Guest Contributor - Caribbean Living Lifestyle Blog

Circumnavigation to St Lucia

nospam@example.com (Guest Contributor) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:54:00 -0500

Participants of the 2007-2008 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers who just didn’t want to go home have had the opportunity of continuing on around the world for another 14 months. On March 26th 2009, they will be approaching St Lucia again having circumnavigated the world.

The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers provides sailors with the opportunity of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a sheltered environment by travelling as a group. There are usually over 200 yachts that start from the Canary Islands and complete the journey in St Lucia. The World Atlantic Rally for Cruisers is an event designed for those who just want to keep on going.

The route took the 37 vessels involved, from St Lucia last January through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos, across the Pacific via Fiji and Tahiti to Australia, then past the Maldives to South Africa and onto Brazil. Plenty of time was allowed to stop off at places of interest and to cruise independently off the “beaten track”.

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Working in the Caribbean

nospam@example.com (Guest Contributor) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:11:00 -0500

The average daily commute is long enough to travel 2.5 times around the world in a lifetime. That is a lot of hours, when you could be doing something interesting! Instead of sitting in a traffic jam, or standing in a packed commuter train feeling stressed that you are going to be late for work, you may wish to consider a change of lifestyle and have something a little more exciting?

Relocating to the Caribbean could take you away from commuting and cold weather and allow you to work from home in a land where the sun shines almost every day of the year. But what would you do for income? Here are a few basic ideas just to whet your appetite:

Running an Online Business

It is always nice if you can come up with a new idea and start a small online business; however it takes many hours and a lot of hard work, to build a business to the point where it can support you - even if your new Caribbean lifestyle does not require you to earn the income that you previously needed for living in the "real world".

The alternative is to consider buying one of the many small online businesses for sale, that have already gone through their initial growing pains and are returning a steady profits. Search terms such as “sites for sale” or " online business for sale" will quickly give you and idea of the large number of businesses available.

Being a Freelance Writer

Writing a book, articles, technical manuals, or even your own blog can earn you a steady income. If you are a creative writer, writing a blog based on the additional traffic it brings to the website can be lucrative. Articles can also provide a living, with the average 1,500 word article paying anywhere from US$200 and upwards. Books of course are a much longer term venture, and cannot be counted upon to support you, unless you have already established yourself with a publisher as an author.

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Silver Lining to Redundancy

nospam@example.com (Guest Contributor) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:57:00 -0600

It's impossible to shrug off the despondency that can seep in like a cold winters fog, over the days that follow getting the news that you have been made redundant. The redundancy letter, no matter how nicely worded and appreciative of your contributions to the company, is likely to immediately turn your whole life upside down. However for some there is a silver lining in the redundancy payout - as this may allow a major change in the direction of your life.

Many choose to invest their redundancy cash into starting up a small businesses, or into an extension for the home, whilst others disillusioned with being made redundant, the falling property prices and the general economic gloom this winter, have taken the decision to up sticks and head for a new life in the sun.

Where better than the Caribbean where property prices on most islands are still rising steadily and you are guaranteed sunshine nearly every day of the year. Choosing some of the cheaper islands as your new home, can give you a better lifestyle for less per month due to the significantly lower cost of living, and for a few dollars extra, also allow you to employ a maid and a gardener.
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Life in the Slow Lane

nospam@example.com (Guest Contributor) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:11:49 -0600

At only 37 square miles big....you wouldn't have thought there would be any commuting issues and that wherever you wanted to go wouldn't take long ? However St Maarten's narrow roads are crammed with traffic in long crawling queues every rush hour, with the occasional raising of Simpson's Bay Bridge to allow yachts to enter or leave the lagoon, only making things worse.

However unusual a traffic jam might be in the Caribbean, there are some unusual facts about St Maarten too. This interesting island is split into two, with each part belonging to a different nation. St Maarten (17 sq miles) on the South belongs to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and forms part of the Netherlands Antilles, a group of islands including Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire. Whist St Martin on the North is a department of France and so is a part of Europe and the European Community. It is the smallest land mass in the world that is shared by two nations.

You can drive around the whole island in approximately one hour, so long as it's not during rush hour and enjoy plenty of sights along the way; including watching jumbo jets land at the island's large and newly refurbished international airport. The perimeter fence of the airport is right next to one of the 37 public beaches, and sunbathers can get blown over in the sandblast created by the delivery of more tourists from colder climes.

