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CUBA TRAVEL SECTION - Havana Journal
By WILL WEISSERT | Associated Press Writer
Cuba welcomed its 2 millionth tourist of 2008 on Friday with a salsa band, strong mojitos and word that the island expects to set a record this year for foreign visitors despite three hurricanes and a global economic crisis.
Authorities hung a red-and-white banner reading “welcome visitor” in five languages just outside the customs area as Air Canada Flight 370 from Toronto touched down at Havana Airport.
“Is this a nice way to start? I’ll say!” said Helen Lueke, a secretary in her 60s from Sherwood Park, Canada, who comes to Cuba about…
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Daraine Luton | Jamaica Gleaner
The Jamaican economy could suffer if the next United States President moves to lift the trade embargo on communist Cuba.
“We have to be careful what we wish for,” says John Rapley, president of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), at the University of the West Indies, Mona.
Rapley was a guest at The Gleaner Editors’ Forum on the US elections last week.
With just two days to go before the US votes for a president to replace George W. Bush, there are speculations as to whether the 40-year trade embargo imposed on Cuba will…
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Cycling Cuba: If its not over 35 degrees, humid, uphill and into a headwind I´m not interested
Met up with the cycling group and we headed out of Havana to get the bikes. Interesting start to the cycling, as a dog started chasing me after 5 minutes. It obviously decided it didn’t like the look of me as it suddenly just went for me. It wasn’t foaming at the mouth but I certainly wasn’t hanging about to see if it just wanted to play ball and I managed to outrun it.
But then after 10 minutes I got a puncture.…
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Ventura de Jesus | Granma.cu
Cuba’s top beach resort has received more than 700,000 tourists to date and the conditions exist for the year to end with a total of one million visitors for the first time in the history of tourism in that province.
“Varadero has been strengthening its position as a destination,” emphasized Amado Acosta Hernández, Ministry of Tourism delegate in Matanzas province. “We have maintained progressive growth since the second semester of 2007 and, specifically this year, we are seeing the best results in overall indicators, although we know we can be still more efficient.”
Varadero has…
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Rob Sequin | Havana Journal
I visited the official Cuban website for Cayo Largo del Sur CayoLargoDelSur.cu and found this scrolling news item:
“Cayo Largo is prepared to open for the new Touristic High Season; all hotels will be reopen in November.”
I have not heard anything about the damage to Cayo Largo but I can only imagine the destruction from Hurricane Ike since it went directly over Cayo Largo. I know this is a major tourist destination and repairs are a top priority but being so far off the mainland, I would imagine that it would be…
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The Jardines del Rey fishing tournament kicked off the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the Jardines del Rey tourist destination in Ciego de Avila Cuba this past week. Jardines del Rey is the area consisting of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo on the north coast of Cuba.
The tournament consisted of eleven people in five teams representing Canada, UK and locals from Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo.
In three and a half days, five boats caught twenty nine fish including sixteen marlin and twelve dorado ranging in weight from thirty to fifty pounds.
The Cayo…
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BY ANDREA GOLLIN | Miami Herald
WALKING TO GUANTANAMO. Richard Fleming. Commons. 351 pages. $27.
With great clarity, Richard Fleming describes the people he meets and the conditions he finds on a walk-about.
First-time author Richard Fleming chose a novel method of fighting depression: He self-medicated by traveling across Cuba. An unusual decision, maybe, but it’s a lucky choice for us, because Fleming has produced a fascinating, wry, vividly detailed and elegantly written account of a trip that no one else is likely to take.
Walking to Guantánamo is the narrative of his trip; The Road to Guantánamo: Images from…
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Don Barr | YachtPilot.ca
Cuba…. Opening for Yachts?
We hear this statement often from our U.S. friends who aren’t aware that for Canadians and Europeans, Cuba has been open to yachting for a long time. If Cuba becomes accessible to American boaters what are the rewards it offers?
The first big advantage is that Cuba is easy to reach. From anywhere on the eastern seaboard one can sail the inland or coastal waters to Marathon or Key West and then leave the Florida Keys late in the afternoon arriving at Marina Hemingway the following morning. Yachtsmen who…
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I enjoyed this video called Cuba Naturally by National Geographic photographer Steve Winter.
Watch a short professional video featuring the geographic history of Cuba along with a great summary of the wide variety of flora and fauna in Cuba presented only in a way that National Geographic can produce.
See this National Geographic map identifying Cuban bioreserves, national parks, wetlands of importance and world heritage sites and you can read some of Steve Winter’s field notes.
You can also watch the video Coral Reefs by NatGeo that features incredible video…
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U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold issued a preliminary injunction against the law that requires Florida travel agencies that book trips to Cuba to post a $250,000 bond earlier today.
He rules that the law, which took effect July 1, cannot be enforced because it may violate a constitutional mandate that states that the the federal government is responsible for US foreign policy, not individual states.
The law was introduced, support and passed by Cuban-American lawmakers, who want to impede on American citizens’ rights of international travel.
The injunction will remain in effect until a trial can be held…
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