Last day of sailing in the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta.

Shortened courses and unfriendly weather, but still Serious Fun! Prize giving at Kim Sha Beach at 6pm tonight! Followed by some amazing music entertainment: Orange Grove, Brainpower and of course WYCLEF JEAN! Are you ready???!!!

Philipsburg, St. Maarten (March 4, 2011) – The 31st edition of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta kicked off in surprising style  as nearly 200 boats in 18 classes set sail anticipating both serious fun and, of course, serious competition. While most everyone enjoyed a good time and tight racing, they also encountered seriously challenging conditions thanks to squally skies, fluky breeze, and more than one or two windless holes on the racecourse.

found on heinekenregatta.com

Cancun, Mexico

Playa del Carmen

Marvelling at a 1300-year-old Maya palace at Palenque as parrots screech and howler monkeys growl in the sweaty emerald jungle around you. This is Mexico. Sliding from a palm-fringed sandy beach into the warm, turquoise waves of the Pacific at Puerto Vallarta. This, too, is Mexico. Dining on salmon enchiladas and chrysanthemum salad at a Mexico City fusion restaurant, dancing through the night at a high-energy Guadalajara nightclub, kayaking at dawn past a colony of Baja California sea lions – all these are unique Mexican experiences. Every visitor goes home with their own unforgettable images. Such a large country, straddling temperate and tropical zones, reaching 5km into the sky and stretching 10,000km along its coasts, with a city of 19 million people at its center and countless tiny pueblos everywhere, can hardly fail to provide a huge variety of options for human adventure.

Mexico is what you make of it. Its multi-billion-dollar tourism industry is adept at satisfying those who like their travel easy. But adventure is what you’ll undoubtedly have if you take a just a few steps off the pre-packaged path. Activity-based tourism, community tourism and genuine ecotourism – the type that actually helps conserve local environments – are developing fast in rural areas. The opportunities for getting out to Mexico’s spectacular wild places and interacting with local communities are greater than ever – from world-class canyoneering near Monterrey or cooking lessons in the Veracruz countryside to hiking the Oaxaca cloud forests and snorkeling the coral reefs of the Yucatán.

Planning your first trip to Mexico? Be ready for more crowds, noise, bustle and poverty than you’re accustomed to, especially if it’s your first trip outside the developed world. But don’t worry – most Mexicans will be only too happy to help you feel at home in their country. Invest a little time before your trip in learning even just a few phrases of Spanish – every word you know will make your trip that little bit easier and more enjoyable.

Tulum, Mexico

The staples of Mexican cuisine are typically corn and beans. Corn, traditionally Mexico’s staple grain, is eaten fresh, on the cob, and as a component of a number of dishes. Most corn, however, is used to make masa, a dough for tamales, tortillas, gorditas, and many other corn-based foods. Squash and peppers also play important roles in Mexican cuisine.

The most important and frequently used spices in Mexican cuisine are chili powder, cumin, oregano, cilantro, epazote, cinnamon, and cocoa.Chipotle, a smoke-dried jalapeño chili, is also common in Mexican cuisine. Many Mexican dishes also contain garlic and onions.

Next to corn, rice is the most common grain in Mexican cuisine. According to food writer Karen Hursh Graber, the initial introduction of rice toSpain from North Africa in the 4th Century led to the Spanish introduction of rice into Mexico at the port of Veracruz in the 1520s. This, Graber says, created one of the earliest instances of the world’s greatest fusion cuisines.

found on lonelyplanet.com

Most people who haven’t yet made it to Cuba for holidays are the same – they’ve always meant to take vacation there, it’s just never worked out for them. The thing is – if you’re gonna visit Cuba, take your trip as soon as possible. Fidel Castro stepped down as president of Cuba and even though it’s his brother who took over, Cuba’s going to change.
Mass Tourism in Cuba
Cuba has already undergone a significant change and whoever took holidays at the island before that first change got the best out of it. That change came in 1994. After the fall of Berlin Wall and end of communism in Eastern Europe, Cuba’s main business partner – Russia was on the brink of bankruptcy and had to deal with its own crumbling economy so Cuba lost its foreign supportive hand and 80% of international trade. Fidel Castro – to day recognized as world’s greatest leader (recognized as such by everyone except from Americans) did the only thing he could to save his country from complete financial collapse: opened Cuba to mass tourism.

Still Same Old Cuba
Everything about Cuban way of life, its crumbling continental architecture, saloon cars from the 50′s, tobacco fields, cigar factories and some of the world’s best medical care and education remained the same. The difference was most noticeable in areas known for world’s finest beaches. Varadero is basically a tourist resort. It’s not even a Cuban town. It’s a location with high density of hotels and crap loads of tourists.
Similarly, while streets of Cuba are still not too busy and still dominated by those old American vintage gas-guzzling monsters, it is not unusual to see a shiny modern car in the mix. That would be a foreigner on a rental.

Havana
Havana has the best hospitals and schools in the Caribbean. The colonial architecture will remind you of Spaniards who conquered the island. The mass tourism has not affected Cuba’s capital much. Old hotels built in the 30′s are still in operation. Most give funky smell, but from the window you can see it all – national monuments, street performers, incredibly beautiful Cuban girls, coco-taxis, old men sitting on a street smoking cigars, little traffic mostly consisting of those old two tone saloon cars and palm trees.

found on lonelyplanet.com