Surfing 101, Trini style

In another attempt to burn off her energy, I decided to enroll my five-year-old in surfing classes. Enter one of Trinidad and Tobago’s finest surfers, Jason Apparicio!

We met him at Maracas Beach around 10am. He introduced himself warmly and reassured me that my little girl was in good hands. After all, his six-year-old was already surfing unassisted.

After a bit of stretching and an on-shore demonstration, he led my daughter to the water where he pushed her out to try and catch their first wave. It wasn’t long before they were riding inland and he instructed her to stand. And stand she did… straight up facing forward.

The session continued like this for two hours with her taking breaks to warm up and play in the sand while Jason attended to his older students. In the last hour of training her new-found talent shone. Crouched like a seasoned surfer she rode the waves in shore while Jason guided the board from behind. The adults didn’t have such an easy time however – higher centre of gravity, perhaps?
 

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Enjoying Jazz Artists on the Greens 2010 #musicmonday

On Saturday 20th March, Jazz Artists on the Greens was held at the Centre for Creative and Festival Arts (CCFA) at the campus of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine in Trinidad. This outdoor venue was a perfect location and patrons relaxed on chairs and lay on blankets as a wonderful cast of performers entertained them. Refreshments were on sale but some people chose to bring along picnic baskets and comfortably sipped their wine while enjoying the show. 

A moment of silence was observed for Professor Rex Nettleford, the prominent Caribbean cultural icon who died earlier this year.

The event was well organised and with the high calibre of artists and the wonderful atmosphere, we are sure this will continue to be a highlight on the cultural calendar every year. Here are some pics from this year's event:

Some patrons arrive early to secure their spot for the show

The band Afrolypso on stage

The hosts for the evening- Wayne Le Blanc and Nicola Barriteau

R'kardo St'von

William Roblejo a native of Cuba, performs with the other members of his band

William Roblejo trio backstage

Brenda Butler poses with R'kardo St'von backstage

Brenda Butler on stage

Trinidadian born internationally acclaimed jazz trumpet player Brownman on stage

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TrinidadTunes music charts for last week #musicmonday

Here's what was popular last week on TrinidadTunes.com!

Tobago Goat Racing Festival celebrates 85 years

Overseas visitors – and sometimes even locals – are often puzzled when they first hear about goat-racing, a unique tradition which has become one of the most popular festivals and events in Tobago.

No to be trifled with, the island – which boasts of being the goat-racing capital of the world – takes its goat-racing very seriously. The events are serious competition. Each year, Buccoo is transformed into fierce competition ground, complete with a 100-yard track and a growing number of spectators from all over the world. And this year, on its signature day the Tuesday after Easter (6 April, 2010), the Buccoo Goat Racing Festival celebrates a whopping 85 years.

What began in 1925 as a working class alternative to horse-racing, it bears some resemblance to its sporting cousin. Goats have their own stables, owners, trainers, and jockeys – but these jockeys run barefoot behind the goats while clutching their leashes, and use twigs to spur the animals to the finish line rather than whips. Goats also bear colourful names like Rum Punch, and serious betting takes place before the race. Winners can also raise a championship trophy, topped with a golden goat, and return home with a cash prize and a bottle of rum.

See you in Buccoo!

TrinidadTunes music charts for last week

Here are the TrinidadTunes.com Trinidad & Tobago music download charts for last week:

St Lucia Jazz Fest gets ready for Corinne Bailey Rae, Ne-Yo, Steel Pulse and more

Image via Wikipedia

The St. Lucia Jazz Festival – marking its 19th anniversary this year – runs from the 1st to 9th of May, with a scintillating international line-up that runs the gamut from jazz, soul, and R&B to calypso, kompa, reggae and much more.

This year's headliners include Ne-Yo,; Corinne Bailey Rae; Shaggy; and Steel Pulse, as well as Laura Izibor; Cuban ensemble Buena Vista Social Club; Haitian kompa band T-Vice; reggae veteran Maxi Priest; Jeffrey Osborne; Freddie Jackson; bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding; Dobet Gnahoré from the Ivory Coast; and the island's own Teddyson John and Ronald "Boo" Hinkson.

"Saint Lucia Jazz is a spirit-filled experience and we are so happy to add this year's stars to the long list of international artistes who have previously graced the stage here like John Legend, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker and so many others," explained St. Lucia's Minister of Tourism & Civil Aviation Allen Chastanet.

