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An Inspiration to Jamaica: Pioneer Bobsledder, Devon Harris

mayo 31st, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Local Characters - (0 Comments)

At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the world was truly surprised to see the tropical country of Jamaica competing in bob-sledding, a cold-weather sport. But the Jamaican four-man team quickly won the world over: Despite having to borrow spare sleds from other countries to compete, the Jamaicans were determined to show the world their sportsmanship.

The team didn’t technically finish the race: they crashed midway, but after which, they famously got out of their sled and walked to the finish line to great applause. This inspirational team inspired the movie, Cool Runnings. The characters in the film are fictional, although the original footage of the crash and the monumental walk of victory was used in the film. The bobsledding team continued to participate in the Winter Olympics the following years and showed significant improvement throughout the games. In 2000, the Jamaican bobsleigh team won the gold medal at the World Push Championships in Monaco.

Bringing Bobsledding to the Winter Olympics

So how on earth did the Jamaican team get introduced to the winter sport of bobsledding? The pioneering bobsleigh team was founded by two Americans who had family and business ties to Jamaica. During a visit to the island, they saw a pushcart derby and realized how similar pushcart racing is to bobsledding. Since bobsleighing requires a fast start, the Americans decided to recruit sprinters for the team. The idea was presented to the Jamaican Defence Force and a team selection was held, with Devon Harris finishing off with the fastest push time. He was obviously given the nickname ‘Pele’ for good reasons.

A Jamaican Pride

Harris became one of the founding members of the Jamaican bobsled team, fulfilling his dream of representing Jamaica in the Olympics. His ‘keep on pushing’ mentality played an important role in the success of the Jamaican bobsledding team – inspiring and motivating his fellow teammates to push on and finish the race. Harris has since founded the Keep On Pushing Foundation to support and enhance the education of kids in disadvantaged communities around the globe. He also works with Right to Play as an athlete ambassador, supporting their efforts in using sports and play in refugee camps around the world to enhance child development and build community capacity. Today, he has retired from bobsledding but he still works as a motivational speaker to help people around the world.

Although bobsledding didn’t gain catch on in Jamaica (it is a cold weather sport after all!), it did give Jamaicans plenty of reason to be proud of their own country. To the youths of Jamaica, they now know that there is nothing they can’t do.

Photo | Devonharris.com

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Are Cuban Cigars Truly Still the World’s Best Cigars?

mayo 29th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)


The crew of Christopher Columbus first discovered tobacco on the island of Hispaniola (mostly occupied by today’s Dominican Republic), then encountered it again once they got to Cuba. And over the centuries, Cuba has become famous for cigarmaking, but it’s hardly been limited to Cuba – in fact other countries turn out them out, too, such as the DR, Honduras, Nicaragua, and even the United States (and in some cases in greater numbers).  But especially because of Cuba’s combination of skilled growers and rollers, together with optimum soils and climate – especially in the west of the island where much of the growing is concentrated, Cuban puros (also known as habanos) have long been considered the crème de la crème by many, perhaps most aficionados.

There are a bit over two dozen brands, the most popular of which is called Montecristo; others include Romeo y Julieta, Partagás, Punch, Hoyo de Monterrey, Quintero, H Upmann, and Cohiba (the last a popular and top-quality brand created in the early 80s; its latest version, added in 2010, is the limited-edition Behike). The westernmost province of Pinar del Río, especially its Vuelta Abajo district, remains the epicenter of the country’s tobacco industry, though there are other areas east of Havana around the center of the island near Trinidad, and out east in Oriente near Santiago de Cuba.

Cigars are an important hard-currency earner as well as a definite point of prestige for the government, and for many visitors they’re a big part of the tourism experience. Every time I go to Havana’s Hotel Nacional I spot foreigners lounging out in the courtyard over stogies and mojitos (the capital also boasts a handsome cigar-themed boutique hotel, the Conde de Villanueva); Havana’s Corona and Partagás cigar factories, little changed in generations, are popular stops on the sightseeing circuit; and the Festival del Habano brings enthusiastic crowds to town every February.

