It's easy, and common, to write the Caribbean - and particularly, these smaller, more elite islands of the Eastern Caribbean - off as resort-saturated, tourist-tsunamied outposts of travel consumerism. Most folks looking for "authentic culture" probably figure the islands are well and...

I spent a good portion of this afternoon dodging around under the spreading branches of a huge mango tree in the front yard. My dad was on a ladder, using a long hook-ended pole to knock the ripest fruit from the tree, and I was running from side to side, awkward in a skirt and flipflops, trying (and...

Growing up in Saskatoon and then Ottawa, I was a long trek from the nearest wave. Surfing was not an option. But water, whether fresh, chlorinated or salted, has always been the only antidote to my natural scaredy-cat tendencies: as a kid I wouldn't even think of climbing a tree, and I once told...