The Festival line-up includes:

• Wednesday 5 May: Described as one of Rolling Stone Magazine's "Artists to Watch", 22-year-old Irish songstress Laura Izibor performs at Gaiety in Rodney Bay, with guitarist Earl Klugh; and the St. Lucia School of Music Jazz Band (Black Ants)
• Thursday 6 May: French-born jazz and rock violinist Jean-Luc Ponty takes centre stage at Gaiety 
• Friday May 7: Three-time R&B Grammy winner Ne-Yo is the headliner for the Festival's third night
• Saturday 8 May: Fresh off the release of her new album, The Sea, British-born, Grammy-winning songstress Corinne Bailey Rae delights Festival fans 
• Sunday 9 May: Pigeon Island hosts Jeffrey Osborne; Freddie Jackson; Phil Perry; Howard Hewett; Maxi Priest and Shaggy for the grand finale of this year's Festival

Caribbean Beat's March/April 2010 issue now available

The current Caribbean Beat magazine contains some tasty morsels—the March/April issue is dedicated to food, some familiar, and some fresh and surprising.

Visitors to the region might be surprised to encounter Arabic food here. But as Skye Hernandez explains, the Syrian-Lebanese community has enriched the culinary and cultural heritage of the Caribbean for a century now. In recent years, it’s become easier to sample the delights of baba ganoush and tabbouli, felafel and fattoush.

Older local traditions may be in danger of disappearing, if they’re not handed down from one generation to the next. But Indo-Trinidadian recipes have been perfectly preserved in a cookbook by Kumar Mahabir and Mera Heeralal, and Jonathan Ali leafs hungrily through its pages.

Any West Indian is familiar with dasheen, a heavy, filling root vegetable—but that’s just one of its many disguises. So versatile is this vegetable that in Tobago, it’s become the basis of an annual Blue Food Festival. Lasagne and liqueur, dasheen cake and dasheen chow mein—BC Pires samples them all, and reports back from the frontlines of food writing.

Further afield, Franka Philip combs London in search of the perfect patty, encouraged by reports that this elusive object is occasionally spotted outside its native habitat of Jamaica. Can she hunt down the right combination of a spicy, meaty filling, Scotch bonnet pepper, and the flaky yellow crust?

If it’s the perfect roti you’re after, check out Pam’s Kitchen—if you’re in Seattle, that is. When Pamela Jacob moved from the plains of Caroni to the Pacific Northwest, she took Trini traditions with her. Since then, Pam’s aloo pie, bus-up shut and coconut bake have starred on television—but they haven’t lost their home-made flavour, Debbie Jacob discovers.

If you’re too far away to drop by Pam’s Kitchen, you can pick up a snack somewhere else. Caribbean Beat’s writers review three new guides to the street food of Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, and Jamaica. You’re bound to find something there to tempt your tastebuds, from ghetto steak to steppers. And you can finish off your meal by learning lessons for life from a cup of tea, thanks to Leone Redman.

Eaten too much? Walk off the excess on a stroll round Carriacou, a gem of an island in the Grenadines. Paul Crask is your tour guide in our travel section.

Meanwhile, Garry Steckles reveals how Calypso Rose once fell among thorns, when she was kept back unfairly in competition with male calypsonians. But Rose not only cleared a way for herself, but also blazed a trail for other women as she claimed her rightful place at the top.

Other Caribbean artforms are celebrated too in Caribbean Beat’s regular roundup of events, music and books that are representing the region right now.

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Trinidad's Red Earth Eco Festival 2010 gets going

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In commemoration of World Environment Day, the Red Earth Eco Arts Festival returns this year against a new backdrop: the festivities move to Blanchisseuse, 4–6 June 2010. This year's theme is: red earth, running water.

The focus of this year's event raises issues around Trinidad and Tobago's fragile fresh water systems: rivers, streams, waterfalls, underground springs and mangroves. River pollution is a major environmental issue on the islands. Two of the biggest hazards to the health of the islands' waterways are pollution and garbage from "river limes" (a Trinbagonian tradition), and using waterways as dumping grounds for household items (including old appliances, garbage, furniture, and more).

