For most Trinbagonians who are young and young at heart, the Carnival season is a must in terms of participation. As per the last decade or so, I would normally be raring to go with my fellow photographers who enjoy seeing all the masquerader bands and Kings and Queens over Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Customarily, we would be up in the wee hours of the morning making sure our equipment was in order. I prepped the same way this Carnival Tuesday, except this time I was up at 3.00 a.m. because I was on my way to Mexico for a bucket-list test drive– the new Porsche 911.

With tickets and hotel booked to a seminar in Fort Lauderdale, I also took the opportunity to contact Porsche Centre Trinidad and Porsche Latin America to see if I could review a few of their cars while out on this trip. I drafted my itinerary for the seven-day trip and was absolutely over the moon when they said that I could have both the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid and the Porsche Boxster GTS (feature here) for a few days each to drive and evaluate! 

The atmosphere was bristling with anticipation as our group of invited journalists from the Caribbean and Central America was warmly received at the lavish Bristol Buenaventura Resort Hotel on Panama’s Pacific coast, some two hours from Panama City.

On our first official evening we joined Ford officials and other media representatives for cocktails and dinner. Naturally, the new Ford Ranger was the hot topic of the evening and everyone spoke glowingly of Ford’s performance in their respective markets versus the competition from Nissan and Toyota. We heard from Chris Sirju of The Gleaner about the remote, mountainous regions in Jamaica where Suzukis and Land Rover Defenders are the only means of getting around due to the crude roads and limited infrastructure. Everyone, it seemed, was well aware of who the real performers were in the current market. We did all agree on one thing though– the last few generations of the Ranger had excelled in terms of sales, reliability and on- and off-road performance, a fact that was reflected in the large numbers of happy owners. The Ford team skillfully recognised our concerns and noted our comments without giving away too much.

The atmosphere was bristling with anticipation as our group of invited journalists from the Caribbean and Central America was warmly received at the lavish Bristol Buenaventura Resort Hotel on Panama’s Pacific coast, some two hours from Panama City.

On our first official evening we joined Ford officials and other media representatives for cocktails and dinner. Naturally, the new Ford Ranger was the hot topic of the evening and everyone spoke glowingly of Ford’s performance in their respective markets versus the competition from Nissan and Toyota. We heard from Chris Sirju of The Gleaner about the remote, mountainous regions in Jamaica where Suzukis and Land Rover Defenders are the only means of getting around due to the crude roads and limited infrastructure. Everyone, it seemed, was well aware of who the real performers were in the current market. We did all agree on one thing though– the last few generations of the Ranger had excelled in terms of sales, reliability and on- and off-road performance, a fact that was reflected in the large numbers of happy owners. The Ford team skillfully recognised our concerns and noted our comments without giving away too much.