Esta sopa realmente solo se puede hacer en caribe por que aqui no tenemos de estas caracolas. Pero os podeis animar a daros una vueltecita por alli y provarla.

1Kg    Carne de caracola                       1  taza de harina     

2Lt     Agua                                                 1ccha  pimentón

 1        Ramillete de tomillo                  1 chorreón de coñac

 250g   Patatas                                            2   Cebollas

 250g  Calabaza                                           2 dientes de ajo

 2         Zanahorias                                        1 chayote *

Preparación

 Hervir las caracolas con el tomillo, la cebolla y el ajo en una olla con el agua por 45m o a presión por 20min.

 Unir  la calabaza, patatas, zanahoria y el chayote cortados a cubos. La pastilla de caldo, la guindilla y el pimentón. Cocer por poco mas mientras con la harina hacemos una masa. La estiramos tipo tortillas mejicanas, las troceamos y las unimos  a la sopa que hervimos  hasta que las verduras están en su punto.

 Rectificamos de sal y retiramos del fuego añadiendo el coñac antes de servir.

En mi primera vuelta por Caribe llegué a Guadalupe. Una isla francesa a todo efecto, fruto de las colonias que después de tantas batallas y asaltos consiguieron quedarse.

Algunas de estas islas fueron conquistadas y repartidas entre  ingleses y franceses a lo largo de los siglos XVI Y XVII.

Santa Lucia es la isla más curiosa que me he encontrado (respecto al politiqueo de su adquisición.)Ingleses y franceses gobernaron por periodos de 7 años cada uno, más de catorce veces hasta que al final Inglaterra se la quedo definitivamente. En recuerdo dejaron casi toda la isla con los nombres en francés y hacen un pan y unos croissants fantásticos.

 Se habla inglés oficialmente y creole popularmente. Lengua que comparte todo el Caribe. Mezcla de francés o ingles con las lenguas nativas.

Otra singularidad es la de San Martin. Otra isla que se repartieron entre franceses y holandeses. En la actualidad son dos países dentro de la misma isla. Los nativos te cuentan que un día se encontraron dos piratas. Los dos pensaban que estaban solos en la isla y que por lo tanto era su isla. Como descubrieron que no era así, se repartieron la isla deportivamente en una carrera a ver quien conseguía más terreno. Así el francés se quedo una parte Saint Martin y el holandés Sint Marteen. 

En  Philipsburg, capital de la parte Holandesa encuentras un activo comercio dutty free de productos electrónicos, diamante y ropa de marca, pagado en dólares y pidiéndolos en ingles.

En Marigot, una pequeña población coqueta y riquísima a 20min de la otra, encuentras todas las colecciones de alta costura y los mejores panes, bollos, pasteles y bistros a precios parisinos por supuesto pagados en euros y ordenados en francés. Dos países con sus respectivas monedas, lenguas y políticas a 20min y sin frontera. Increíble!!!!!!!!

Si algo me queda grabado a fuego en mi memoria son las playas de de Caribe. El parque natural de Tobago Cays y el archipiélago de Turk & Caicos especialmente.

Naturaleza  en estado puro, donde la mano del hombre afortunadamente aun no la ha tocado.

Aguas turquesas que se adentran del mar Caribe hasta descansar en playas blancas de coral molido.

En otras playas,  miles de conchas de  caracolas forman cementerios que el tiempo ha fosilizado. Algunos pescadores  nativos, (los que a remo llegan hasta allí desde la isla más cercana) las arrojan cerca de las orillas tras llevarse su contenido para sopas y guisos. Estas son cocinadas al más  autentico estilo criollo. Picantes.

Otra de los manjares que da este lado del atlántico son las langostas.  Pescadas y consumidas de septiembre a mayo, las langostas son un atractivo para los turistas y navegantes  de estas aguas.

