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flights to Cuba resume from Florida
First U.S.-Cuba flight since 1961 takes off
To a fanfare of Cuban music and a water canon salute, the first commercial flight to cross the Florida Straits to Cuba in decades took off Wednesday morning, ushering in a new era in the ever-warming relations between the U.S. and the island nation.
The sold-out trip to the central Cuban area of Santa Clara took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport just after 10 a.m. on JetBlue, the first airline to secure a commercial flight to Cuba. Flights on Silver Airways and American Airlines will follow in the coming weeks.
time to plan a trip to the big island of the Caribbean
To a fanfare of Cuban music and a water canon salute, the first commercial flight to cross the Florida Straits to Cuba in decades took off Wednesday morning, ushering in a new era in the ever-warming relations between the U.S. and the island nation.
The sold-out trip to the central Cuban area of Santa Clara took off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport just after 10 a.m. on JetBlue, the first airline to secure a commercial flight to Cuba. Flights on Silver Airways and American Airlines will follow in the coming weeks.
time to plan a trip to the big island of the Caribbean
Replies
1. There is a very prolific poster mainly on the Tropics section that said this would never happen< Well, it did Rafy!
2.Neighbor went by boat this spring. He said great visit but not worth the hassle of the boat. Limited time in each port available, and essentially you must clear at every port. An under almost no circumstances is any Cuban allowed on your boat without advance permission and you wont get the permission.
He suggested flying or cruise ship as it just wasn't worth the issues he had to deal with.
Same here but through Nassau. Been three times. Cash is king and the ladies love Andrew Jackson.
Miami doesn't count.
:rotflmao
I also got to go and witness it before it becomes commercialized! really was a cool place! took some pictures cause as they say pictures or it didn't happen.
Yup I was on a yacht that sat at Marina Hemingway for 4 months. They have a little cigar shop in there that the lady sits there and rolls cigars. And they have selections of their finest rums. I very nice place to hang and take in the culture
Well, actually....maybe not. When I was there in 97 and I was told by numerous people that a lot of the big name "Cubans" on sale, even in fancy hotels we're fakes (Dominicans).
Boxes of Cohibas were anywhere from $40 to $500. I bought a small supply of singles for friends, but US Customs in Nassau got'm. And all my ironwood ballerina sculptures. ****!
Black market fake Cubans are huge business in Cuba. And tourists are on top of the list for the fakes to be sold to. It's all about the holograms and packaging. There are things to look for to see if it's a fake or a smuggled box or a legit box
Yeah they all have a 1000 uncles hahaha.
I was told that they smuggle out cigars and packaging separate. 3 different people smuggle out the pieces that they then package at home and sell as authentic. As they are Cuban grown and made just not direct from the factory. But much cheaper. We were on a foreign flagged vessel and brought back like 14 boxes of cigars which were never checked by Bahamas customs or US customs. We left key West for Cuba and passed a CG cutter 13 miles south of Key west. Didn't bother us or hail us as we were headed straight for Havana. Then when we left we went east along Cuba's north shore and entered the Bahamas through the southern tip of Andros into the tongue. Checked in at Andros and did some diving there for 3 days then headed back to Palm Beach. No one asked or assumed anything. #winning. I had a mate fly in and out of Cuba 4 times during the 4 months we were there. Through the Bahamas and no one asked any questions. Makes you wonder how serious they were about finding people going to Cuba through the Bahamas.
I grew up in Ft Lauderdale in the 60's when the Cuban people were fleeing for their lives. My 2 best friends during my grade school years were Cubans. Their father was a wealthy tobacco farmer until the Castro Thugs came and kicked them off their property and took everything they had. Our church recently sent a mission group to a small village called Formento. (not sure if this the correct spelling) The conditions are horrendous. The government controls EVERYTHING. Their food, which is mostly rice is rationed monthly. The water is undrinkable and there is no a/c. The mission group was very limited on what they could bring. They spent a week helping to rebuild a small church which the government has strict control over. When they left, they left behind all the tools they brought as well as all their cloths for the people of the village.
Also, had a friend who just returned a month or so ago from fishing in a billfish tournament in Cuba. He echoed the findings of the others. He found the people to be very friendly but the photos he showed me were of Havana and it showed very clearly what communism will do for you. So as you go and visit just remember you are propping up a communist government and the cuban people are getting nothing. It would be great to see Cuba freed of the communist oppression that has overtaken their lives and returned to the people so they can return their beautiful island into a safe homeland and prosper.
China, Vietnam anyone?
Here's the thing. The Berlin wall didn't come down because we isolated the East.
Isolation simply does not work - Cuba is a case in point. It may be a hard nut to swallow, but pouring in visual and verbal information through tourism, access, openness will free up those people quicker than anything else.
Just like Northern Ireland, and hopefully soon to happen in Northern Cyprus, building walls to openness is decades out of date.
Menzies make a great point. But on the other side of the coin I would say the locals more than benefited from me and the boat I was running being there. I sub'd out work to the locals for bottom cleaning, scrubbing the decks of the awful diesel soot that lingers in the air and falls everywhere, taxi drivers, I mean where else can you rent a full restored 55,56,57 Chevy that has a 40hp diesel tractor motor dropped in it hahaha. Are the people oppresssed of course they are. It's sad. But small time dealings with the locals helps them more than you would know. We brought tons of toothbrushes, tooth paste, bar soap, shampoo to give away and the locals loved it all. One guy came back and told us how his hair smelled so good from the shampoo. I almost spit my beer out and fell off the bar stool. The govt is mean but the population is some of the nicest people I've met.
If I had to choose to goto Bahamas or Cuba based on better experience I'd choose Cuba all day every day.
Have you given any thought into shipping the Marrett over there (in multiple nondescript packages of course), rounding up a group of revolutionaries, and freeing the island? You may be the best hope for freedom of the Cuban people.
!!!!!!YES!!!!!!
Things are definitely changing down there, I was inside of one of the first hotels purchased by an American that's about to be remodeled right in old Havana.
With the introduction of the internet I'm thinking change will happen fast...I even got to try out WiFi down there; much different than my last visit years ago.