Failing to understand Jamaica and why I’m never going back. Originally this was going to be a story of my regret at failing to gain a real understanding of Jamaican life but by the time came to leave, regret had descended into really not giving a fuck at all. So here’s my new story of trying to understand Jamaica. The first hurdle in trying to understand Jamaica is language. If you only looked around you this would seem like a…
The question of whether travellers should give to beggars often crops up on travel blogs but it often amounts to little more than a bunch of reasons why you shouldn’t give money, or anything even, to beggars. In fact, I’m surprised that some of them even manage to raise some basic notions of charity in their writing. What many of the discussions fail to do is take into account is an understanding of the specific contexts of different locations, implying…
Celebrating Carnival in Trinidad In much of the English-speaking world, the term Bacchanalia has been largely abandoned to the classics and literary references. However in Trinidad the spirit of the Roman cult’s frenzied celebration of Bacchus, the god of wine, freedom, intoxication and ecstasy, has been embraced in popular culture. Although modern carnivals in general are Christian in origin, a final indulgence before the abstinence of Lent, the pagan roots are brought to the fore in Trinidad. Bacchanale is a…
A cautionary tale for transit flights via the United States
The city of Cochabamba in Bolivia decided to make public transport a lot more visually stimulating for its people by splashing a load of colourful paintwork all over its buses. You have to wonder why more places don’t try something similar as its a great advert for the place and helps liven up the daily commute. Using some traditional design ideas brought up to date with modern stylings, the buses are highly distinctive but each driver has added their…
Think of an image of Bolivia. Would it be those women with the bowler hats by any chance? How about its famous, sweater wearing president Evo Morales? The bowler hats make for an iconic image, because of course we recognise them as our own culture implanted into an alien environment. The president’s sweater, proudly worn as a testament to his indigenous heritage, is however, only marginally less of an import: it may be made from local alpaca wool but needles…
The appeal of taking slow boats up the Amazon While still young children we must all have learnt that the Amazon is the biggest river in the world, along with Everest being the highest mountain and that bears shit in the woods. But once you’re on a boat in the middle of it, you soon realise that big is too small a word to do justice to its awesomeness: at times you struggle to even see the other side, that’s…
In Britain we have borrowed mañana, the Spanish word for tomorrow, to describe that relaxed approach to timekeeping that becomes more apparent as you travel south in Europe, a characteristic that some would say only strengthens as you continue in the direction of the tropics. Once you cross the Mediterranean it mutates into the Arabic, “boukra in sha Allah” (tomorrow God willing), that delightful method of politely declining all future commitment by outsourcing the occurence of all events to the…
The nightlife of Manaus, Brazil. Saturday night and it was party time outside the Manguieras bar, cockroaches from near and far had congregated in an erratic, scuttling dance formation around the warm stench of the drain to soak up the vibes and the bounty of decaying matter on offer. Grinning senior citizens strutted carefree to the four-piece band, the singer enthusiastically demonstrating an equally carefree attitude to harmony; the musicians expressing one of those Brazilian styles that demands only a…
Motorbikes, Muslims, fashion and the modern woman in Burkina Faso. When your brain does a Google image search on the terms Muslim women, African women or African Muslim women, what comes to mind? I won’t be so presumptuous to think that my regular readers are the kind of people to jump immediately to the stereotypes of poverty and oppression, or at the very least to move on from them after a moment’s reflection – after all there are many…
