Farsighted Fly Girl

2018 was really some kind of year! It was filled with unexpected situations as well as familiar scenes and there was a clear pattern to the year's travel. I embarked on new, unforgettable journeys to countries that start with "G": Greece, Guadeloupe and Ghana.  And I returned to beloved, familiar destinations; St. Lucia, St. John, Tobago and Montreal, for a whole new perspective. "The Year of Return" is also the theme for Ghana's year-long commemoration of 400 years since the first enslaved African arrived in the U.S.. A celebration of the resilience of the African spirit, the 2019 Year of Return welcomes all the Diaspora to return home and re-connect. That's exactly what I did during my life-changing trip to Ghana. From the time I stepped onto the streets of Accra, I was welcomed like a daughter returned from a long trip. I cried during most of my time at Cape Coast Castle , shown above, the site where thousands were imprisoned and then shipped...

This week, I'm off to my beloved St. Lucia.  It's been a few years but there's always something new  or requiring another turn on this gorgeous island. I'll be reviewing St. Lucia Jazz Fest,   which I haven't visited since Amy Winehouse performed her last show there in 2009 .  That was a sad and unforgettable experience so I hope to create new, more positive memories at the rebooted fest, which actually focuses on jazz music this time. The line up  features  mostly Caribbean jazz artists so I'm excited to hear the shows. I'll also make a necessary stop to Soufriere volcano and sulphur springs  as well as my first visit to the legendary St. Kitts Caribelle Batik at their St. Lucia location.  Videos, pix and reviews coming soon so please stay tuned!

What a whirlwind of travel experiences that 2015 ushered in! As I look back over the year, it feels like I stuffed two years worth of adventures into one. I traveled to 11 different destinations and I'm grateful for the sights, sensations and memories that will always be with me. I can't adequately list every single favorite experience because there were so many but here are the standouts: Walking through the cold and rainy cobblestone streets of the Czech Republic and being dazzled by the fairy tale scenery, like in the UNESCO town of Telc, pictured above. I strolled through castles dating from the 9th century,ate dinner with singing Czech miners and explored the oldest and best preserved Jewish quarter outside of Israel. And that's just a few of my Czech memories. The colors and vibrant culture of Guatemala immediately grabbed me, there was so much history and life, everywhere I turned. I climbed my third volcano, sampled classic Guatemalan ciusine and met Liria...

St. Lucia is an island that epitomizes the idea of paradise. From striking views of the Pitons twin peaks to lush rain forests and surreal beaches, this island overflows with natural beauty. So I guess I should have been prepared when I arrived in the village of Soufriere at Anse Chastanet Resort  and was greeted with a three walled room that showcased the vistas up close. I'll do a post about my room later but non-stop gazing out at that stunning landscape made me think that I had absorbed all the perfection possible. I was so wrong. After hopping a water taxi to Anse Mamin, about 10 minutes north of Anse Chastanet, my mouth dropped. A tiny black sand beach surrounded with cerulean waves and only a handful of people unfolded before me. It looked like a Gauguin painting, it was so unspoiled and tranquil. An open air kitchen served up what was reported to be "the world's best burger," to be enjoyed under palapas with views of the sea. I ordered the fish burger ...

Farmers markets offer Americans an easy way to buy fresh produce, directly from the farmers. But in St. Lucia, this concept gets a Caribbean twist with this farmer floating out to our sailboat with freshly picked tropical fruit. The sensory delight of his coral-colored canoe, laden with gold and green fruit against the deep sapphire ocean was not lost on me. I just gazed at the spectacle for awhile before I could even focus on what I would taste. In the end, I passed up juicy starfruit and luscious mango for my all time favorite, jelly coconut.  The farmer whipped out his machete and swiftly opened my coconut, handing it to me before he floated off. I can still taste the lightly sweet coconut water, swirling around the jelly pulp at the bottom. What's your favorite fruit to try when you travel?

It's turning out to be a very busy year end for me. I'm still processing Oaxaca and the beauty of Huatulco but this week I'm off to one of my favorite islands, St. Lucia. This press trip is sponsored by Coconut Bay Resort , where you may recall, I experienced the unexpected pleasure of paintball in paradise , a few years ago. I'll be tackling another unlikely adventure this time, with a dive into kite surfing as well as stand-up paddle boarding. Wish me luck on that, I'm not known for having great balance so we'll see how this turns out. I'll also return to St. Lucia's famous drive in volcano and take a catamaran journey around the island.  One thing I won't be attempting this time, is scaling St. Lucia's twin peaks, The Pitons, one of which is captured above.I need to leave something for the next visit! Stay tuned for St. Lucia posts and pics next week.

They call him Michelangelo of the Caribbean but that's not how he was introduced to me.  Tall and genial, with flashing gray eyes, Sir Dunstan St. Omer was introduced to me as St. Lucia's leading artist and cultural expert.  I later discovered that he represents much more than that.  I made the mistake of trying to interview him during the St. Lucia Jazz Fest.  We walked through the fest and every three minutes, he was stopped by men and women hugging him.  Finally, we had to be escorted by security to a private tent, which was the only way I could talk to this beloved icon undisturbed. I thought a photo of Dunstan next to the vivid St. Lucia flag, above, made a powerful image. I later found out that it was Dunstan who designed the flag, with it's cerulean blue representing St. Lucia's sky and sea.  Along with Derek Walcott, Dunstan St. Omer symbolizes the genius of St. Lucian culture, which boasts the highest ratio of Nobel Laurea...

