What I Learned at Mardi Gras 2011

Here it is… We’ve been Instagramming since April 2011, and we’ve developed pretty strong feelings about our favorite traveling Instagrammers. We like to call this the “starter pack”—follow away! Our requirements for inclusion in this list are simple. You won’t find an overload of tasteless food photography or the same image over and over again, but you will see each of these Instagrammers has a definitive photographic style and a passion for people, landmarks and culture. Each is listed with [...]

As promised, my coverage of Carnival in Trinidad continues. Below is my “Just Back From” post I penned for Fodor’s Travel that details the Carnival highlights, from whining, liming and feting to everything in between. Also, you can learn what exactly those Trinidadian English terms mean in the Fodor’s post linked here: Just Back From: Carnival in Trinidad I talked a bit about high-energy, have-to-move-your-body, soca music in the post. In the video below you can hear more of the [...]

To the granola bar-eaters in the subway, the Starbucks scone-chompers on the sidewalks, the gym-baggers with your smoothies… it’s time to take a lesson from the Turks in happy breakfasting.  Breakfast, or Kahvalti, is a big deal in Turkey. Even the most basic of restaurant breakfasts come with a pile of plates: Fresh tomatoes, eggs, fresh jam, butter, multiple types of cheeses, olives, cacik (yogurt/dill spread), and kaymak (a very special kind of clotted cream). And those are just the essentials. [...]

Sculpture artist Luise Kimme was born in Germany, trained and worked around the world and settled in Tobago in 1979. Tobago, the smaller sister of the two-island nation Trinidad and Tobago, also was where she passed away last Friday following a brief illness. I had the privilege of visiting Kimme’s sculpture garden, home and studio while in Trinidad and Tobago for Carnival this past February. Kimme was sassy, eccentric and endearing the way only artists can be and her work, [...]