JetBlue just launched its first-ever flights to Guyana, Caribbean Journal has confirmed.
The new service is operating four times each week between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Guyana’s Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
“JetBlue’s arrival in Guyana introduces our low fares and award-winning service to another new market in the Caribbean and Latin America where customers have long faced high prices and little competition,” said Andrea Lusso, vice president network planning, JetBlue. “We remain committed to this important region of our network and continue to connect more travelers with the people and places they want to see.”
The new service is being operated on JetBlue’s A321neo aircraft.
“We are pleased to welcome JetBlue to our beautiful country, Guyana,” said Guyana’s Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill. “We are confident that their entry into the local market will help to advance the aviation sector, especially at a time when the sector is looking to rebuild, in the midst of this global pandemic. This latest investment by JetBlue – even in the current environment – also speaks to the level of confidence the airlines has placed on our country as a lucrative destination of choice.”
Guyana, the seat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), is now the fourth South American destination in JetBlue’s wider network.
Another new hotel has opened its doors in the Dominican Republic’s tourism hub of Punta Cana, Caribbean Journal has learned.
The new Serenade Punta Cana launched its soft opening this week on Cabeza de Toro Beach.
The destination’s newest all-inclusive resort has a total of 603 rooms across seven four-story buildings.
All of the resort’s rooms have views of either the ocean, gardens or swimming pools.
The latter includes a total of four pools ,with a main pool, a children’s pool (including a waterpark) and a pair of pools available to the brand’s “Preferred Club” guests.
The property includes a 9,000-square-foot spa, along with a 6,800-square-foot casino and 9,200 square feet of flexible meeting space.
The property, set about 10 minutes from Punta Cana International Airport, is the first-ever Caribbean hotel developed by Serenade.
The Mexican Caribbean has seen some of the strongest travel demand of any regional destination amid the pandemic, leading to a surge in both route resumptions and new routes.
The latter now includes another launch, with Southwest Airlines’ announcement that it will be adding a new route to Cancun from Phoenix in March.
Beginning March 11, 2021, the low-cost carrier will be running daily flights between Phoenix and Cancun, the company said this week.
That will join Southwest’s existing service from Phoenix to popular Mexican destinations including Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta.
Bob Marley would have been 75 years old this year, and while the reggae legend’s life was tragically cut short, his oldest son, Ziggy, has not only carried on his father’s musical legacy but his quest to make the world a better place, too.
Days after being wounded in an assassination attempt at his home in 1976, Bob Marley performed at a peace concert in Kingston, Jamaica, famously saying, “The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?”
That’s a lesson that Ziggy Marley has taken to heart.
Winner of eight Grammy awards for his music, Ziggy’s humanitarian work has included serving as a Goodwill Youth Ambassador for the United Nations and participating in Bob Marley Foundation initiatives worldwide.
His own charity, U.R.G.E. (Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment), a non-profit organization whose mission ranges from building new schools to operating health clinics, receives a portion of the proceeds from his latest project, More Family Time, a new children’s reggae album featuring four of his school-age children as well as the voices of Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Angelique Kidjo, Lisa Loeb, Tom Morello, Alanis Morissette and Busta Rhymes.
Marley’s first children’s album, Family Time, won a Grammy in 2009. “My children play an important role in inspiring that,” says Marley, with the latest record drawing upon the “wild energy and excitement” of his youngest son, Isaiah, 4.
In addition to positive messages — “a lot of it has to do with loving each other, having manners, and having fun” — says Marley — the books also have a strong environmental message. “I’m trying to instill into children one of the most beautiful ways to make the world a better place,” he said.
Photo by Tim Cadiente.
To mark his father’s “diamond jubilee,” Marley also released “Bob Marley: Portrait of the Legend,” an oversized photo book filled with images drawn from the Marley family’s collection, including rare behind-the-scenes and casual depictions of Marley’s personal life.
“The focus is on understanding Bob outside the legend, and as a human being,” said Ziggy, who helped curate the collection. “It brought back a lot of memories about that time period,” he added, including playing soccer with his father and accompanying him on a tour of Zimbabwe.
Bob Marley died in 1981 of cancer at age 36, when Ziggy, now 52, was just 13 years old.
“Going though the photos, it hit me how young he was,” said Ziggy. “It’s sad, but he did so much in that time— it’s still a testament to his ethics and spirituality. He knew he had to do everything in the shortest amount of time.”
Bob Marley’s “songs of freedom” still resonate with marginalized people all over the world, and Ziggy has trodden a similar path with his social justice work, including support of the Black Lives Matter movement and his efforts to raise environmental awareness.
Reggae, says Ziggy, “never goes out of style.”
“In good times and bad, it has a place in society,” he says. “It gives strength and encouragement to people who are oppressed.”
In addition to his work on the Bob Marley photo book, Ziggy has also authored a children’s book called “I Love You, Too,” based upon a dialogue with his daughter, Judah; and the Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook, filled with traditional Jamaican recipes and healthy ‘ital’ food drawn from Rastafarian culture.
Food is one way that Ziggy, a resident of the U.S. for the past 15 years, stays connected to Jamaica. “America is a very big, sprawling country and an individualized place,” he says. “Jamaica more natural and spiritual — where these is more nature, there is more spirituality.”
Ziggy urges visitors to Jamaica to connect to the country’s natural environment, including at less well-known places as Cane River Falls in St. Andrew Parish and the mineral springs in Bath, near Kingston, where Ziggy would go to sooth his aching muscles during his soccer-playing days.
Staying at a rural inn or AirB&B would give visitors an opportunity to connect with the Jamaica that’s closest to his heart, Ziggy says.
“It’s not a storybook or a fantasy — Jamaica is a modern place, but more rebellious against western culture,” he says. “In the countryside most people don’t have much material wealth, but they are full of happiness and joy.”
