Destination: Caribbean
Where no Travel Writer has Gone Before
by Rolf Potts | 11.16.09 | 10:22 AM ET
By Doug Mack In a five-part series, Rolf Potts joins Trekkies aboard a "Star Trek" theme cruise to Bermuda
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Yahoo! BuzzIs a ‘Gerontocracy’ to Blame for the Cuba Travel Ban?
by Eva Holland | 10.29.09 | 3:06 PM ET
Double X writer Kerry Howley, while calling for an end to the ban, highlights some stats about the age of those who still support it. “The future belongs to the would-be tourist,” she writes. “[W]hen you exclude the 65-and-over set, the percentage of people who support a change of policy shoots up to 62.”
Seth Stevenson: Innocents Aboard
by Eva Holland | 10.19.09 | 2:46 PM ET
Slate’s latest Well-Traveled series follows writer Seth Stevenson and three other novice sailors as they join the annual herd of “clueless” American boaters who “fly down to Tortola, rent enormous catamarans, float them out into the middle of the channel, and for the next seven days proceed to endanger every seaborne object they encounter.” It’s a good read so far.
Photo You Must See: Vintage Wheels in Cuba
by World Hum | 10.12.09 | 5:20 PM ET
REUTERS/Desmond Boylan A classic car passes state-owned farm lands near the village of Quivican, outside Havana.
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Ojalá’ by Silvio Rodriguez
by Jim Benning | 09.29.09 | 3:33 PM ET
‘Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World’ Premieres Tonight—He Goes to Cuba
by Jim Benning | 09.01.09 | 4:58 PM ET
Andrew Zimmern’s Travel Channel series “Bizarre Foods” has evolved into Bizarre World, and it debuts tonight at 10 E/P. The first show goes where few American travel shows have gone recently: Cuba. Judging from the description of the show, it would seem that bizarre foods still have a place in “Bizarre World”:
Andrew participates in the Santeria ritual that leaves him covered in blood. He devours the biggest tree rats he’s ever seen, and he discovers how to grow world-class tobacco.
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Me Gustas Tu’ by Manu Chao
by Jim Benning | 08.27.09 | 1:16 PM ET
Photo We Love: Cubana Con Cigarro
by World Hum | 08.26.09 | 3:29 PM ET
REUTERS/Desmond Boylan A street entertainer in Havana yesterday.
Into Jamaica’s Maroon Country
by Eva Holland | 08.25.09 | 10:59 AM ET
Matt Carroll recently ditched the resort and went looking for the descendants of the Maroons, the historic communities of escaped slaves that formed in the Jamaican interior and fought a running battle with the British for more than a century. His story is in the Guardian.
Paul Theroux: ‘The Cross-Country Trip is the Supreme Example of the Journey as the Destination’
by Michael Yessis | 08.24.09 | 2:37 PM ET
Yet one of the most intrepid travel writers alive had never driven across the U.S. So when the Smithsonian asked him and five other travel writers to take on their dream assignments, he picked the cross-country trip. He delivered a beautiful story. He writes:
In my life, I had sought out other parts of the world—Patagonia, Assam, the Yangtze; I had not realized that the dramatic desert I had imagined Patagonia to be was visible on my way from Sedona to Santa Fe, that the rolling hills of West Virginia were reminiscent of Assam and that my sight of the Mississippi recalled other great rivers. I’m glad I saw the rest of the world before I drove across America. I have traveled so often in other countries and am so accustomed to other landscapes, I sometimes felt on my trip that I was seeing America, coast to coast, with the eyes of a foreigner, feeling overwhelmed, humbled and grateful.
The other five writers involved are Susan Orlean (Destination: Morocco), Francine Prose (Japan), Geoffrey C. Ward (India), Caroline Alexander (Jamaica) and Frances Mayes (Poland). Here’s Jan Morris’s introduction to the project.
Aboard Cuba’s Hershey Train
by Michael Yessis | 08.21.09 | 11:18 AM ET
It was built by chocolate baron Milton Hershey in 1916, and, according to Michael Scott Moore, the Hershey Train is a reminder of how much the U.S. and Cuba have in common.
There’s a slideshow, too. See below:
View the Hershey Train slideshow »
NPR on Cuba’s Tourism ‘Allure’
by Eva Holland | 08.20.09 | 2:14 PM ET
With a possible end to the travel ban in the works, Jason Beaubien takes a look at Cuba from the potential American tourist’s perspective. One tour guide he spoke to acknowledged that, infrastructure-wise, Cuba may not be ready for an American influx. “But,” he added, “if you ask me about the will of the Cuban people, I would say, yes, we are ready. We would like to have more exchange with the American people coming from the U.S. to Cuba.”
The End of Cuba’s ‘Tourism Apartheid’?
by Eva Holland | 08.11.09 | 4:25 PM ET
It’s been more than a year since Raul Castro rescinded the ban on Cubans in local hotels and resorts, but the shift is only now seeing tangible results. Writes Nick Miroff of Global Post: “Given that the average wage on the island is less than $20 a month, the change was largely considered a symbolic one at the time. But this summer, something unusual has been happening up and down the beach at Varadero. The hotels are filling with cash-wielding locals.” Apparently, the influx is largely a result of steep discounts in a recession-hit off season. I never thought I’d say it, but this might be one “staycation” I can get behind.
U.S. Airports Antsy for Cuba Access
by Eva Holland | 07.29.09 | 3:19 PM ET
Several U.S. airports—Tampa’s, Key West’s and Houston’s among them—are angling to be added to the list of locations from which flights to Cuba are permitted. Currently, only L.A., New York and Miami are allowed to handle the charter flights that carry Americans with the appropriate permits to and from the island, but with an easing of travel restrictions seemingly on the horizon, nobody wants to be left out. Said Key West International’s airport director, Peter Horton: “[T]he last thing that we want is to get lost in the shuffle as people scramble to try to fly there.”
I Violated the Cuba Travel Embargo and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt
by Jim Benning | 07.27.09 | 1:23 PM ET
And a few refrigerator magnets. And a green and red Che Guevara beret. And some postcards.
Crazy story here about an American freelance entertainment news producer who wants to be fined for his Cuba visits so he can challenge the travel ban. So far, to his chagrin, he has been met with little more than indifference from U.S. authorities.
Here’s hoping that U.S. officials have quietly stopped enforcing the stupid law—and that President Obama and Congress will act soon to revoke it.
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