Non-Cuban Cigars Rising, But…

More than a few cigar aficionados assert that Cubans are still the best cigars in the world, but others say that thanks to the post-revolution exodus of generations of Cuban tobacco seeds and cigarmaking talent to places like Honduras, Nicaragua, and especially the Dominican Republic have resulted in quality as good as that and in some cases better than that coming out of Cuba these days. In many cases it boils down to a matter of opinion, and at least some of the reverence for Cuban cigars may be due to longstanding mystique – and at least for Americans, a bit of the “forbidden fruit” factor, since their import is banned by the longstanding U.S. government embargo of Cuba.

Furthermore, more than a few experts have noted that Cuban quality has declined since all manufacturing was seized and consolidated by the revolutionary régime in the early 1960s, causing many brands to go defunct and driving out of the country a lot of those skilled in the craft. Since then, mismanagement, corruption (the latest big round of arrests was in 2010), and periodic crop failures have also taken their toll.

Yet even today, habanos do in fact remain among the world’s best and they’ve certainly held on to their cultlike following. So if you’re a cigar fan and find yourself at one of Cuba’s nine Iberostar properties (Havana, Varadero, Trinidad, Cayo Coco), do stop by your hotel or resort’s cigar shop and check out the “sticks” (as smokers call them), to see what all the fuss is about.

Photo | James Emery

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Huipiles: The Traditional Wearable Art of the Mayas

mayo 28th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)

If while vacationing at Iberia’s great Mexico resorts in Cancun, on the Riviera Maya, or the island of Cozumel you find yourself in one of the Yucatan’s Maya villages or even just browsing in many gift shops, you’ll see huipiles (also called hipiles). They’re boxy ladies’ cotton tops, either white with colorful embroidery and stitching or in some of the more elaborate versions, complex designs; they can range from sleeveless blouses to tuniclike garments extending most of the way down the legs.

Often made by women with simple “backstrap” looms (a wood-and-cloth contraption tied to a wood post), huipiles can take weeks or even months to weave, depending on its complexity. The craft and designs go back centuries, and the motifs in the designs including not just the merely attractive and decorative (flowers, hummingbirds, butterflies) but reflect a variety of cultural symbolism and traditions. Some, for those who know how to read the language of huipil designs (and that of course includes almost none of us), also refer to the wearers’ village or region, language, marital status, and various other aspects of her life. In that sense it’s a deeply personalized possession, you might say it’s akin to a Mayan Facebook page in cloth (OK, well, I might say that).

As a gringo visitor, of course, the huipiles available to you for purchase will largely stick to the more generalized motifs of Mayan culture. But these are beautiful enough, and few are the souvenirs you could bring back from your Yucatan vacation that are more meaningful and attractive – or make more of a conversation piece – than a Mayan huipil.

Photo | Wikipedia

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Paprika!

mayo 25th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)

 

 

If you come to the Hungarian capital to stay at the Iberostar Grand Hotel Budapest, and if you travel around Hungary, you’ll no doubt be tasting a lot of Hungarian cuisine. And I can tell you from experience that means a lot of paprika. This spice is used in cookery throughout much of the world, but boy do Madyars love them some reddish pepper powder – and in some cases in much stronger versions than the capsicum annuum you might use in your own kitchen.

The word paprika is itself Hungarian but derives from Serbo-Croatian papar which in turn comes down from the Latin piper. The stuff was introduced by the Turks in the 16th century (remember, the Ottoman Turks invaded and lorded over parts of Central Europe a few centuries back), but over the centuries since the Madyars have turned it into their own national culinary icon.  And like Peruvians with potatoes and Inuit with ice and snow, they’ve developed a nomenclature that can be, shall we say, somewhat complex:

Különleges (“special quality”) – sweet with a deep bright red color.

