One Road- Ariann Mieka

The wide trail to the beach was sandwiched between a dense mix of vegetation that included what looked like mangrove and an array of beautiful local flowers. The thick foliage captured my attention and my eyes darted from side to side marveling at the plants. Nearing the end of the trail, I looked in front of me and caught a glimpse of the Marianne beach. I smiled and the wind blew as if to greet me. “Welcome to paradise,” it whispered.  L: Marianne Beach, Blanchichesse, R: A lone coconut on the sand The waves rolling in at Marianne Beach Our country possesses some of most beautiful places in the world and Blanchisseuse is certainly on the list. Exploring this small scenic village, in the north coast of Trinidad, you find that adventure and breathtaking views are always right around the corner. Spreading a mat down on the sand I was filled with a joy that can only come from being within an oasis!  Beautiful Scenery at the bea...

With a slogan of “We don’t pose we party”, its no surprise that everyone was talking about the crop over band Xhosa Barbados after their debut last year. Even though the band was new to the Crop Over scene, they showcased beautiful costumes and successfully created that sought after no hassle party vibe on the road. This year I was invited again to tag along on the two-day photo shoot of their new 2016 presentation   “From Royalty to Redemption” which pays tribute to Barbados’ 50th year of Independence. I was excited to discover more of the island’s beautiful scenery and also to see what costume designs they came up with this year. The beauty team working their magic! Makeup Artist: M Deane Beauty Hair: Atelier by Gigi The location of the shoot on day one was an estate on which the photographer had pre selected a few spots to showcase the costumes. I loved the fact that this location had many different scenes to utilize as backgrounds within a very short proximity ...

Note: I loved the discussion "On Being" had with Pico Iyer from which the above quote comes from.  Find the full interview at this link:  http://www.onbeing.org/program/pico-iyer-the-art-of-stillness/7615/audio?embed=1

Reggae Geel in Belgium is one of the oldest reggae music festivals in Europe, so we were very excited when we found out that Verse was going to be performing there in 2014. “It was my first season of being in festivals in Europe and to be included in the oldest reggae festival that attracted 60,000 people was just kinda surreal.” iTal said.  Travelling for about 2 hours from Antwerp Central to Geel by train we were met by our good friends from Culture Rock Soundsystem at the train station. We had some time before Verse needed to get to the venue so we went to the hotel to put down our bags and relax a bit. The hotel was just lovely. It was a quirky, old but well renovated space in the middle of the woods with very friendly and accommodating staff. Verse fell in love with the place immediately and if it wasn’t for his performance, a love that trumps all, we might have stayed there all day! A ferris wheel was set up in front of Antwerp Centraal Station so we decided to ...