Philly Caribbean Festival

by Adrienne Wilson on

Score! It looks like I’ll be fortunate enough to head over to the Philly Caribbean Festival this weekend. The event takes place on Sunday, August 20, 2006 at the Great Plaza in Penn’s Landing from 12 PM – 8 PM. Like most festivals of this nature it will be a celebration of Carib culture through island cuisine, music and vendors selling authentic island crafts. Also on the scene will be the Expedia Team distributing info on their special giveaway in Philadelphia. Now, I would imagine it would be something really incredible like an all-inclusive vacation to the Virgin Islands or something. Well, okay wait, it looks like it will be info on their $50,000 Dream Vacation getaway, which is just as fabulous if not better than what I had imagined.

If you’re in the Philly area with nothing on your agenda as of yet, come check out the fest, grab some jerk chicken, Red Stripe and lime a little bit. Make sure you save me some!

(picture from locolosconplatanos.com)

Silk Road Slideshow

by Erik Olsen on

Y’all might remember the series of audio slide shows I did for my recent trip to Newfoundland. They were fun to do. it’s great to have a digital camera these days and to be able to take a gazillion photos and then select the two or three that really popped. Well, as happy as I am with these slide show, I could have done better, and how much better is a question that is answered in part here, over at the AP (the specialize in photos, after all) where a wonderful audio slide show on following the Silk Route puts my measly effort to shame. But seriously, the photos are luscious and the music and VO all come together very nicely. The VO (voiceover) could have been better produced, but that’s nit picking. Anyway, really nicely done.

Cuba & Fidel in Photos

by Adrienne Wilson on

We can all thank the folks at Polo’s Bastards for bringing us this fine collection of Fidel and Cuba photos while we pack our bags and prepare to flock over when the time comes. (Coughs.) If you didn’t know already, Fidel hasn’t been feeling too well and Raul is helping out around the little island located approximately 91 miles from the U.S. Whether Fidel has reached the end of the road or not, Cuba is such an amazing country in my book. It’s the type of place I’d like to go sit rolling cigars with an old wise lady twice my age discussing politics and they way things were back in Fidel’s heyday. Of course my Spanish would be beyond broken and her English the same if not worse, but over time we’ll come to understand one another. Wouldn’t hurt if there were some Omara Portuondo humming from a radio in the background either, but I won’t be too picky here and I’ll stop rambling now.

Head to: Cuba – Hi Fidelity

Aruba Carnival 2007

by Adrienne Wilson on

How I long to wear another skimpy jeweled, beaded and feathery carnival costume on a hot Caribbean island – let me count the ways. With all my pals over in TnT calling and telling me how the band launches are kicking off, parties running into the midnight hour (as if they ever stop) and how the season has officially arrived or ‘reached’ I can’t help getting a bit worked up myself. Take me away! I want to go – now! After my first masquerading experience in Trinidad & Tobago’s 2006 Carnival I’ve been trying to fight developing an addiction, but as I sit and write this I’m clicking back and forth from various island websites scoping out the details for 2007 Carnival. Not to say I didn’t have a phenomenal time in TnT this year, but it never hurts to look around.
So far I’ve been looking at the details of Bahia, Brazil’s popular place to be during the season and stumbled upon Aruba’s calendar for next year. While Aruba isn’t one of my must-see destinations their events don’t look too shabby. Plus they have this music called Antillean tumba which I don’t think I’ve heard before, but appears to be a mixture of Calypso and Salsa with Dutch flavor. Sounds very, very interesting. If you’ve wanted to do something like this, let me tell you now is the time to start planning. It’s so worth it and don’t worry, not all of the costumes are skimpy. Go to the Aruba photo gallery for an idea of Carnival in Aruba. The fesitivies take place the month of February and the big event days are Feb. 17-18.

Lights Out for Amsterdam’s Red Light District?

by Adrienne Wilson on

My tour of Amsterdam was probably one of the purest 5-hour jaunts imaginable. Think windmills, cheese and clogs, because that’s all I managed to capture photos of and I slept a majority of the time on my tour bus. No Mary Jane the weed or Mary Jane the sex-show prostitute to be seen, so maybe I was on the wrong bus. Like it or not – some travelers come to Amsterdam ONLY for these two purposes. Maybe not both or simultaneously, but like I said SOME travelers and hey, they’re booming industries.

-Or was a booming industry.-

From the sound of this News from Amsterdam piece six days back some entrepreneurs in the Red Light District are not getting their licenses renewed. You see, they have this thing called the Bibob Act which can deny the licenses to entrepreneurs who can be linked to crooked-criminal-filthy money. Ouch! Apparently 37 entrepreneurs have been hit with the bad news and together they own half of the ‘windows’ where prostitutes can be found. Double ouch! Sounds like a hot time in the city. It might just be time for all the sex sight-seeing folks to seek out the windmills too. If you use your imagination they could look like…

via Jaunted