An introduction from our new Caribbean eletter editor: Journey Weekly

Omar Perez

I received into journalism in order that I may journey. Journey with rock bands, that’s.

Rising up with a robust curiosity in music, I aspired to grow to be a reporter for Rolling Stone. I used to be a fan of the film “Nearly Well-known,” which was primarily based on the real-life story of a teenage journalist making an attempt to catch his massive break by touring alongside a band and writing from the street.

Whereas I went on to put in writing about music, interview bands and evaluation music — along with protecting enterprise, native and nationwide information — many of the interviews befell over the cellphone for articles in weekly newspapers in South and Central Florida. I received good seats for live shows and a complimentary CD from the artists’ label, and that was it. A lot for going locations as a reporter.

Up to now 15 years my journey has expanded to areas like Estonia and Finland, the place I’ve sat in 210-degree Fahrenheit saunas and instantly jumped into 50-degree Fahrenheit lakes; eaten reindeer and moose; and drank spirits infused with a uncooked fish. It is a spot the place locals say “comfortable summer season” as if it have been a vacation, as a result of that far north, it’s.

In different phrases, it is nothing like touring within the Caribbean, which is my new beat because the eNewsletter editor for the area. I’ve massive footwear — or sandals — to fill. Homosexual Nagle Myers lined each nook and cranny within the Caribbean for greater than 30 years for Journey Weekly. 

Apart from being half Cuban and having spent most of my years in Miami, I actually have solely an oblique Caribbean affect in my life. Miamians, for instance, have their very own Bahamian Goombay competition and the Trinidad-inspired Miami Carnival, and Cuban espresso and empanadas can be found on each avenue nook.

Now I’m able to discover and report on the wonder and surprise that the Caribbean gives firsthand.

My debut at Journey Weekly was about using the brand new VelociCoaster at Common Orlando. Subsequent tales concerned theme parks, extra curler coasters and new cruise ships. Now my beat is 1 million sq. miles of seashores, mountains, all kinds of tradition, historical past, custom and delicacies – and naturally, inhabitants, who’re recognized worldwide for his or her resilience and hospitality. I look ahead to listening to from travel-minded people who are actually rebuilding what the pandemic and, in some situations, hurricanes dropped at their islands and territories. Regardless of every part, they’re succeeding.

I now not yearn to journey on a bus with a band. We’re virtually out of a pandemic, and if the present state of journey is a sign, journey is king. Or, as I might have thought in my earlier years, it is a rock star.