know that the Czechs still retain his take on the world around him and its leaders…

Bureaucracies overpowering people often in a surreal, nightmarish way.

Anne’sterdam

Can I be trusted on a bike? In Amsterdam

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl: It’s chilling to listen to the audio of Anne‘s words in the diary she wrote in her family’s hideout in Amsterdam.

And I make no apologies in saying that I choked up.

When I heard that the vibrant young girl destined for Auschwitz had wanted to become a journalist.

Anne, of course, made a lasting impression, and has gone on to inspire generations of chlldren and adults alike.

Eastern Eden

Cool for cats… in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Olive Schreiner’s The Story of An African Farm: Olive may not be on every, or any, schoolchildren’s radar in the Northern Hemisphere.

And athough its style is of its time, the 19th century, this chronicle of South African life in the Eastern Cape, is required reading.

A feminist and ahead of her time Olive railed against the prejudices around her .

And she also moved in some pretty famous circles. Required reading.

Crusoe in Tobago

Give ‘em rope: With Levi and Bandanaman the goat in Tobago

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Tobago: And if you’re lucky enough you can even reprise the actions of some of your favourite literary characters.

Like in Tobago where Robinson Crusoe swept ashore and took years to get off.

For all his protestations I think he probably enjoyed it. And we know that he made some friends of the local goats.

The Odyssey

Spoiled and ruined at the Acropolis in Athens

Homer’s Odyssey: And this one I did read, or at least study, and then parts of it.

As a Classics scholar (or messer) at school.

I had my own odyssey trying to make my way through Munich Airport and on way to Greece and over to its islands.

There’s nothing like walking in the footsteps of your legend’s… so there’s an invitation to you.

And it’s been flagged up that I’ve been down this road before with this book collection. See if my choices have changed and tell me your faves.