Southwest is returning several seasonal routes to the Caribbean, the carrier said this week.
Southwest has announced the return of several flights for the upcoming 2020 season, it said.
That includes nonstop flights from Atlanta to both Cancun on the Caribbean coast of Mexico and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic beginning April 18, 2020.
Both of those routes will fly on weekends nonstop, according to the company.
Southwest also be resuming seasonal flights between Oakland and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, also on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning in mid-April.
On April 18, Southwest will be resuming weekly Saturday service between New Orleans and Cancun as well.
Southwest has been steadily growing its footprint in the wider Caribbean region in recent years, both from the west coast and from growing hubs like Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
For the first time, the most exclusive rums in the Caribbean went head-to-head in a blind tasting competition at Caribbean Journal’s Caribbean Rum Awards in St Barth, and a team of seven international rum judges finally decided on a winner.
It was a superstar rum field: Ron Del Barrilito Five-Star; Don Q Reserva de la Familia Serralles; Havana Club Maximo; Brugal Papa Andres; El Dorado 25.
And after a round of voting, Puerto Rico’s Ron del Barrilito and the Don Q were neck-and neck, with the Don Q Reserva de la Familia Serralles finally emerging victorious in the second round.
It was the culmination of a week of rum celebration: arrival in style via Tradewind Aviation; a rum expo in Gustavia, a People’s Choice jury; a dinner at Pearl Beach sponsored by WIMCO Villas; a Ti’ Punch seminar and cocktail afternoon; and a seven-course cocktail-and-food pairing VIP dinner at the Quarter Kitchen and Cocktail Lab on Saturday (helmed by top chef Andrew Zarzosa of Yuzu Miami fame).
It was an impressive field of both molasses-based and agricole rums at the Rhum Room.
2019 marked the arrival of the Caribbean Rum Awards in St Barth, set at the Rhum Room, proprietor Christopher Davis’ rum Mecca that has more fine rums on its menu than any bar in the Western Hemisphere, including the largest selection of rhum agricole of any bar on earth.
“We are so pleased with the reception of the Caribbean Rum Awards in St Barth,” said Alexander Britell, editor and publisher of Caribbean Journal. “St Barth is one of the most remarkable markets for rum, and our partnership with Christopher Davis and the St Barth Rum Festival is a natural fit. This year’s competition was filled with outstanding rums from across the Caribbean, and a reminder of the wonderful diversity of Caribbean rum.”
The final cocktail-and-food pairing dinner at the Quarter Kitchen and Cocktail Lab was one of the hottest tickets in St Barth.
In a field marked by broad excellence, rums from Martinique to Guadeloupe to Puerto Rico took home the double golds in seven different categories.
The Don Q Reserva de la Familia Serralles took home the Double Gold in the Ultra-Premium Category, while Ron del Barrilito’s Four-Star Rum won Double Gold in the Premium Rum category.
The ti’ punch was the cocktail of the hour.
On the Rhum Agricole side, Double Gold medalists included Rhum A1710 for its Renaissance rum in the Rhum Blanc – Martinique category, while Rhum Bologne’s La Coulisse took home the Double Gold in the Rhum Blanc Guadeloupe category.
Legendary Martinique chef and restaurateur judging rums during the blind tasting.
Martinique’s Rhum HSE won top honors in the XO category, while the Guadeloupe-made R St Barth “Authentique” won for the Hors d’age category.
“The partnership of the Saint Barth Rum Festival and the Caribbean Rum Awards’ inaugural event in Gustavia this year was incredible,” Christopher Davis said. “The judges, both professional and amateur, experienced some of the finest rhums/rums/rones from the Caribbean, culminating in a seven-course Japanese-inspired tasting menu with rum cocktails during the awards program. As it was our first year, we kept everything intimate, so we could make sure the quality of our event was top notch. We are already having distilleries and other potential partners on island as well as our people’s choice panel enquiring about the second edition next year, which for all of us at the Quarter Kitchen and Cocktail Lab and Rhum Room is the best reward.”
The festival also bestowed a special jury prize on Martinique’s Gregory Vernant of Rhum Neisson, choosing him as the Caribbean Rum Maker of the Year.
Top Martinique-based bartender Sam J. leads the Rhum HSE tasting at the Rum Expo during the Caribbean Rum Awards.
Judges included Martinique chef and restaurateur Guy Ferdinand; Caribbean Journal editor and publisher Alexander Britell; Caribbean Journal EVP and managing editor Guy Britton; New York-based vintner and spirits importer Steven Shaw; Peter Berntsen, operating partner of Casa de Montecristo by Prime Cigar in Miami; Cuba Journal editor-in-chief Simons Chase; and the aforementioned Rhum Room and Quarter Kitchen and Cocktail Lab proprietor Christopher Davis.
Judges on the People’s Choice panel included Steven Miller, Eddy Maddox; Benoit Lavigne and Ted Houseknect.
“St Barth is the natural home for an event that celebrates rum, one of the world’s greatest artisanal, luxury products,” Britton said. “And we are excited about what the future has in store.”