Normalmente se preparan muy simples. L a barbacoa es el método preferido de los caribeños, acompañada de arroz, ensalada y picantes. A diferencia de los europeos y sobre todo de los más gourmet, ellos la cocinan tanto que parece suela de zapato. Obviamente encontramos personas que la saben cocinar muy bien.

Como siempre echarle un ojo a la página de recetas donde encontrareis las recetas caribeñas.

‘We can’t make it, we’re off to Punte del Este that weekend’. For all those close to casual announcements that one hears over supper in London, New York and Madrid these days, you’d imagine it’d be a damn sight easier to get to get that aforementioned seaside than it is. Hah! Ease be damned… but then, ease and convenience would make the journey to Jose Ignacio, the most exclusive pearl in the string of Uruguay’s seaside towns that run along the peninsula of Punte, too easy to access, too… hoi-palloiable. As it is, there’s something of the globe trotting Now Voyager fable woven into Jose Ignacio: Chablis in the Air France Affaires lounge at CDG to Buenos Aires, Argentine Chandon on the Buquebus across the Rio de la Plata to Montevideo, then a breezy drive along the Rambla out of town in something convertible. All that’s missing is a dashing stranger and a particularly fetching hat.

The hardcore regulars arrive in Jose Ignacio by Lear or private yacht from Buenos Aires. Forget the logistics and the actual geography of Uruguay, this is an Argentine colony through and through – the Argentine swish don’t have their own beaches across the river so they’ve decided to have these ones. No one comes here for a slice of Uruguayan culture and if they did they wouldn’t find a shred of it – this is la dolce vita porteno style where every other restaurant seems to be far east fusion and where instead of shops selling beach balls and ice cream there are boutiques full of contemporary garden furniture for your new beach house, cashmere blankets and hand blended fragrances. You’d have to drive for miles and miles just to find a chivito (the otherwise omnipresent Uruguayan national breakfast sandwich and grease fest of egg, steak, bacon, mayo, olive and tomato). Hell, the place is so stubbornly insular that you have to drive for over half an hour just to get some pesos out of a hole in the wall.

Jose Ignacio is the kind of seasonal town that isn’t so much an idyll or escape, more a de rigeur calendar fixture – just as summering in the Hamptons requires early planning on the part of Manhattan’s modern day Astors, so it is with Jose Ignacio and an increasingly international set – with just a handful of teeny tiny luxury posadas with rooms for rent, it’s all about in which outlandishly modern beach house, and with whom, you’ll be staying from the end of December onwards. Once that’s established, it’s which assados you’ll be invited to and which table you’ll be getting at Garzon, Marismo or Nam and who’ll be dining there that night. Yes, that is Ralph Lauren across from Naomi Campbell, Shakira and Mr Abromavich, but then no one stares in anyone else’s direction over dulce du leche crepes here – in Jose Ignacio everyone’s a star.

It wasn’t always like this and it won’t always be. Fifteen years ago no one had heard of Jose Ignacio, even though Punte had been a-swinging for decades. It wasn’t so much a one-horse town, as a town which depended on its horses to deliver the drinking water. It was the end of the Earth – a tiny fishing village with a lighthouse and some sand dunes on the frequently inhospitable South Atlantic. Though multi-million dollar picture-windowed villas are breeding fast, visually, in the centre of town at least, little else has changed. Jose Ignacio itself is nothing more than a few criss-crossed streets with bungalows on a narrow blonde sand peninsula; a sleepy whitewashed town with a lovely beach that can be placid and blue sky scorching in summer and swirling with drama and black cloud stormy in winter.  It’s what goes on there that’s changed. The fishing industry has given way to pitchers of cocktails and sashimi down at La Huella and long afternoons at the private beach club Caracola, Huella’s sister operation.

