Trinidad & Tobago's Champion Dragon Boat Team!

Last weekend, the Trinidad & Tobago's Dragon Boat Racing Team made the islands tremendously proud, especially given that the sport was only introduced in to the islands in 2006 as part of the Chinese Bicentennial Day celebrations. Since then, regattas have taken place in both Trinidad and Tobago (primarily around Chaguaramas and Pigeon Point).

And now, just five years later, the new National Dragon Boat Team has won several medals at the International Dragon Boat Federation World Championships in Tampa, Florida.


Overall, the national team(s) came away with a whopping 20 medals:

• the Premier team: one gold, two sliver and two bronze
• the Under 23 team: four gold, one silver, five bronze
• the Under 18 team: four silver, one bronze

Big thanks to two of the team members, Summer Gibson and Stefan Williams (two colleagues of mine at the Marionettes Chorale!) for the information. All pictures courtesy them and the Trinidad & Tobago's Dragon Boat Racing Team Facebook Page.

Details of the Premier Team Races

• Men's 200m: 3rd (Phillippines 1st, Australia 2nd)
• Women's 200m: 1st (Hong Kong 2nd, Puerto Rico 3rd)
• Women's 500m: 2nd (Hong Kong 1st, Puerto Rico 3rd)
• Mixed Team 200m: 2nd (Phillippines 1st, Italy 3rd)
• Mixed Team 500m: 3rd (Phillippines 1st, Hungary 2nd)

Details of the Under 23 Team Races

• 2000m Standard Boat Mixed: 3rd 
• 10,000m Standard Boat Mixed: 3rd  
• 200m Standard Boat Mixed: 3rd  
• 200m Small Boat Female: 1st  
• 200m Small Boat Open: 1st (Hong Kong, 2nd)
• 500m Standard Boat Mixed: 3rd
• 500m All Comers Small Boat Mixed: 2nd (Canada 1st, USA 3rd)
• 500m All Comers Small Boat Open: 1st 
• 500m Small Boat Female: 3rd 
• 500m Small Boat Open: 1st 

Details of the Under 18 Team Races

• Boys' 200m: 2nd 
• Boys' 500m: 2nd 
• Girls' 200m: 2nd 
• Girls' All Comers 200m: 2nd 
• Mixed Team 200m: 3rd (Germany 1st, Canada 2nd) 

NB: small boats hold 10 paddlers, a drummer and a helmsman and the standard boats hold 20 paddlers, a drummer and a helmsman. All Under 18 mixed races were standard, 20-paddler boats; small boats were used for boy/girl junior races and for the premier team races.

Social Media Success Seminar this Saturday

That title wasn't meant to be an alliteration, but it happened to work out that way!

This Saturday 20th August, the Kimono Company is presenting a seminar on social media, called Social Media Success: A Seminar.

Myself, Kayode James, Karel McIntosh, Simone Sant-Ghuran, and Douglas Ames will all be presenting on various aspects of social media.

There are just two more days to register, as registrations close on Tuesday 16th August!


Agenda

• 8:30am: Welcome – Desiree Seebaran, seminar facilitator
• 8:45am: Defining Social Media – Kayode James, social media lecturer
• 9:10am:  
• Social Media Strategy – Karel McIntosh, Outlish Magazine 
• How the Pied Piper Uses Facebook – Simone Sant-Ghuran, TW Weddings
• 10:35am:
•  Your Identity Online –  Caroline Taylor, Media & Editorial Projects Ltd (MEP) 
•  Managing Online PR Crises – Douglas Ames, Toucan Interactive Advertising Agency
• 11:15am: Questions/General Discussion
• 12pm: Networking Lunch

So if you'd like to learn more about social media applications and strategies, come on down!

Chacachacare Island

View of the nunnery from the jetty

I have been fascinated by Chacachacare island since I first read about it a few years ago in a book by Elizabeth Nunez named Prospero's Daughter: A Novel. Now virtually abandoned (except for a small staff that maintains the lighthouse), the island is the westernmost of the Bocas islands (which lie between Trinidad and Venzuela) and is only eight miles from the Venezuelan coast. At various times in its history Chacachacare has served as a leper colony, a whaling station and a cotton plantation. It also housed almost 1000 US soldiers during the Second World War.

I had the opportunity to visit Chacachacare last Sunday with Papa Bois Hikes. We caught a very comfortable cabin cruiser from the Trinidad & Tobago Yacht Club in Westmoorings with about 15 other people and were met at Chac by another group that had taken a boat from Chaguaramas – our ride lasting about 45 minutes in very calm water. The boat took us past all of the outlying islands (where many Trinidadians go 'down the islands') including Carrera island which is used as a prison.