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Caribbean Christmas - Celebrations from the Region

nospam@example.com (Guest Contributor) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:00:00 -0600

It’s Christmas time once again and in the Caribbean we have some very distinct ways of celebrating the season. Here are a few from around the region.

In Dominica, one of my favorite Christmas time traditions is “bursting bamboo.” I feel as though I'm in the middle of a world war, as I hear the loud bomb-like noise coming from the area. Traditionally bamboo bursting commences a celebratory activity. A hole is made on one of the ends of a piece of bamboo, and when you add some kerosene, light a match and put it through the hole in the bamboo you've got yourself a deafening noise! So around the villages at this time of year you might very well hear that loud noise. While this is fun to do with the right know-how, it can be very dangerous. So please proceed with caution if you want to try your own bamboo bursting.

In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, if you find yourself humming the tune “Twelve days of Christmas”, you’ll soon realize that you need to subtract three days from the song. From December 16th to 24th, nine mornings before Christmas, locals participate in the annual Nine Mornings Festival, which spans nine days of festivities from 4 a.m. to dawn. Christmas ‘Vincy’ style is a unique celebration and this particular festival ensures that Vincentians have a distinctive story to tell.

Locals wake in the early morning and take part in a multitude of activities including church services, fetes (parties), beach limes, street concerts or go to the capital of Kingstown to take in competitions that include singing and fun competitions such as speech making, beer drinking and banana eating, crying, laughing, ‘ring play’ games and story telling. Imagine dancing, caroling, and taking in the sound of steel pan bands and other music bands in the wee hours of the morning. In the rural areas, the final morning of the festivity usually ends with a steel band “jump-up”. In recent years, people have taken to the ‘lighting up’ of towns, villages, commercial buildings, churches and private homes.

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Strange Overtones at the Midnight Hour - By Laurie Stevens

nospam@example.com (Guest Contributor) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:00:00 -0600

Living in a country setting – to a city denizen at least – can remain a distant wish over many years of summing up the pros and cons of whichever lifestyle you feel the most comfortable with. Having all the services, conveniences, streetlights and ease of urban commute remains a deep-rooted warmth that many would not give up, even for the rustic purity of fresh air, more space and fewer vehicles clogging the highways. Some of us though have thrown caution to the big winds, made the move to the remote environs and as they say in ‘street cred’ “Bring it on, ‘mon’- bring it on!”

Our setting in the mid-upper Layou Valley of Dominica is virtually neighbourless with views that centre upon many tree-line levels, a backcloth of verdant cliffs and a picturesque winding road that provides us with a quick access to whatever social intercourse one needs without sacrificing one iota of privacy.

Though remote, we have always felt safe in this area and ‘tuned in’ with the locals. How strange then, that late in the evening - as I was battling with a Windward Islands version of ‘Montezuma’s Revenge’, the dogs struck up their loudest chorus and my better half shouted as if she was on the downhill descent from a roller coaster. “Someone’s climbing up the telegraph pole with a torch! Do something!!” In my state the only reply I could give to my wondrous one was that “I am doing something at a great rate and fixed to the spot. Improvise, will you?!”

When I eventually emerged from the bathroom it was greeted with a mildly sarcastic comment of “Well, here’s my hero now!” The dogs were not impressed with me either, but seemed to have downsized their excitement somewhat. Outside was blacker than liquorice, even the stars were in remission and whatever was upsetting the peace had disappeared. So I just stared at what was scantily possible to discern, thinking out loud as to what sort of a ‘torches and a telegraph pole’ mystery was about to unfold.
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Amaranth - Healthy, Easy and Delicious

nospam@example.com (Guest Contributor) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:04:27 -0500

In the Caribbean, you may have noticed that if you burn the bush and dried grass in your yard, what you usually see after a few weeks is a wild weed. Often this weed is actually a commonly available vegetable - wild spinach.

Wild spinach can be found almost anywhere because it is extremely adaptable to adverse growing conditions. It is a great addition to have in your vegetable plot as it will even grow just from sticking a branch into the soil, I know because I have tried it. I myself have become very fond of this vegetable because it is so easy to grow, needs very little care, and has so many ways in which it can be cooked.

Amaranth; locally known as wild spinach or zepina, is a weed that has been eaten by mankind for thousands of years and can be found growing wild and/or cultivated worldwide. The young leaves and stems of the amaranth plant are consumed as a vegetable in many countries and cultures. The leaves are eaten in salads, soups, stews, stir-frys, and a wide variety of other savoury dishes. In the Caribbean this plant is often the spinach used in callalou soup.

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