There’s no signage at Caracola and you need an invite from head honchos Peter or Guzman at Huella to be able to book for the day. When you eventually find it, you gesture across the lagoon (or rather you wave your arms wildly above your head) and they send a rowboat for you – then you sip rosé, eat parilla and hang out with your own private tent channelling sheer I-am-fabulousness on the beach until sundown. It’s the platinum door syndrome in full, shameless, effect: Competition for the best table to eat the  grilled catch of the day at barefoot-in-the-sand restaurant Marismo, which itself has a notorious and near invisible entrance, may be fierce, but once you’ve achieved silver status in Jose Ignacio, you want gold, and then more… and you don’t want everyone else to be having it either. Locals talk in hushed, paranoid tones about plans for bridge construction to the east that would make the town more accessible to the wrong kind of people – not so much tunnel types maybe, but definitely bridge…

Last season some of the best parties were held in the temporary Setai pavilion; Adrian Zecha is bringing a branch of his hyper-luxe Miami hotel to the coast, in itself enough reason to sound the bells of change. While the likes of Lenny Kravitz play guitar in the skyscraping penthouses of the Setai Miami, this will be a distinctly Jose Ignacio adaptation – low rise, with less than 20 hotel rooms.

Invitations are one thing, but determination is another – and you have to be determined to drive for half an hour on perilous dust roads to get Garzon, Francis Mallmann’s unhinged but wonderful project in the ghost town of the same name. Mallmann is South America’s most glam, most notorious chef. Jean Paul Bondoux may famously cook up a storm with his exquisite, refined contemporary French fare along the coast at La Bourgogne but Mallmann has long since torn up the rulebook for what it takes to create a haute dining room. He takes simple comfort food concepts and waves a Fantasia-like wand across them with an insane cackle – something as prosaic as steak and chips is instantly fashioned into something sensuous and revelatory. His Garzon hotel and restaurant project is fabulously arrogant: Five rooms and a kitchen in the middle of nowhere. It’s actually further out than nowhere – this is a dustbowl of a town that shut down entirely when the railway stopped running through it some years back. Now Mallmann is opening luxury tents in the nearby hills, each with their own chef, and has his eye on the derelict Gustaf Eiffell railway bridge, overgrown with weeds and forestation, with a view to creating a cocktail bar. He’s also reopening his defunct Jose Ignacio restaurant, Los Negros, on a new site in the town. ‘It’s going to my most expensive restaurant so far!’, is the promise, as is the exclusivity that fewer than 20 covers a night will offer. Already Mallmann’s glamour magnet is pulling together the desired effect – London art dealer Martin Summers has a vast house here, and many of Garzon’s crumbling buildings are being snapped up by Europeans to be converted into unlikely facaded, ultra sleek, Italia B&B-stuffed homes.

Jose Ignacio is unashamedly cliquey. The Londoners invariably end up at the blindingly white-on-white Posada del Faro while the Brazilian hippy chic-set hang out at Posada Paradiso. Irene Abadi left a career in fashion in Madrid and a spell in the Balearics to open up Paradiso in 1989 and hasn’t left, or worn shoes at work, since. Her husband and his artist friends have painted murals on every square inch of surface at Paradiso, and Irena’s paella parties by the pool are the stuff of legend. ‘This is really our house, and we’re here to entertain’, she says. ‘We used to close for a period in the winter, but I got depressed when it was empty, so now we stay open all year’.

Alfredo Suaya opened up his home, a typically Punte, Norman Foster-goes-stone-cladding kind of affair, to paying guests just over a year ago and is expanding with more villas – at the peak of the season, in the first week of January, the same crowd that you’ll find at Suaya’s Geisha House hangout in Los Angeles colonise the sunloungers and restaurant. It feels like a Miami pool party, fully charged.

