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::TRAVEL NEWS::
LE Newsletter - February 2, 2012
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Seven Must-Do Parties In The Caribbean
Source:
www.thestar.com - Mark Stevens
(Jan 27, 2012) TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS—The walls of
Tortola’s
Bomba Shack bar are rudimentary at best. A few warped sheets of
plywood comprise the roof; bras, panties, t-shirts and bikinis
decorate the walls.
Still pretty tame at 9 p.m., but wait until midnight during the
Full Moon Party.
It’s probably the most notorious bash in the
Caribbean.
It certainly tops the list of must-dos for the sun-worshipping
partier.
FULL MOON RISING
Bomba Shack, perched like a drunken pelican over the sand of
Carrot Bay, is no family restaurant.
Bikini donors get a free drink — several if the staff gets to
watch the disrobing.
When the clock strikes 12, a different kind of drink appears.
Magic mushroom tea.
The band belts out Bob Marley covers.
Things start to sizzle in the silvery light of the moon.
Can’t wait for sundown? Try the Soggy Dollar Bar on nearby Jost
Van Dyke. Spring break resurrected — hard bodies in surf shorts
and bikinis, quaffing painkillers beside power boats that arrive
from St. Thomas every Sunday.
Bar owner Jerry O’Connell surveys the scene. “Our party ends at
5 p.m.”
FULL MOON RISING (THE SEQUEL)
“Moonsplash” on
Anguilla
is also tied to the full moon, but this party’s an annual thing
— held in March.
Two nights of live entertainment, as much a festival as a party,
celebrating indigenous Caribbean reggae music.
Party central — Banky Banx’s Dune Reserve — is an A-list bar.
The structure is such that anything stronger than a zephyr could
turn it into matchsticks, but the CNNGo website rates it as the
world’s best beach bar.
Anguilla is also an A-list island, so the person dancing beside
you probably is a celebrity.
And don’t worry about the blue smoke. This is, after all, mostly
a reggae splash.
SHINDIG AT SHIRLEY HEIGHTS
Every Sunday afternoon, a procession of vehicles climbs the road
to Shirley Heights, the ruins of an 18th-century garrison on
Antigua’s
south coast.
At 4 o’clock, the party starts — liquid melodies courtesy of a
steel band wafting on the trade winds, mixing with the grey
smoke and aroma of lobster, jerk pork, barbecue chicken, washed
down with killer rum punches.
The sun falls (one of the Caribbean’s best sunsets) and the
steel band disappears. Now it’s live reggae and soda.
“Two Sundays we’ve missed since 1981,” says proprietor Valerie
Hodge. “An island tradition.”
SERIOUS FUN
The motto of the Heineken Regatta on the twin-nation island of
Sint Maarten/St. Martin
is the perfect metaphor for both the venue and the celebration:
Serious Fun.
Serious sailboats race here by day during this annual March
fete. But the fun is just as serious.
One night they transform the Dutch city of Philipsburg into
party central — food vendors, beer kiosks, three stages with
live bands. Beach bash another night, on yet another grilled
lobster in Marigot, on the island’s French side.
And headline acts such as Maxi Priest and Black-Eyed Peas.
THE TOWN THAT NEVER SLEEPS
A lady flips sizzling tuna steaks on the makeshift barbecue. She
laughs when I ask her about the town that never sleeps.
“Any hour of the day,” yells the resident of Guoyave on
Grenada’s
northwest coast, over the bass tones that rumble down the
cobblestone street like a rogue wave from speakers piled three
metres high. “Rummies crawl home, fishermen head out to sea.
Never sleeps.”
Fish Fridays are the highlight of the Grenadian social calendar,
a combination of church social and jump-up.
It’s mostly a local institution but visitors are cordially
invited.
GROS ISLET JUMP-UP
St. Lucia
is blessed with incredible scenery, lush vegetation, perfect
beaches and a smattering of soporific fishing villages.
Unless you’re there on Friday night, wandering on the streets of
Gros Islet.
Picture a local resident dancing with a beer bottle balanced on
his head. Writhing bodies, sweat-glistened and downright
sensual, dancing in the barricaded streets.
It all started about 20 years ago when an enterprising bar owner
moved a pair of speakers onto the pavement outside his
establishment and cranked up the music.
It’s called a “jump-up” because that’s a necessary prerequisite
to dancing.
But it’s not for the faint of heart.
FAREWELL TO MEAT
Just before the self-denial that characterizes Lent,
Trinidadians
pull out all the stops for Carnival.
The festival’s name comes from the Latin: “carne” for meat,
“vale” for farewell.
That might signal the end of meat, but it’s just the beginning
of the party.
The chief can’t-miss event is “J’ouverte.”
Floats with mud-splattered dancers; lascivious costumes that
make the people wearing them look like strutting peacocks;
calypso music you feel in the pit of your stomach; the world’s
biggest steel band competition.
All in a city ringed by mountains, nearly a million people
thronging the streets in a celebration that, according to one
anthropologist, makes New Orleans’ Mardi Gras “look like a
Veterans Day parade.”
Think Caribana. To the nth degree.
Mark Stevens is a freelance writer based in
Caledon, Ont.
JUST THE FACTS
ARRIVING:
Air Canada has just
launched a non-stop flight from Toronto to St. Thomas, a quick
ferry ride away from Tortola. It offers twice-weekly non-stop
flights to Antigua, four weekly flights to St. Lucia and a
Saturday non-stop flight to Sint Maarten, a 40-minute ferry ride
from Anguilla.
Caribbean Airlines has
non-stop flights to Trinidad and
WestJet offers non-stop to
Sint Maarten and St. Lucia.
EATING: Nosh on fish cakes at Gros Islet, grilled lobster
on St. Martin, the ribs at Shirley Heights and the tuna kebabs
in Guoyave.
DRINKING: Painkillers at Soggy Dollar. The rum punch at
Shirley Heights. Go for a Duneshine or Dune rum punch in
Anguilla; sip a Heineken at the Heineken. Down anything with
Chairman Reserve Rum or a Piton beer at Gros Islet.
PARTY CENTRAL: Every full moon at Bomba Shack in BVI,
every Sunday at Soggy Dollar on Jost Van Dyke and
Shirley Heights in
Antigua. Every Friday at
Gros Islet and
Grenada’s Guoyave. The
Heineken Regatta happens
from March 1-4, while the Trinidad Carnival “J’Ouverte” is Feb.
20-21. |
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::ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADAN TWIST::
