Issue 95 (January/February 2009)

David Pye offers a sneak preview of the new luxury resorts of the Dominican Republic • Ecology, history, diving and Belikin beer: Bob Berwyn enjoys an all-inclusive vacation in Belize • St George’s University, in the tropical setting of Grenada, was once considered merely an offshore American institution. Now it’s firmly established on the local landscape, as Lisa Allen-Agostini learned • Guyanese writer Karen King-Aribisala discovered there’s a fine line between fiction and reality when she wrote an award-winning novel. David Katz tried to disentangle the two with her • This Bahamian hip hop duo is ahead of its time. So they’re packing their bags to go in search of fame and fortune. The inspirationally named Believe and Skyy spoke to Laura Dowrich-Phillips before they waved goodbye • Jamaican athletes and bobsledders have already conquered the word. Now it’s the turn of their dogsled team. They tried to persuade Tracy Assing that they’re not barking mad • Winsford Devine has written over 500 calypsoes, many of them classics. He hasn’t always been given his dues, but that won’t stop the music, he tells Laura Dowrich-Phillips • For most people, Trinidad Carnival only lasts two days. But for the men and women who build or sew the thousands of costumes, the season starts months before the festival itself.

Photographer Mark Lyndersay watched them at work • and much more!