The weekend scene at Tierra Santa, Argentine hotelier Alan Faena’s holiday home, is the very essence of Jose Ignacio. ‘We have parties here all the time’, says Alan while walking along the secluded beach beneath his insanely coloured Bollywood-meets-Starck weekend home. ‘….Not big dance parties though. You know… it’s just friends. It’s low key. We have an assado. It’s just a place for me and the people who are close to me.’ Which sums up this jazzed up fishing village’s raison d’etre – it’s a place which thrives with the most high profile, high fashion set, but does it quietly, with a finesse that’s in direct contrast to the 24 hour diamante-encrusted Eurotrash carnival that rolls out across the rest of Punte del Este. The Argentines love a barbecue as much as the Uruguayans, or indeed any South American, and a chilled out afternoon around the garden grill is the de facto Jose Ignacio pastime. Meanwhile, a forty five minute drive from Jose Ignacio will take you to beaches in Punta central where you’ll need to employ guerrilla tactics to score space on the sand and where sometimes the high rise holiday towerblocks block cast long unwelcome shadows. Punta as a whole may still be expensive, but it’s upmarket Las Vegas casino posh rather than genuinely tasteful or stylish; drop dead nouveau. Jose Ignacio, on the other hand, keeps just enough of that breezy feel-good DNA but filters it down into something positively minimalist. This isn’t the West Indies or the South Pacific – sometimes the sky goes grey, fog rolls in and a storm brews, even in high summer. It can, at times, look and feel more like Dungeness than Rio, but then it’s all the more beautiful for it – Jose Ignacio is a cooler kind of seaside, where less is more, as long as you’ve got more of a beach house to have it in, and more of the right kind of friends to fill it with.

Air France fly from London to Buenos Aires daily, via Paris. Prices from £610 return. www.airfrance.co.uk. The Buquebus ferry between Buenos Aires and Montevideo and Punte del Este runs throughout the day, from £35 each way. www.buquebus.com

Casa Suaya (00598 486 2750; www.casasuaya.com) from £210 for a double room, including breakfast. Adolfo Suaya’s holiday home continues to expand around a white hot poolside scene and the 100% organic romance of fireflies swarming at sundown.

Garzon (00598 410 2811; www.restaurantgarzon.com) from £160 for a double room, all-inclusive. Take the load less travelled to Mallmann’s barmy, fabulous wonderland of baked peach and jamon.

Posada del Faro (00598 486 2110; www.posadadelfaro.com) from £80 for a single room, including breakfast. Immaculate and minimal with a perfectly formed pool and honesty bar, beautiful staff and breakfast ‘wherever and whenever you want it’. The hippest hotel in Jose.

Posada Paradiso (00598 486 2112; www.posadaparadiso.com) from £80 for a double room, including breakfast. Relentless hippy chic but don’t expect George V amenities… it’s all about lack of attitude, late night conversation and friends you haven’t met yet.

Marismo (00598 486 2273; no website) Jose Ignacio’s ‘secret’ restaurant needs not so much directions as GPS and thermal imaging: Look for the blue wooden fish on the Garzon Lagoon road and then take a torch to the bushes… Tip top cocktails and seafood, in the most romantic torch-lit barefoot ambience, await.

La Huella (00598 486 2279; www.paradorlahuella.com) ‘The tower of Babel’ is what locals call it – each table is buzzing with a different language, but local gossip is the common denominator. Good for dinner, unbeatable for lunch, right on the beach.

Haras Godiva (00598 480 6112; www.harasgodiva.com) rides from £32. This ranch plays host to some wonderful parties during each season as well as offering a wide array of fantastic inland-to-beach rides. Sunset on horseback at Jose Ignacio is something to behold.

Pendientes Flores de caracola_8€+gastos de envio
De nácar y cristal.

Nä.. för det är fortfarande så att det inte finns några billiga bikinins för mig.. För det hade varit kul om ni hade haft något för oss enbröstade.. för vi är många här i landet.. eller är det så att ni inte tror att bröstcancer drabbar unga tjejer.. Jag vill inte sitta hemma i värmen och sy i en ficka för min lilla protes.. Det hade varit kul att se även för oss cancerdrabbade..

Sen killar är det ingen idé att klicka på bildspelet i tron att få se tjejerna i Caracola.. för det är bara 4 bilder på dem.. sen är det bara bikinis..