Chacachacare (meaning 'cotton island' in Amerinindian) is very green and bushy but as our guide explained, the Northern Mountain Range in Trinidad actually pulls rain away from the island so it only gets about 14" a year (some parts of the Northern Range get up to 4ft!). The plants on Chac have adapted, either becoming succulent, poisonous or growing thorns.

The small cemetery has the graves of some of the nuns who
worked at the Leprosarium and died from
the disease themselves

I was horrified at how much garbage has been left on the island even with all of the "no garbage" signs. One of the guides explained that there is a certain party cruise that lands there which does not provide garbage bags so the entire landing area and down to La Tinta beach is just unsightly with cans, plastic bottles, paper plates and various other bits of junk that people have just left there. I find it disgusting that anyone can go to such a beautiful place and think it's OK to turn it into a garbage dump! Luckily most of the garbage is confined to that area and the rest of the island is fairly unspoiled.

Our guides took us from the jetty, which is on the western side of the island, across a small spit of land to La Tinta Beach which faces Venezuela. From there, you can see mainland South America as well as a small island named Patos which once belonged to Trinidad but which was ceded to Venezuela in 1942 – when asked what Trinidad got in exchange, our guide explained that Trinidad was not made a colony of Venezuela!

As we made our way up a paved road (built by the US military) towards the lighthouse (supposedly the oldest in the western hemisphere), I was fascinated by the hundreds of corbeaux (vultures) circling in the air – at times I felt like they were just waiting for one of us to collapse from the heat! It's a strenuous hour-long hike up the hill and on the way the guides took the group into the bush to see some old US military installations. As a non-hiker and having my seven-year-old daughter with me, I decided not go with the main group, instead a few of us went down to a small beach where we relaxed in the warm, green water. After a few hours, the rest of the hikers joined us for lunch and a swim. It was all very civilized and charming; one of my fellow hikers even brought wine and plastic wine glasses, carried to the beach in a cooler from the boat by the captain in his small dingy.

Hiking to the nunnery

When lunch was over, we all hiked to the abandoned nunnery, a fairly easy 40-minute walk through the bush. On arrival, we explored the old buildings and the cemetery, which are slowly being reclaimed by the forest. The nuns' sleeping quarters are very creepy, set amongst the overgrown trees which even in bright daylight make the ruins gloomy and mysterious. It's easy to see why the buildings became a subject for Ghost Hunters International, especially if you carefully make your way upstairs and see the bizarre person-shaped cutouts in the wooden walls (it's believed these are where statues were fastened and it was just easier to take out the wall than detach the statue). My imagination started to play tricks with me and when a bat flew out of the building, my heart nearly flew through my chest!

The old chapel and admin buildings are still standing too although all of the buildings have unfortunately been defaced by graffiti and some of the wooden walls, floors and ceilings have been torn up to fuel campfires. The view from the admin building is pretty spectacular and, being made from concrete, felt the safest to me. I just wish that I had carried more water as it was hot and humid and we ran out when we got to the nunnery.

The group had wanted to visit the old lepers' colony but unfortunately did not have the time. Of course that means that I will have to go back because that is one place I really did want to see.

We got back to Yacht Club around 6pm, just in time for some beastly cold beers at the bar and some excellent conversation. Many thanks to Marc and Papa Bois Hikes – what a great day! And thanks to Stacey Williams for allowing me to use her images!

Related articles

• Trinidad & Tobago TV Time: Project Runway & Ghost Hunters (meppublishers.blogspot.com)

Now open: "Sundays: a Collection of Pastime Glories" photography exhibition

This month, we're excited to support our colleague Ariann Thompson in her debut photography exhibition here in Port of Spain, Trinidad!

The exhibition event, called Sundays: A Collection of Pastime Glories features the work of Ariann, Satori Hassanali, and Ihsan Atiba, opened yesterday and runs through 14th August at the Queen's Royal College Hall.

There are also three special events: the Quorum, the Forum and the Run. The Quorum was the intimate launch of the three collections, and took place yesterday. The Forum, an open mic event, takes place this Sunday 7th August. The Run takes off on 14th August, the last day of the exhibition, and is a family day and fête match bringing together all of the "past time glories" that this exhibition celebrates. It happens at the Queens Royal College Grounds and is hosted by the QRC Sunday Sweater Football Club (QSS). Part proceeds of these events will go to the QRC Renovation Fund.

The exhibition is open to the public Monday–Saturday, 2pm–6pm. All pieces are on sale, as well as other memorabilia.

Here's some more on the artists.

