Cubans.

Cigars, not the people.

Just don’t bring them back. The cigars or people.

By Jeremy Pepper on Jan 30, 2007

Barbados has world-class surf if you want to do some surfing or wind-surfing. They have good weed, too.

By Vince Williams on Jan 30, 2007

They don’t call it ‘voodoo’ in Barbados. The Bajans call it ‘obeah’, like they do in Jamaica, too. You’re more likely to have contact with Rastas than zombies. The only zombies I’ve seen here are at Best Buy.

By Vince Williams on Jan 30, 2007

My bet is that you stick a camera in the Zombie’s face and he’ll reconsider eating your brain.

The undead have a real thing for Hollywood I hear…

By Robert Bruce on Jan 30, 2007

Eh, don’t be too worried about the voodoo unless you piss someone off.

By Jeremy Pepper on Jan 30, 2007

I took an anthropology course on Voodoo once in college (yes, seriously). It does exist but the scary stuff people associate with it is mostly present in Haiti. My best advice there is to stay the hell out of Haiti, which I doubt I have to tell you.

By jvon on Jan 30, 2007

There’s a voodoo “church” down the street, back in the woods where I grew up. Dead serious. Down Coffee Bluff. Was a plantation. The land was divided up among the slaves…their descendants still live there. I remember this crazy little shack bar, too, serving some crazy alcohol burns and makes you cross-eyed, and they all started looking real sinister. We freaked and ran.

Don’t the Netherlands control Barbados? I can’t see how it can be too crazy there. Do some scuba diving.

By Jecklin on Jan 30, 2007

Voodoo’s an actual religion, mostly carrying over African tribal beliefs. Some elements of Christianity have crept in over time.

The nasty stuff people associate with it has nothing to do with the religion itself. It’s done by black (not referring to skin color here) magicians called “bokors”, not by priests, that operate outside the religion proper. Closest thing to it in Western culture would be a witch, as in the Blair Witch, not the hippie chick with the pentacle necklace you banged in college.

Oh wait, that was me.

By jvon on Jan 30, 2007

There used to be a “roots” man in my town who prescribed herbs and roots with supposedly magical healing powers, and maybe some actual medicinal ones.

One time he put a dead chicken on a woman’s doorstep–she said he put the ‘hoodoo’ on her, and then she had a heart-attack. Was it magic, or the power of belief?

If you really believed in this stuff, you could take countermeasures to ensure your well-being.

You’re in New York, there must be hundreds of conjure shops where you could get what you need to ward off the evil eye.

Toad-lickers (it’s preferable to smoke the toad venom, though) actually have a Church of the Toad of Light–they might be able to help you. Down here we lick salt-water catfish to do the same thing.

By Vince Williams on Jan 30, 2007

Gee, maybe 13 really is an unlucky number. I better not break any mirrors or let a black cat cross my path. If I throw some salt over my shoulder, will that suffice? How about typing a name on a strip of paper and then putting it in an ice cube tray to make the dude chill out?

Superstitions still rule the ignorant uneducated people who look for an escape from the karma they create with their selfish actions, hoping to fly with Hairy Potty up in the sky.

By vaspers the grate on Jan 30, 2007

hey Loren, haven’t spoken to you in a while. have a great trip!!!

By T on Jan 31, 2007

Loren,

DEFINITELY do not watch “The Serpent and the Rainbow” before you leave.

By jvon on Jan 31, 2007

TEsting your roots

By Tony on Nov 22, 2007