Csípősmentes csemege (“delicate”) – mild but rich flavor, light to dark red

Csemegepaprika (“exquisite delicate”) a bit more more pungent than csípősmentes csemege

Csípős csemege, pikáns (“pungent exquisite delicate”)  - even more punget than the above

Rózsa (“rose”) – strong aroma, mildly pungent, pale red color

Édesnemes (“noble sweet”) – bright red, slightly pungent (this is the one most commonly exported)

Félédes (“half-sweet”) -  blend of mild and pungent, so of medium pungency

Erős (“strong”) – the “five alarms” of paprika, a light brown in color

Hungarian goulash is of course the world’s most famous dish involving paprika, but the spice is used liberally in plenty of other foods, including stews, soups, pastries, and sausages – it even finds its way into a brandy called pálinka. Much of its production comes from the country’s south, in and around Kalocsa and Szeged.

Beyond the kitchen, this peppy little pepper has even done its bit for science and Hungarian history – scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi got the 1937 Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering Vitamin C and its properties, which he extracted from none other than paprika.

Be that as it may – I did find that one can certainly overdose on the stuff. I recall the first time I spent a chunk of time in Hungary I was enthusiastically scarfing down the local cuisine at first, but thanks in part to all the paprika I eventually needed a break from it so badly that I found myself taking occasional refuge at the Burger King near the apartment I was staying in (shhhh….). These days, though, I’m happy to say paprika has pride of place in my spice rack. Jó étvágyat!

Photo | Pressebereich Dehner Garten-Center

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Are Dominican Cigars Now the Best in the World?

mayo 24th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)

When Christopher Columbus and his merry band dropped anchor for the first time in the “New World” in 1492, they found the the Taínos and Arawaks of Hispaniola (now two-thirds occupied by the Dominican Republic) smoking some funny kinda  dried brown leaves. And the DR has been a tobacco producer ever since – yet for much of that time, for reasons of history and economics, cigarwise it’s been overshadowed by Cuba, turning out mostly fodder for cigarettes.

The tide started shifting when the new Castro régime in Cuba chased many of the country’s top cigar makers out of the country in the early and mid 1960s. A good number of these ended up in the DR with their expertise and seeds for the tobacco variety piloto cubano, followed in the late 1970s and early 1980s by refugees from the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua.

All that, along with a gradual decline in the quality of Cuban cigars, have led to a robust tobacco and cigar industry based in the Cibao and Yaque valleys, up in the interior highlands near around the country’s second-largest city, Santiago de los Caballeros (about an hour from Iberostar Costa Dorada). Major factories and brands include Arturo Fuente (perhaps the best known), La Aurora, Davidoff, La Flor Dominicana, and La Gloria Cubana. And along the way, many cigar experts and aficionados agree the quality of the stogies has in fact risen to the equal of and sometimes superior to Cuba’s. Furthermore, for more than a decade the DR has also been turning out its own puros (“pures,” because they’re made purely from homegrown tobacco, as opposed to using imported leaf for outer wrappers).

All DR Iberostar resorts carry a fine selection of cigars, with an emphasis on local products (catch my earlier post about the shop and resident cigar roller at the Iberostar Bávaro), but if you’re looking for an interesting day trip, more than a dozen cigar producers welcome visitors, including Matasa in Santiago, León Jimenes outside Santiago, Los Maestros in Tamboril, Doña Dorada in San Pedro de Macoris (a good double-header for baseball fans), and Las Palmas/Tabacalera de García in La Romana (closest to Bayahibe’s Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus, this is the world’s largest handmade cigar factory).

So, when in the Dominican Republic, it’s definitely “play smokey for me.”

Photo | Miguel González

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Rumble in the Jungle: a Brotherly Feud in Manaus

mayo 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in The View - (0 Comments)

Igreja Manaus

A good book really is an object of magic. While a movie is able to instantly provide an image on which to project the story that is being played out, the nature of that image is decided by the director. With a book on the other hand, it is the reader who gets to paint the scene in which the action takes place. An author might provide plenty of hints, but it is the fact that each reader experiences a book differently that makes a novel such a special medium.