I'm an island girl and a city girl but no matter where I am, I love being near the water. In St. Lucia, that's easy of course. My all time favorite view is the gorgeous sweep of the Caribbean Sea with the Pitons looming over it. That's the dreamiest view that I've ever witnessed. When I'm in my hometown, the view of the Chicago River with Marina City (the round building) filling the skyline always energizes me. What's your favorite view?

Jamaica has reggae, Trinidad has calypso, Cuba has son and St. Lucia has shak shak music. Folk music defines Caribbean culture and in St. Lucia, it's the shak shak rattle or shakare, fiddle, cuatro, banjo and drum that form the shak-shak band, which displays the essence of native Kweyol culture. Kweyol is the French-based Creole dialect spoken only in St. Lucia and nearby Dominica. The upbeat rhythms of shak shak music ring out from fish fries, small rural gatherings and many hotels. I met Lawrence James, the shak shak and harmonica player above, on the lovely Fond Du Estate. He has been playing since he was a child and like most folk musicians, is self-taught. James' shak shak is fashioned with tin cans and seeds, which float around to make the requisite scratchy sound. Recently, a revival of traditional Kweyol culture has encouraged young people to learn shak shak music and songs. In the video below, a small shak shak band composed of shak shak, banjo and drums play for a g...

Maybe it's my love of drama but I love volcanoes. It's no coincidence that most of my favorite places sport a lava-spewing peak or two. After the Pitons, La Soufriere drive-in volcano tops the list as St. Lucia’s most recognizable landmark. It’s also the smelliest, with the strong, rotten-egg scent of sulfur wafting over the area for miles. An active volcano with bubbling gases and seething sulfur pools, La Soufriere allows visitors to drive up to a few 100 feet of the crater and then walk through a fault in the substratum rock on a guided tour. It’s a fascinating display, especially Gabriel’s Hole, the place in a steaming fissure where a tour guide sunk into the boiling mud in 1985. He survived with second degree burns but now all of the vents are fenced off. One of the essential activities at La Soufriere is a dip in the gurgling hot sulfur baths. The warm, muddy sulfur deposits are reputed to help arthritis, eczema and instantly soothe mosquito bites. After days lolling aro...

Dasheen plants, also called taro, cocoyam or eddo, grow all over the Caribbean region. A starchy tuber that tastes more flavorful than a potato, dasheen is a staple in most Caribbean diets. The Ladera Resort is located on the hills of a former dasheen plantation, which is how its noted restaurant got its name. If you can't manage to stay at the lovely Ladera, eating at Dasheene is a must. Overlooking the twin-peaked, Piton mountains and surrounded by the Caribbean sea with lush vegetation and flowers everywhere, Dasheene is worth the view alone. The food however, is the real star attraction. Renowned Executive Chef Orlando Satchell describes his nouvelle Caribbean cuisine as not overly spicy, well-seasoned, with English and French influences. He also calls it sex on a plate, which is exactly how I think of it. The colors, flavors and spices meld together to create the most tantalizing spectacles that it looks like food porn. London-born with Jamaican heritage, Orlando focuses on pl...

I returned home from St. Lucia to discover controversy brewing about the island's most famous son, Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. He was a front-runner for the highly prestigious, mostly honorary position of Oxford University Professor of Poetry. But a few days ago, he withdrew his candidacy because of a nasty behind-the-scenes, smear campaign. Instead of a first black professor of poetry, Oxford now has its first woman, Ruth Padel. And there has been nothing even remotely poetic about the fallout. The issues of course, run a lot deeper than just gender and racial politics. Derek Walcott has been plagued with sexual harassment claims for years. London's Guardian revealed the salacious details of how anonymous opponents of Walcott, largely believed to be backers for Padel, sent photo copies from the book The Lecherous Professor to Oxford academics. The book explores the 1982 sexual harassment claims made by a Harvard student against Walcott. Rather than dignify such u...

Tropical paradise is an overused term but St. Lucia truly personifies the concept. The tiny island isn't called the Helen of the West Indies for nothing. Helen of Troy's legendary beauty inspired wars but the gorgeous St. Lucia landscape inspires a hypnotic daze. There's jaw-dropping beauty everywhere you turn, from the twin peaks of the Pitons, to the lush rain forests and the cobalt blue waters. Ladera eco resort in Soufriere embraces all this natural beauty. The 32 rooms of the resort display only 3 walls, so that the stunning views of mountain ridges and the Pitons are never obscured. There are no TVs, phones or radios on Ladera. The only sounds you hear are of tree frogs and splashing waves. The Pitons hover over the entire resort, offering panoramic views from every room's angle. Ladera feels like a luxury tree house, where you can gaze out at treetops and vegetation constantly. All of Ladera's materials, including wood, stonework, terracotta tiles and decor a...

As if jaw-dropping tropical beauty wasn't enough, St. Lucia also offers one of nature's most important treasures--chocolate! Several cocoa plantations dot the lush southern part of the island. I toured Fond Doux Estate, a locally owned organic cocoa plantation in Soufriere, where I witnessed the cocoarena dance. After the cocoa beans have dried, workers jump into a basin and dance on hundreds of beans. They swivel their hips and toss up their heels better than any of the "Macarena" girls. Besides entertainment, the dance polishes the beans and removes any blemishes. The beans are placed in a drying bin and left to roast in the sun for 2-3 weeks. That's after the initial drying and fermentation period of 5-6 weeks. Only a small percentage of the beans make the cut to be shipped to Hershey's chocolate company in Pennsylvania. Before they are dried and polished,cocoa beans are nestled in cocoa pods, covered in a custard-like substance. I sampled ...