Caribbean

Philadelphia-area businesses in need of foreign partners, suppliers or markets should look to the Caribbean rather than the Far East. That was the message yesterday as U.S. business executives and trade officials from several Caribbean nations addressed about 20 people during an all-day conference on Caribbean trade opportunities, conducted at the Rutgers University College Center in Camden. Several speakers said some U.S. businesspeople harbor misconceptions about the Caribbean that make them overlook opportunities there.

On a summer day in 1982, American officials met with the chief minister of a small Caribbean nation. The meeting, requested by the chief minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands (population about 9,000) was a last-ditch plea by the minister to persuade the U.S. Air Force to keep its small base on Grand Turk Island, or as he phrased it that the "U.S. continue to fly the flag. " The minister's plea failed, but he was successful in persuading the respected Smithsonian Institution to establish an experimental crab-fishing project on the site of the air base.

Steel-drum king Terrence Cameron, backed by his sextet, the Steel Kings, will provide the music. Traditional West Indian food, such as curried goat, "jerk" chicken and rice and beans will be on sale. The event will take place in IH's Hopkinson Hall, at 37th and Chestnut Streets. Admission is $10. The fun begins at 8 p.m. To reserve tickets, call the Folklife Center at 215-895-6537 or TicketMaster at 215-336-2000.

Headed to the Caribbean this year? Tens of thousands of people leaving from Philadelphia International Airport are. Here's the rundown on what's noteworthy and what's new. Anguilla is ideal for those seeking peace and quiet, easygoing islanders, fine restaurants, and spectacular white-sand beaches, all of which makes it a big hit with celebs who can afford the often-high price tag. Its undistinguished hills are splotched with scrub, outlined by...

Once on This Island, a romantic musical fable in Caribbean style, has moved from Off-Broadway to full Broadway status with a becoming modesty. The show's folk-tale quality has been respected in the transition to the Booth Theater. The one setting, a riot of tropical vegetation and color, has the look of a primitive painting. The 11 performers form a vital ensemble as they give themselves over to the tale's West Indies rhythms and superstitions with childlike abandon. They play gods and men without prejudice to either.

Question: We're planning a trip to the Caribbean soon, and recently we heard a report warning against eating certain fish. Do you know of any specific species to avoid? U.D., Downingtown Answer: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has this to say about fish dangers: "Some fish are not guaranteed to be safe even when cooked because of the presence of toxins in their flesh. Tropical-reef fish, red snapper, amberjack, grouper and sea bass can occasionally be toxic at unpredictable times if they are caught on tropical reefs rather than open ocean.

There was no apple, no snake, but we still felt like a latter-day Adam and Eve as we splashed naked in our private plunge pool surrounded by a Garden of Eden with room service. We were spending a few days at Jalousie Plantation, a two-year-old resort and spa nestled in the lush cleavage between the twin peaks of St. Lucia's 2,000-foot-high Pitons. Most visitors briefly get to see these towering mountains - considered the Caribbean's most distinctive land formations - while flying into the country, cruising by, or bouncing past on the gutted roads to the beach resorts.

Darrell Sifford, 60, an Inquirer columnist whose writing about the pain and rewards of human relationships won numerous awards and admirers, died yesterday while on vacation in Belize. Mr. Sifford's columns probed the ties that bind husbands and wives, fathers and sons, workers and bosses. He frequently bared his own feelings in print - about his family, his fears of aging and his struggle with heart disease. Mr. Sifford died while snorkeling in the Caribbean off the coast of Belize, where he and his wife, Marilyn, were on a month-long vacation.

Hurricane Mitch cut through the western Caribbean yesterday, pummeling coastal Honduras and Belize with driving rain and fierce winds that snapped trees and sent thousands of people fleeing for higher ground. Ten storm-related deaths were reported. Honduran President Carlos Flores Facusse declared the highest state of alert and sent in troops to evacuate thousands of people from villages on the sparsely populated coast. Thousands more made their way to safer ground on their own. Most of the population of Belize City fled inland in cars and government buses, while tourists rushed to find ways out of the Mexican resorts of Cancun and Cozumel, where the storm is expected to hit by the end of the week.

Who needs the Jersey shore? Here are two reasons to visit the Caribbean this summer, aside from the usual one, which is that prices are low, even though the weather, in many cases, is more breezy than broiling: On the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, rain is the predominant summer weather pattern. Travelers with the New York Zoological Society's turtle- tagging project will have lots of opportunity to walk the beaches, in the rain, at night. That's when the green sea turtles come up on land.