Family Feud

If you’re looking for a book that helps paint a rich, evocative picture of Manaus in Brazil, look no further than Milton Hatoum’s novel The Brothers (Dois Irmãos). The story follows two identical twin brothers and describes their life-long feud. They argue over a girl as teenagers and come to blows as grown men. One brother leads a relatively successful life while the other looks on in bitter hatred and jealousy. Hatoum explores the role of the boys’ parents, who look on with sad helplessness as the two men go through their entire life with little sign of reconciliation.

Brazilian Melting Pot

While describing the family tearing itself part, Hatoum also lets us into a world which we would otherwise never know. The characters belong to the Manaus Lebanese community, a small group into which Milton Hatoum himself was born. In describing the changing life of Yaqub and Omar, the two protagonists in the story, Hatoum paints a vivid picture of Manaus from the perspective of a native in a local Arab community. The descriptions of the markets, of the street sellers and of the mixture of ramshackle and grand buildings that make up this Amazonian metropolis all come from the author’s own intimate knowledge of Manaus.

The World in Manaus

It is easy to imagine that the city of Manaus, hundreds of miles from the other major Brazilian cities that mostly pepper the Atlantic coastline, would be quite an insular place. Yet in The Brothers Hatoum vividly portrays the city as deeply multi-cultural with a high degree of tolerance between the many communities that have settled here.

Step out from your hotel in Manaus today and you’re likely to find Lebanese food alongside many other ethnic cuisine from the many communities that make up the rich fabric of life in the city on the edge of the Amazon. And if you hear some angry Arabic shouting, look out; Omar and Yaqub might just be in town!

Photo: Salles Neto via Wikimedia Commons

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Cachaça, Brazil’s Quintessential Firewater

mayo 21st, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)

Are you by any chance a fan of that trendy Brazilian cocktail known as the caipirinha? If not, you’ve probably at least heard of cachaça; along with the mojito out of Cuba, this has become one of the hot tipples of the early 21st century. But unlike the mojito, this particular tipple depends on a particular kind of booze, one hailing only from Brazil.

Like rum, cachaça is made from sugarcane – but unlike most rums, not its by-product molasses but from fresh cane juice, and there are a whopping 40,000 producers in Brazil (most of them small mom-and-pops in places like Minas Gerais, Paraty, and Belo Horizonte). Also known as aguardente, pinga (which funnily enough also happens to be the most popular Cuban slang for the male member), and caninha, it comes in two varieties: white (unaged) and gold/amber (aged in wood from two to 16 years and which can go for hundreds of dollars a bottle). It generally has 38% to 48% alcohol, and some of the more popular brands include Pitú, Leblon (this is one that’s gotten a lot of promotion in North America), Cabana, and Beleza Pura.

The cachaças I’ve tried come across a little grassy for my own taste, but I admit I haven’t gotten to sample the many artesenal and aged versions sloshing around out there.  And in any case, when mixed in a caipirinha (with sugar and lime) or other cocktail, it does add an exotically refreshing note.

If you’re interested, and planning to vacation at one Iberostar’s pair of Brazil resorts or cruise on its Grand Amazon, why not tack on a hop to one of the above mentioned regions that are home to distilleries that welcome visitors. If that’s not in the cards, at least check out a cachaçaria (watering hole specializing in cachaças) near you, such as Água Doce (“Sweet Water,” another nickname for the booze) in Salvador or Cachaçaria do Dedé in Manaus.

Or even easier – just belly up to the Iberostar bar…

Tim-tim! (Cheers!)

Photo | rmx

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Climbing Great Peaks in Italy with Reinhold Messner

mayo 18th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Local Characters - (0 Comments)

Italy is often associated with good food, romantic piazzas, Roman ruins and turquoise beaches – few know about the majestic mountains that run through Italy. From the Dolomites to the Apennines, the peaks of Italy boast dramatic heights and grandeur but are often overlooked by tourists and locals alike. Thanks to Reinhold Messner, one of the most famous mountaineers of all time, Italian peaks are slowly moving into the travel spotlight and getting the attention they deserve.