This year, the Festival hopes to be able to convert river limers and dumpers into aware environmentalists who will safeguard our natural water systems, and to ensure that the Red Earth Eco Arts Festival can be an effective force for social change and a contributor to the country's sustainable development.


The organisers are inviting all interested citizens, residents and environmentalists to participate in developing this year's festival, either in person or virtually vit the internet. The first meeting was last Sunday, and the next meeting is this Sunday 21 March at Rituals coffee shop in Maraval.

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Nothing to do this weekend? Try kayaking!

Kayaking essentials:

• Life vest
• Sun block
• Water socks
• Cool, light coloured clothing or swimwear

For information about kayaking in the Chaguaramas area pictured:
The Kayaking Centre, Williams Bay, Chaguaramas
Open: 6am–6pm
Tel: (868) 633-7871
Rates: single kayaks, $30/$40 per hour and double/tandem kayaks, $40/$50 per hour


And for more on Trinidad's eco adventures, visit the Eco Adventure section of the Discover T&T website! For more on the Chaguaramas National Heritage park, click here.

Protecting nesting sea turtles

Image via Wikiped

It's that time of year again! The Easter holidays are upon us, and in a few weeks the official turtle nesting season begins, with giant leatherbacks and other turtle speceis making their way on to Trinidad and Tobago's shores. Sightings on Trinidad's northeast beaches have already begun.


Over the last season, during which several photographs of spectators abusing nesting leatherbacks emerged, Dr. Joth Singh reaffirmed the EMA's (Environmental Management Authority) commitment to safeguard wildlife through the designation of environmentally sensitive species, under the Environmentally Sensitive Species Rules, 2001 and through aggressive public education and awareness programmes. 

"We, as citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, need to be more responsible and humane to these turtles," he added. "These animals swim for hundreds of kilometres, battle the rough surf of the Atlantic, inch their way along the sand with only four fins supporting their massive bodies, ensure they have built a safe enough nest, then proceed to lay their eggs. They endure all this to guarantee the continuity and integrity of their species." 

Traditionally, leatherback turtles were viciously slaughtered for their meat and eggs. Today, thanks to beach patrolling, public education and collaborative efforts of non-governmental groups such as the Matura-based and award-winning Nature Seekers and SOS: Save our Sea Turtles, Tobago, leatherbacks have safer nesting spaces.


Nesting turtles and their eggs are protected under the Trinidad & Tobago Fisheries Ordinance and the Trinidad and Tobago Conservation of Wildlife Act.


Dennis Sammy, of Nature Seekers, offers the following tips when visiting nesting sites or when we come across a nesting turtle:

• When a turtle emerges from the sea, there should be absolute silence and all lights off
• A distance of 15 metres should be kept until the nest is prepared
• Observers should approach quietly and with minimum lights when the laying starts
• Observers should walk closer to the water to reduce sand compaction
• No flash photography should be used, unless directed by a guide
• Do not ride turtles
• No poaching of turtle eggs

SOS Tobago also shares some useful information:

• Do not litter. Garbage traps hatchlings and prevent them from entering the ocean. Also turtles can mistake plastic bags for food and will choke on them
• Don't drive on the beaches – vehicles can crush entire clutches of eggs
• Control pets, as they can dig up nests
• Do not touch the hatchlings, let them make their way to the sea themselves 

If you come across any hatchling or adult turtle in any difficulty, please alert someone from Nature Seekers (668-7337), SOS Tobago (290-3797) or the Wildlife Division (662-5114). 

For more on Trinidad & Tobago's eco marvels, visit the  

Discover Trinidad & Tobago website.

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The film and entertainment industries are on the upswing in Trinidad & Tobago. The T&T Film Festival has grown exponentially in the last few years, and the newly launched T&T Film Night, held under the stars in Belmont.

Building on this success, the Trinidad & Tobago Film Company
is launching the second Television Film Festival (TVFF) on Saturday 13 March, to run for five weekend nights until 27 March.
The TVFF aims to introduce the national (and, via the internet, international) audience to films made by Trinbagonians across the diaspora. The TTFC has partnered with T&T television stations CNC3, TV6, CNMG and Gayelle the Channel for the 2010 TVFF to bring these films to the viewing public, which have provided free prime airtime.

The local filmmakers and producers featured include Christopher Laird, Mariel Brown, Ryan Khan, Patricia Mohammed, Oliver Milne, Ansar Sattar, Sarah Beckett, Frances-Anne Solomon, G. Anthony Joseph.