BOCA BRAVA, Panama - It reminded us of the opening scene of Fantasy Island. As soon as our boat arrived at the Cala Mia dock on the island of Boca Brava, two hotel workers welcomed us to the property. No, they weren't Mr. Roarke and Tattoo, but we were somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. During this, our second visit to Panama, we decided we would try to do what every tourist promoter of the isthmus boasts - enjoy breakfast on the Pacific and lunch on the Caribbean. Or see the sunrise on the Caribbean and the sunset on the Pacific.

"The Jersey Shore has ruined you for paradise," my native New Englander boyfriend observed. It was day one of our first-ever trip to the Caribbean. I didn't argue. We chose Grace Bay Beach in the Turks and Caicos Islands for a "relaxation vacation" (one that doesn't involve work or family obligations) because we thought it was a safe bet. Made up of 12 miles of pillowy white sand, our selection was voted Top Beach Destination in the World on Tripadvisor.com. "I love the beach!"

MIAMI - Officials and residents from Florida to the Carolinas stocked up on supplies, dusted off evacuation plans, and readied for the worst as Irene, the first hurricane to threaten the United States in three years, churned over tropical waters Tuesday after cutting a destructive path through the Caribbean. Federal officials warned the storm could flood streets and knock down power lines as far north as New England. Irene lost some of its punch Tuesday and was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as it lashed the Turks and Caicos Islands, but the storm remains likely to regain strength and become a major hurricane before making a U.S. landfall.

A nonprofit backed by U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) spent more than $2 million in federal funds to provide environmental education to Philadelphia high school students - including trips to a resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands. For three years, the Caribbean-American Mission for Research, Education, and Action ran an exchange program for students at Overbrook High School and two island high schools. The Philadelphia students and their adult chaperones stayed at the Marriott Frenchman's Reef beachfront resort, on what the hotel website calls a "luminous white sand beach framed with the majestic turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

One boat, two boats, three boats - our family sailing trip kept growing. Early last summer, a few seafaring members of my family began toying with the idea of sailing our own boat throughout the southern Caribbean for a week. With my nephew, "Admiral Jeff," and a few other experienced sailors in the family, the trip's itinerary was plotted. From summer to early January, more and more family members signed on. Finally, after chartering three catamarans - a 38-footer, a 40-footer, and a 50-footer - our crew of 10 kids and 21 adults would soon set sail.

African- and Caribbean-immigrant leaders said yesterday that the Philadelphia School District isn't doing enough to stop the bullying of immigrant students and hasn't honored commitments made nearly five years ago to address the issue. The leaders spoke at a City Council Education Committee hearing yesterday, held in response to a number of recent incidents, including the attack last month on Nadin Khoury, 13, in Upper Darby. The teen, of Liberian descent, was shoved into a tree and hung on a fence in an incident caught on cell-phone video.

NANCY B. Willoughby Davis turned into a bit of a ham when someone pointed a camera at her. A naturally cheerful, smiling woman, she took a good picture. And she enjoyed being on the other end of the camera, recording family activities for posterity. Nancy Davis, a 35-year employee of Colonial Penn Insurance Co., from which she retired with the title of manager, a strong family woman who liked to test her luck at the Atlantic City casinos and cruise the Caribbean with her husband, died Thursday of a heart attack brought on by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Frances Klein Alberstadt, 82, of Plymouth Meeting, a former advertising manager and hospital volunteer, died of cancer Monday, Nov. 8, at Keystone Hospice in Wyndmoor. Mrs. Alberstadt, the daughter of a Philadelphia Daily News driver, graduated from Overbrook High School. She studied photography and then briefly worked with a commercial photographer. In the late 1940s, she joined Herbach & Rademan, in Chinatown. She became the electronics firm's advertising manager and produced its monthly catalog.

A growing population of African and Caribbean immigrant students in Southwest Philadelphia is often the target of racial teasing and violence in city public schools, a community activist told city officials Tuesday. As an immigrant from Sierra Leone 30 years ago, Carol Bangura was teased and targeted, labeled a behavior problem, and kicked out of several schools. "A lot of what the kids are experiencing now, I experienced years ago," Bangura said in testimony before the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.

Question: We've been sacrificing and saving really hard for a family trip to Europe. We plan to go for three weeks in March. On Saturday, my husband's sister announced her engagement and Caribbean destination wedding - in April. We don't have enough money for both. It's our last big trip before our oldest goes to college. It's also his sister's second wedding, but I really don't see the family accepting our choice of family vacation over wedding. Any advice? Answer: There are two answers.