Jag väntar fortfarande på vilken kroppsdel som vissar senaste sjukdomen.. då naglar, ögon och tunga tydligen redan visar hur sjuk man är.. Fast det kommer nog på Aftonbladet i veckan som kommer.. Kan riktigt se rubriken framför mig.. Din stortå visar vilken sjukdom du har.. eller din navel.. och då är det även hur mycket navelludd som finns i naveln… har man inget ludd alls.. då är det illa…

Dessutom är en kollaps nummera att man är JÄTTESJUK.. men tillbaka på banan nästa vecka..

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Pysan, caracola, killar, bikini, navelludd, stortå, cancerdrabbad, bröst, cancer, Aftonbladet

Anillo Caracola_10€+gastos de envio-rebajado a 8€
Realizado con arcilla polimérica y barnizado. Con incrustación de caracola natural. Base ajustable.

05.30 am Saturday 17^th may 2008-05-17

There’s nothing like waking up to the sound of crashing waves, for my inspection trip to Isla margarita I’m staying it the Hilton Hotel. The Hilton is a 5* hotel located directly on the beach, it is 15 years old and is a well keep hotel, but in my option is nothing spectacular. I’m looking for ward to viewing the site of Caracola Beach resort and spa, to compare it with the fantastic sea view from my hotel room. Caracola Development is going to be a step up from the Hilton it’s going to be the best apart hotel on the island, with instead of the usual all in one hotel room, the rooms will be one & two bedroom suites with separate lounge areas to relax with sizes from 45 sq metres. Like the Hilton it will be beach front with spectacular sea views.

My first impressions of Isla margarita albeit I only saw it in the dark last night travelling from the airport to my hotel, and the view from my balcony when I woke up extremely early this morning due to the 4and ½ hours time difference from the uk. It seems a friendly and welcoming place, the airport is relaxed and you do not feel intimidated or hassled by a hugh number of taxi drives or people wishing to carry your luggage for you, quite a relaxing an non stressful start to the trip.

The trip from the airport to the Hilton was about 30 mins on good roads, the infrastructure is certain in place here and in good condition. The only other Caribbean island I have been to is the Dominican Republic and the infrastructure in the Isla Margarita certainly seems a lot better, we even passed a BMW dealer ship on the way to the hotel.

Later today I’m going to view the site for Caracola and other places around the island; I will take plenty of photos and post them here for everyone to view.

Right now I’m off for a stroll along the beach before breakfast

I will be travelling to the Isla Margarita on the 16th May 2008 to view the development site of Caracola Beach and Spa Resort. I’m very much looking forward to it so I can report back with plenty of photos and further information on the development.

With properties starting from 79,000 Euros and guaranteed rental return of 7% minimum for 10 years, this beach front development is definitely a great project to consider for investment.

Isla Margarita is located off the coast of Venezuela and is in the Caribbean but outside of the hurricane belt, so i’m sure I will be enjoying lots of sunshine whilst i’m away. I will be back in the office on Wednesday should anyone wish to have a chat about the properties, resort and island.

Watch this space for my photos and comments on the resort of Caracola and Isla Margarita

Pulsera “Marinera”_12,50€+gastos de envio
Con cadena de metal, charms de material sintético y caracolas naturales.
¡Única!

Har man det segt på jobbet kan man lyssna på SR Melodifest, som jag tipsat om tidigare. Men nu har jag lyssnat ett tag på den och det börjar kännas reklamradio – samma låtar i en loop. Så nu har jag gått över till Spraydios Schlagerradio.

Det här kan vara en tröst efter den misslyckade andra chansen. Trist att Nordman och Carola och Andreas Johnson hamnade på samma halva, jag hade velat se dem båda i final. Nu blev det väl bästa möjliga, eller jag hade hellre sett Caracola i final framför Sibel. Men hellre Sibel än Ola i alla fall.