Greatest Climber of All Time

Having conquered the highest and most challenging peaks around the world, Reinhold Messner is lauded as the greatest climber in history. Of course he didn’t earn this reputation overnight – in 1978, Messner made the first ever solo ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and in 1986, he became the first climber to ascend all fourteen “eight-thousanders” (peaks over 8,000 metres above sea level) in history.

Originally from Brixen, Italy, Messner grew up in the mountains, spending his early years climbing the Alps. The Dolomites in Italy, was his playground and it remains one of his favorite places in the world. At the age of five, his father Josef had already led him to his first summit. In his early twenties, he became one of Europe’s best climbers. Today, he remains one of the most successful climbers of all times having broken several records in mountaineering.

His Love Affair with the Dolomites

Before conquering Mount Everest and other peaks in the Himalayas, Messner led over 500 ascents in the Dolomites. This was where he found his love for mountaineering, trained hard and perfected his climbing skills.

The Dolomites mountain range is located in North-eastern Italy, extending from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley in the east. The mountain range was declared a UNESCO natural heritage site in 2009 and it is protected as a national park.

These days, most people visit the Dolomites to climb the Via Ferrata, a mountain route equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The Via Ferrata in the Dolomites was the first mountain route system ever to be built. It was constructed during the First World War, to aid the movement of the Italian mountain infantry. The long trails that run across the Dolomites are numbered from 1 to 8 and most climbers take at least a week to walk all of them, sleeping over at the numerous refuge huts along the way.

If you’re curious to see how Messner fell in love with mountaineering, be sure to make the Dolomites your next adventure – you won’t be disappointed.

Photo | dsearls

When you visit the Iberostar Hotel in Italy and you’re curious to see how Messner fell in love with mountaineering, be sure to make the Dolomites your next adventure – you won’t be disappointed.

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The Search for Paradise

mayo 14th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Mystery Guest - (1 Comments)

We gave away trips to  Paradise!

Many tried but only the quickest won! We want to congratulate the winners that found Paradise!

Casey Kurth, Christopher Munson, Karina Tsymbal, Leonor Blaya Martinez & Ashley Thomas !

We hope you’ll tell us all about your trip!
And the rest of you, don’t despair, guys. Stay tuned, because we’ve got a lot more great contests coming soon!

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One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila – Floor?

mayo 11th, 2012 | Posted by Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in Snapshots - (0 Comments)

 

Mexico’s national liquor has of course become a runaway worldwide success, that’s for sure (I hear even George Clooney is planning to launch his own brand, called Casamigos). But slowly but surely, more folks these days are also appreciating that there’s lots more to tequila than frozen margaritas, slammed shots and ay, caramba hangovers.

This particular tipple comes from the juice of the spiky, cactuslike blue agave plant, cultivated (by hand even today, as shown above) in the reddish soil around the city of Tequila, near Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. Agave juice has been fermented in this area for many centuries, dating back to the days of the Aztecs (and today their particular form of firewater is still sloshing around, known as pulque). But the Spaniards in Mexico had their own go at agave, inventing tequila around the 17th century, just a couple of generations after the original conquest; not long afterward, the first license to produce tequila commercially was granted to a family whose name you’ll recognize: the Cuervos.

Today there are more than 100 distilleries, with some of the better-known and high-quality tequila houses in addition to José Cuervo include Sauza, Don Julio, and Patrón, and some of these are open to visitors. Most are around 80 proof, but the white tequila that goes into most margaritas is only the least aged type. Finer grades include reposado, which is aged in oak at least two to several months, añejo (aged one to three years), and the more recently added extra añejo (aged more than three years). Some of the more vintage tequilas have a smoothness, darkness, and complexity that’s practically cognac-like.

Photo | Niv Maoz

In addition to serving a respectable range of fine tequilas, Iberostar resorts offer them for sale in their shops, staffed by employees who know their firewaters; some will conduct tastings with experts. Give ‘em a swirl and a gulp, and you’ll see they’re way beyond Carlos ‘n Charlie’s…

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