"This year, the Film Festival promises to be even more exciting with the participating stations showing films that will be made exclusive to them," explains Carla Foderingham, CEO of the TTFF. Viewers will have many exciting films to choose from. The stations have supported the 2010 festival and hopefully this partnership will continue into the future."

Caribbean Airlines & British Airways codeshare agreement ends

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After British West Indies Airways (BWIA) was wound down and Caribbean Airlines (CAL) launched in its place in January 2007, one of the casualties was BWIA's regular service between Port of Spain, Trinidad and London Heathrow in the UK. In order to continue providing links between Trinidad & Tobago and the Great Britain for BWIA's and Caribbean Airlines' loyal clientele, CAL entered into a code share agreement with British Airways (BA) in March 2007, offering service to London Gatwick Airport.

Seeking new agreements
The agreement comes to an end on March 27, 2010, and CAL continues to seek new arrangements for offering direct service between Port of Spain (with stops en route in other islands) and London.

Connecting service
Until then, CAL will continue to provide connecting services to its destinations from which there is existing airlift to the UK (e.g. Port of Spain, Trinidad and Bridgetown, Barbados). BA's Boeing 777 aircraft fly from Port of Spain to Gatwick, stopping in Bridgetown, on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, BA flies non-stop from Bridgetown to Gatwick.

Frequent flyer programmes
CAL's frequent flyer agreement with BA expires along with the codeshare, and members of the airlines' respective frequent flyer programmes will be able to earn miles on either airline up to 27 March. After that date, members will have 30 days to book and to be ticketed for reward flights on either carrier; tickets will be valid for 12 months from date of issue. Members will also be able to apply for retroactive credit of miles earned up to six months after the partnership expiration date, and not later than 27 September.

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Save the date: Barbados Reggae Festival

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The Digicel Barbados Reggae Festival (18–25 April, 2010) is coming up! One of the biggest events on the island, it features a line-up of local, regional and international reggae stars. Here's what this year's patrons can expect:

18 April: Digicel Reggae On The Beach 

Carlisle Bay Centre, Bay Street, 3–10pm

The event features performances by:

• Mr. Vegas
• Konshens
• Ding Dong
• Pumpattae
• Kirk Brown
• Omar Mcquilkin
• Ruby Tech
• Psycho
• Most Wanted

23 April: Digicel Vintage Reggae Show & Dance
The event features performances by:

• Fab Five
• Marcia Griffiths
• John Holt
• Ernie Smith
• Ken Lazarus
• Biggie Irie
• and other Barbadian acts

25 April: Digicel Reggae on the Hill
This year’s line-up includes:

• Richie Spice
• Maxi Priest
• Luciano
• Tarrus Riley
• Etana
• Busy Signal
• Romain Virgo
• Supa Ruben
• Buggy Nhakente
• Hotta Flames
• LRG
• Brimstone
• Albert Olton
• Ras Al-I
• Orakle
• Daniel

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Harris Promenade, San Fernando

After taking the Water Taxi to San Fernando we used one of the Discover T&T maps to find Harris Promenade. 

Named after Lord Harris, who was the Governor of Trinidad from 1846–1854, the promenade is an important feature of the urban landscape of the city. Important buildings are found here including the Supreme Court, City Hall and a church that is over 100 years old. 

With its shady trees on one side, interesting statues and a section of the last train to run through Trinidad, people can find many reasons to explore this space. Below are a few images captured in and around the Promenade.

A section of the last train engine

Shady trees on the promenade

Statue of Marcus Garvey

Pigeons enjoy crumbs thrown by a passer-by

Our Lady Of Perpetual Help (RC) Church- The first structure was built in the 1800's

Statue of Mahatma Gandhi

 Rodney Adolphus Wilkes, Trinidad and Tobago’s first Olympic medalist, hails from San Fernando

View towards the Chancery Lane end of Harris Promenade

San Fernando police station

City Hall

Historical information about the Promenade displayed outside the City Hall

The bandstand where open-air shows are held

St. Pauls Anglican Church

Aisha and Ariann are ready to reacquaint themselves with and in some cases ‘meet’ Trinidad and Tobago. Follow as these two travel to different places and interact with a multitude of faces while ‘Discovering T&T’.

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