Lesedi Cultural Dance Performance

Interested in the traditional dances of Southern Africa. See highlights of the performances of Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Setswana and Basotho as performed at the Lesedi Cultural Village in South Africa.

Who’s Your Daddy?

Cape Town is a wonderful city filled with beautiful scenery, amazing sites, and luxurious hotel accomodations. As in any metropolitan city, the accomodations selection is diverse wth everything from low end hostels to five star hotels. I am a fan of finding unique, but still comfortable, places to stay that provide a different experience than I would get at home. Well the Grand Daddy Hotel has set the bar on “unique experience”.

Picture if you will several airstream silver trailers, each uniquely designed by a South African designer to reflect a different theme, placed together to create a cute little trailer community or neighborhood. Now place them on the roof of a boutique hotel and you have just created the trailer park at the Grand Daddy Hotel. It is a one of a kind experience that visitors to Cape Town should try for atleast one night, just like I did.

The trailer park has its own bar and you feel like you are in your own little world perched above Long Street. You can see the buildings around you and hear the traffic below as you sip on cocktails as the sun sets.

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Natural Beauty

The National Park of the Chapada Diamantina is one of the most fascinating natural parks of Brazil. The mountain scenery contains an extraordinary variety of ecosystems, like Cerrado, Mata Atlantica, and Stone fields, Caatinga. The bromeliads and orchids find a privileged ambiance, adapting themselves to the differences in climate and altitude. The mountain tops reach a height of 5,660 feet and they offer shelter to the Jaguatiricas (local breed of feline) pumas, mocós (local rodents), deer’s, teiús (local reptile) and seriemas (local little ostrich) .

The massive quartz pieces, have undergone and resisted erosion, forming towers of minerals known as “TEPUY” by the local Indians of the Maracas and Cariris tribes, who dominated the region before the arrival of the first settlers or bandeirantes, around the year 1750. The most astonishing tepuis reach a height of 4,830 feet and they run across the municipalities of Palmeiras, Lençois e Mucugê . Read more

New Orleans and Essence Music Festival

The 2009 ESSENCE Music Festival was successful yet again, with sold-out audiences and heavy-hitting performers that included Beyonce, Robin Thicke, Ne-Yo, Lionel Richie, Al Green and Teena Marie. In addition to celebrating its 15th anniversary, this year’s festival was stocked full of tributes, from Bishop T.D. Jakes to Frankie Beverly and Maze and continuous homage to the King of Pop Michael Jackson whose sudden death occurred just one week before the festival opened.

In continued fashion, the City of New Orleans is the best place suited to host this annual event. The hotels line Poydras Street, the festival’s main thoroughfare, which houses the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center just off the Mississippi River on one end, and the Louisiana Superdome on its opposite end, where the nightly concerts are held.
Some of the more popular places to stay in the city for the festival include Harrah’s New Orleans, the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, the W Hotel New Orleans and the Intercontinental New Orleans. Less traveled places of repose for the festival can be found on St. Charles Avenue, with favorites Courtyard by Marriott and Royal St. Charles Hotel.

To continue a party after each night’s concert, you can never go wrong with the city’s famously infamous French Quarter. This area of the city is home to a plethora of night clubs, pubs, restaurants and other after-hours excitement for all levels. A couple of restaurants to try are Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House (www.bourbonhouse.com) and the historic Cafe du Monde, at its original French Quarter location. Make sure to stop by the Cafe for the traditional New Orleans beignets.

A few other culinary favorites around the city include Cafe du Monde’s second location in the Riverwalk Mall next to the convention center, Mother’s Restaurant on Poydras and Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. Make sure to get to Mother’s Restaurant early. During the early lunch hour through mid-afternoon, lines are outside the building with people patiently waiting for a taste of ham-fused breakfast specialties, grits and biscuits, among so many other filling entrees.

During the day, those who want to indulge in the city’s rich culture outside of the festival can visit the French Quarter that is filled with historic homes and town squares. Also, the Riverwalk affords tourists the opportunity to take advantage of boat tours to the swamps, plantation homes and post-Hurricane Katrina sites. All in all, coming to New Orleans is loads of fun during the ESSENCE Music Festival or any time during the year. Just be sure to have good dancing and walking shoes and a camera to capture all the memories.