See the full results of the Caribbean Rum Awards 2019 below:
Caribbean Rum Awards Results
Rhum Blanc Agricole (Martinique)
Double Gold: A1710 Renaissance
Gold: La Favorite Riviere Riviere Bel’air
Silver: Rhum HSE Parcellaire
Bronze: Rhum Neisson L’Esprit Bio
Rhum Blanc Agricole (Guadeloupe)
Double Gold: Rhum Bologne La Coulisse
Gold: Rhum Saint Barth Blanc
Silver: Pere Labat 50
Bronze: Karukera L’Intense
VSOP Rhum Agricole
Double Gold: Rhum Karukera Black Alligator
Gold: HSE VSOP
Silver: Rhum Bologne VSOP
Bronze: Rhum Clement VSOP
XO Rhum Agricole
Double Gold: Rhum HSE XO
Gold: Rhum Damoiseau XO
Silver: Rhum Depaz XO
Bronze: Rhum Bologne XO
Hors d’Age Rhum Agricole
Double Gold: R St Barth “Authentique”
Gold: Rhum HSE 2003
Silver: La Favorite Privilege Pour Lulu
Bronze: Rhum Depaz 2002
Premium Rum ($450 and under)
Double Gold: Ron del Barrilito Four Star
Gold: Foursquare Zinfandel Cask Blend
Silver: Appleton 21
Bronze: Facundo Paraiso
Ultra-Premium Rum ($450 and above)
Double Gold: Don Q Reserva de la Familia Serralles
Gold: Ron del Barrilito Five-Star
Silver: Havana Club Maximo
Bronze: El Dorado 25
Special Jury Prize: Caribbean Rum Maker of the Year 2019
Gregory Vernant, Rhum Neisson
Caribbean Rum Awards People’s Choice Results
Best Molasses Rum: Don Q Reserva de la Familia Serralles
The latest Caribbean Photo comes from Caribbean Journal reader Adam Pearson, who sent in this lovely shot of the view from his balcony at the Secrets Wild Orchid resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Have you taken a great photo in the Caribbean?
Send it to news@caribjournal.com with CPOTW in the subject line, including your first and last name and the location of the photo.
Chris Morris has been coming to this sandbar off the edge of Cape Eleuthera since he was four years old, since the days when Cape Eleuthera was the “finest resort in the Bahamas without a casino,” when Billy Jean King was the tennis pro and Arnold Palmer used to play nearby at Cotton Bay.
“It doesn’t have a name,” he says, piloting the boat on the five-minute trip in the late afternoon. “We’ve named it 100 things. It’s just The Sandbar.”
Cape Eleuthera is just about the entirety of the southwestern tail fin of Eleuthera in The Bahamas, a massive 4,500-acre compound that is one of the largest resort properties in the Caribbean – and one of its most storied.
It was once the envy of the region, until one day in 1983 when the lights went off and it would be decades before the resort truly returned.
The sandbar right off the coast of Cape Eleuthera.
Morris, who left a career on Wall Street and came here for good in 2017, is working to lead its renaissance.
Today, Cape Eleuthera is one of the Bahamas’ adventure Meccas, home to arguably the best deep sea fishing in the country, spectacular diving, and a triad of gorgeous beaches that would make it a must-visit beach resort all on their own.
It’s a new life for Cape Eleuthera, the heart and soul of south Eleuthera, an island that, despite its immense beauty (and three international airports) somehow remains a bit under the radar of most travelers.
The resort, which has also launched sales (and sold two dozen lots) for a burgeoning real estate component on its prime beachfront areas, has a mix of 13 marina-front villas and 18 bungalow-style cottages, with amenities ranging from a full-service dive shop to a beachfront pool to what is one of the best places to eat in Eleuthera, the two-story Harbour Pointe seafood restaurant. (Make sure you get the Grouper Picatta)
The hub of everything here is the marina, one of the most important – and popular – maritime stops in The Bahamas, taking boats as large as 200 feet, and soon set to debut a cliffsude beach bar called Friendly Bob’s that will likely become a must-visit outpost on the beach bar circuit.
The resort is about 30 minutes’ drive from Rock Sound airport, from which Morris said he soon planned to launch water taxi service directly from the airport to the resort that will get you there in about half that time.
And the longer you’re here the more you realize just how truly large this peninsula is, where you can get lost among the casuarina trees as you make your way back from Fourth Hole Beach.
There are 31 rooms at Cape Eleuthera, a mix of villas and cottages.
It’s big enough that the compound is also home to the Island School, the famous semester program that brings down high school sophomores and juniors for half the school year (or the summer) and immerse themselves in nature, in the beauty of The Bahamas, in conservation and marine education.
Because Cape Eleuthera is a destination on its own, making you feel as though you’re on your own private island, with your own private beaches, an endless country of sand and pines and Kalik-flavored afternoons.
It’s Eleuthera but it’s also something else entirely.
“I’ve been coming to this sandbar my whole life,” Morris says, pledging to soon launch regular shuttles for guests here at high tide.
Chris flew down here every year for four decades with his father, a man who was a beloved figure in South Eleuthera, who used to fly his plane on Christmas Eve down to the island dressed as Santa Claus to deliver gifts.
This is one sandbar in a xylophone of them off the Cape, the kind that appear for just a few hours a day at low tide and then disappear just before twilight.
The sandbars seen from above.
Cape Eleuthera has been rising and falling with the tide for more than 60 years, through the beginning of tourism in The Bahamas, through the jetset age, through different owners and different eras.
Today, It’s the diving and the fishing and the water, that make this a cherished address among adventurers, for big game sport fishermen and advanced divers, for yachters journeying down the varying blues of the Bahama Bank. (The marina will also see the addition of a pair of new jetties).
“I have a passion to bring this place back,” Morris says, pointing to the interior of the harbor where he first learned how to scuba dive.
And as you look around at the turquoise waves of Sunset Beach and the palapas and the tall, thin palm trees straight out of a Corona commercial, Cape Eleuthera is already there.
