Destination: Caribbean
Gone Missing: One Jamaican Beach
by Valerie Conners | 10.20.08 | 3:53 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzCuban Government: Gustav and Ike Damage ‘Worst Ever’
by Jim Benning | 09.16.08 | 5:29 PM ET
Somehow, amid the din of media reports about Galveston, lipstick on pigs and the U.S. financial mess, I missed this. The Cuban government has declared that the damage caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike was “the worst ever” in the country’s history. Given that Cuba has been blasted by countless hurricanes over the years, the toll has to be massive. According to the BBC’s report, some 200,000 people lost their homes as a result of the storms.
Tips on Caribbean Travel During Hurricane Season
by Jim Benning | 08.18.08 | 11:18 AM ET
No, you can’t really reason with hurricane season. But you can still travel in the Caribbean if you plan smartly. Forbes has some fine tips. As we’ve noted before, travel insurance is a good way to go, as long as you don’t wait too long to buy it.
Related on World Hum:
* Three Travel Tips: Planning a Caribbean Vacation in Hurricane Season
Tony Wheeler: Haiti is ‘Finding its Way Back Onto the Map’
by Eva Holland | 08.05.08 | 12:48 PM ET
More buzz on Haiti. We noted in June that the country isn’t nearly as crime-ridden as many believe. Now, writing in the Independent, Lonely Planet’s founder recalls the pleasures of a recent visit—and explains why he thinks more tourists may soon be following in his footsteps. Yes, the place is impoverished, and the infrastructure needs work, but, he adds, “there’s also exuberant colour, some amazing sights, music to rival nearby Cuba, and it’s certainly not overrun by tourists.”
Photo by M_Eriksson via Flickr (Creative Commons)
Cuba Flights Coming to Airport ‘Within Minutes of Downtown Detroit’
by Jim Benning | 07.21.08 | 11:18 AM ET
How you Canadians tempt us poor Americans. Canada’s Sunwing Airlines has announced plans to offer flights to Cuba from Windsor, just across the border from Detroit. Company officials predict that half the passengers will be American, even though the embargo all but forbids U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba. A State Department spokesman tells The Detroit News that the trip is “risky.”
New Travel Book: ‘A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean’
by Elyse Franko | 07.08.08 | 5:15 PM ET
Full title: “A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean: A Grump in Paradise Discovers that Anyplace it’s Legal to Carry a Machete is Comedy Just Waiting to Happen”
Author: Gary Buslik
Released: June 2008
Travel genre: Bad-natured travel, island travel
Territory covered: The Caribbean
Haiti: It’s Not so Bad!
by Jim Benning | 06.24.08 | 3:19 PM ET
Interesting report in the Christian Science Monitor suggesting that Haiti’s reputation for violence and crime—which keeps legions of tourists away—is overblown. A spokesman for the UN police force in Haiti told the newspaper: “It’s a big myth. Port-au-Prince is no more dangerous than any big city. You can go to New York and get pickpocketed and held at gunpoint. The same goes for cities in Mexico or Brazil.” In fact, UN statistics show that the murder rate in Jamaica, for example, is much higher than it is in Haiti. Sounds like it’s high time for Haiti tourism officials to re-Brand That Nation! While we’re dispensing advice, if a visit to Haiti is in your future, consider your air travel options carefully.
Photo by Robert Miller via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Finding James Bond in Jamaica
by Eva Holland | 06.10.08 | 12:11 PM ET
This year marks the centenary of James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s birth. To celebrate, the Telegraph’s Simon Williams headed to Jamaica to spend some time at Goldeneye, the house where 14 Bond novels were written. The resulting essay includes some thought-provoking speculation about how Bond would have coped with modern air travel (particularly “the smoke-detectors in the loos”), and how the island might have inspired 007’s creator. From the story: “Fleming once said, ‘writing makes you more alive to your surroundings.’ Perhaps that’s why three of his books lead 007 to Jamaica. ... Here, anyway, is where all those characters were born.”
It’s Official: Guevara Children Embarrassed by Che T-Shirts
by Jim Benning | 06.09.08 | 10:20 AM ET
They’re not too hot on the Che image being used to sell vodka or cell phones, either, the AP reports. No word on their feelings about this.
Related on World Hum:
* Che Guevara: Revolutionary, Icon, ‘the Guy Who Intented Those Mojitos’?
* Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Che’: ‘Almost Unreleasable in its Current Form’
* Che and the Image Seen ‘Round the World
Would You Pay a $1 Tax on Travel to the Caribbean to Fund Disease Control?
by Michael Yessis | 06.04.08 | 1:17 PM ET
That’s what the editor of the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases proposes. Such a tax—“less than the cost of a single piña colada!”—would go toward fighting neglected tropical diseases, which are a “high burden” in the region.
Violent Robberies up by Real Pirates of the Caribbean
by Jim Benning | 06.02.08 | 2:46 PM ET
Among the targets: those aboard luxury yachts off islands like St. Vincent. Reports the Los Angeles Times: “Most of the hundreds of incidents collected from 30 countries and territories over the last four years involve dinghy and outboard motor thefts or burglaries of boats while passengers were ashore. But guns and knives are being used more frequently, and dozens of incidents involving beatings and stabbings are among the crimes reported.”
Photo by lyng883 via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
Che Guevara: Revolutionary, Icon, ‘the Guy Who Invented Those Mojitos’?
by Jim Benning | 06.02.08 | 12:13 PM ET
Uh, something like that. In Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, Ben Ehrenreich reflects on Che as pop icon, Steven Soderbergh’s Che and “Chevolution,” an intriguing new documentary about the famed Alberto Korda photo.
Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Che’: ‘Almost Unreleasable in its Current Form’
by Jim Benning | 05.28.08 | 2:07 PM ET
That seems to be the consensus of those who saw the biopic at the Cannes Film Festival. While Benicio Del Toro (pictured) won the best actor award for his performance of the rebel who launched a million T-shirts, critics say Soderbergh’s highly anticipated biopic, which runs no less than four and a half hours, isn’t likely to find its way into theaters soon. The film was made in two parts, the first covering the revolution in Cuba, the second focusing on Guevara’s ill-fated adventures in Bolivia. It’s “almost unreleasable in its current form in any country in the world,” critic John Powers said yesterday on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Photo: The Cuba T-Shirt Nearly 50 Years in the Making
by Jim Benning | 05.19.08 | 12:44 PM ET
I spotted this black number for sale next to the usual guayaberas and baseball T’s at the Cuban Music Festival in Los Angeles’ Echo Park over the weekend. It was, not surprisingly, a particularly festive affair.
Related on World Hum:
* Adios Fidel, Hola Cuba*
* Hey, Let’s Turn Gitmo Into a Cruise Ship Terminal!
* R.I.P. Cachao
Photo by Jim Benning.
On the Occasional Importance of a Ceiling Fan
by Emily Stone | 05.06.08 | 3:52 PM ET
Emily Stone knew well the kind of moment she was experiencing in Puerto Rico: the guy, the Cuba libres, the accelerated intimacy. It was perfectly safe, she told herself, as long as she knew when to get out.