The artists

Ariann Mieka Thompson: Ariann has been passionate about photography for as long as she can remember. Her love for travel, exploration and for the Caribbean has had a huge influence on her creative development. Her first formal training in photography was at St. Johns University in New York, as part of her Communications degree. In 2006, one of her photographs was chosen to be included as part of BPTT’s nationwide exhibition. In 2009, Ariann journeyed to Stellenbosch, South Africa to formally study photography and graduated with distinction. This year her work was used on the cover for the current Discover Trinidad and Tobago magazine. Ariann’s love for experimentation, building unique sets and backdrops, and the bright colours, vibrant imagery and diverse people and cultures in Trinidad and Tobago are demonstrated in this collection, which is entitled "Sundaze". She muses that while we excitedly participate in a variety of Sunday activities, the day itself passes so quickly that the memory of what we did is blurred.

Satori Hassanali: Satori has titled his collection "Sunday Sweat", celebrating the wonderful tradition of informal and formal football games held on a Sunday. He illustrates that this gathering of young and old is more than recreation and invites the attendees to be part of this experience. Satori is largely self-taught, after being introduced to art at his alma mater QRC, and has a minor in Fine Arts. His work is an eclectic collection of human figures, people, culture and environment. While this collection is presented in acrylic and oil with some work in ink, Satori is constantly experimenting and learning new forms of expression.

Ihsan Khayri Atiba: Ihsan has been expressing himself through art since early childhood. He studied Visual Arts at UWI and presently teaches in his field at the secondary school level. He is a practising artist, graphic designer and poet, though this is first exhibition since graduation.
Ihsan prefers dry media – pencil, chalk pastel and charcoal – and creates still life and abstract interpretations of the human body and its movement. He explains that generally he sets a theme for any body of work, influenced by his vision of what he wants to demonstrate. He also illustrates his concepts and ideas in graphic design projects. He often blends his writing – prose and poetry – into his artwork. Ihsan’s collection is entitled "Sunday School" and reveals that while many attend Sunday service to attain resolution and answers, he often has more questions. He is therefore presenting a collection of art and poetry thematically exploring a few of these questions.

For more, visit the Facebook event page here.

A visit to the Aripo Datta Ganga

I love celebrating my birthday and usually have a list of activities for a weeklong extravaganza! This year, when thinking of what I wanted to do on the actual day, a visit to the Aripo Datta Ganga came to mind. I had never been but had seen beautiful images of this Hindu spiritual site. Plus, a dip in the river at this scenic holy site would give me extra blessings on my special day.

The Datta Ganga is found along the Aripo River, which is located in Northeast Trinidad. The river flows through the lush vegetation of the Aripo Valley in the Northern Range and is a perfect backdrop for this serene spot. 

Parking along the roadside, you walk down a very long staircase and through a small compound to the riverside. There was no one there when we visited so we could not find any information or history of this beautiful place. Instead we just explored the river and had a swim, allowing the peacefulness of the area to resonate within us. 

Here are some photos from my visit.

All images are Copyright 2011 MEP Publishers/Ariann M Thompson

Ariann is ready to reacquaint herself with and in some cases ‘meet’ Trinidad and Tobago. Follow as she travels to different places and interacts with a multitude of faces while ‘Discovering T&T’.

La Fillette Beach

La Fillette is a fishing village found along the North Coast of Trinidad. Located between Las Cuevas and Blanchisseuse, the village is well traversed as people pass through it on the way to more popular Trinidad beaches. 

Like most bays in the area, the ones found in La Fillette are tucked away and cannot be seen from the main road. I have seen the larger beach many times from above but have never walked down the winding steps onto the sand. 

Staying in the village one weekend I got the chance to go down for a swim and was pleasantly surprised. The main stretch of sand isn’t very long but was wide enough for the families that day to set up their mats and chairs. We walked past this section to a small area between large rocks. The water here was crystal clear and although it was difficult to find a sandy path through the rocks at the shores edge it was worth it! The water was warm and calm enough for me to walk out far into the ocean with my camera in hand. People were snorkeling nearby, marveling at the marine life, which included two stingrays. 

After an enjoyable swim, we sunned and air-dried on rocks, as this part of the beach did not have a lot of sand. Just before we left we even got a glimpse of a colourful eel, lazing under some rocks next to us. This beach was definitely an interesting discovery. Please note there are no facilities or lifeguards.

Here are a few images from my visit.

A view of the beach from the stairs

The rocky section of the beach

The calm water made it easy to get photos from a different vantage point

Crystal clear water

A small wave rolls by

On the other side of the rock, a man snorkels

Families enjoy the afternoon at the beach

The sun sets over the bay

All images are Copyright 2011 MEP Publishers/Ariann M Thompson

Ariann is ready to reacquaint herself with and in some cases ‘meet’ Trinidad and Tobago. Follow as she travels to different places and interacts with a multitude of faces while ‘Discovering T&T’.