Ja, då var den klar oxå… deltävling 3 i tävlingen “hur korkade kan svenska folket bli”

8 nya bidrag till Svenska Melodifestivalen har visat upp sig… så här kommer ZeeJay’s Tankar om dom…

Först av allt: Nour höll sig kvar på nivån “helt ok” som hon klev upp på förra veckan… Den första veckans bottenuppvisning börjar nästan bli bortglömd…

Bidrag 1: BWO – Lay your love on me….
Det mest positiva jag kan säga om den här är att Alexander Bard uppbarligen äntligen förstått att det är kallt på vintern i sverige – med andra ord, kortbyxorna var lämmnade hemma….  i övrigt: vad faan var det för kläder dom hade på sig?

Bidrag 2: Mickey Huskic – Izdajice
Men så kom igen… Att vi sjunger på Engelska är väll helt ok, väldigt mcket svenska låtar är på engelska… Att vi sjunger på gottländska, norrländska och skånska är väll oxå godtagbart…. Till och med konstiga brytningar så som norska eller kebabpizzalåten från förra veckan… men det här?? vad är det förutom ett försök att ragga röster från balkan länderna?? ni vet, de där som alltid röstar på varandra…

Bidrag 3: Frida feat. Headline – Upp o hoppa… 
Kan det bli bättre än så är?? kanske inte så mycket schlager men ändå… har varit ett stort Frida-fan sedan Dunka mig gul och blå släpptes… Men måste ju fråga: Körsångerskorna, va fan hade dom för kläder?

Bidrag 4: Thérèse Andersson – When you need me…
Nja, så där… Opera är inte min grej… men den var ändå rätt ok. Det var visst något med en slits-chock oxå… men jag tror det löste sig innan sändningen.. så vi slapp den i TV…

Bidrag 5: Patrik Isaksson och Bandet – Under mitt tunna skinn…
Djävligt snygg kostym.. om den bara haft liiiiite bättre passform, har han gått upp i vikt de sista dagarna eller? låten var hyfsad… helt klart en svensktoppsetta i framtiden…

Bidrag 6: Caracola – Smiling in love…
Någon katschig nonsenstextrad höjde hela låten… hör jag den bara ett par gånger till så kommer det där dobadebischupp eller vad det var att sitta som gjutet i huvudet… I övrigt kommer jag inte ihåg låten alls.. men jag förväntar mig tidningsrubriker om “tros-chocken” i morgondagens kvällspress….

Bidrag 7: Ainbusk – Jag saknar dig i bland…
Alvarligt, det enda jag kommer ihåg är deras rosa klänningar, så låten kan inte varit speciellt bra….

Bidrag 8: Eskobar – Hallelujha New World…
Varför gick inte denna vidare då?? Jag kommer helt klart att köpa skivan..

Men den bästa låten av alla: Björn Gustafsson… Hans ode till Carina Berg var suvveränt…   Det är oxå en skiva jag kommer att köpa… (om den nu skulle komma ut på skiva…) men så djävla roligt… (Du är det roliga i hasch…)

Luuk skötte sig som vanligt.. inget direkt att anmärka på eller jubla över… men det känns som om att det börjar bli dags att ge nån annan chansen… nästa år vill vi se Björn Gustafsson som programledare, pausunderhållning och kallpratare med artisterna… vi behöver föresten inga artister.. kör 90 minuter Björn rakt igen bara….

Om någon nu har missat det: BWO och Frida gick till final i globen…

Och Thérèse och Caracola till andra chansen.

Sen visar det sig att det svenska folk som tittar och röstar på melodifestival inte är samma svenska folk som läser nättidningarna… FEL LÅT VANN enligt Aftonbladets läsare

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om melodifestivalen, eurovision song contest, esc, deltävling 3, Linköping, BWO, Frida, Patrik Isaksson, Caracola, Ainbusk, eskobar, look, Nour, Björn Gustafsson, andra chansen