Spirit Airlines Relaunching Honduras Flights

 

Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines is relaunching its flights to Honduras on Aug. 17, Caribbean Journal has learned. 

The company will be resuming routes from both Fort Lauderdale and Houston to San Pedro Sula. 

Honduras has reopened its borders after shuttering them due to COVID-19 in mid-March. 

“We are very happy to be operating again in Honduras,” said Camilo Martelo, director of International Airports for Spirit Airlines. 

Honduras has set up a national migration portal for all visitors to the country, including a requirement for a negative COVID-19 test result. (You can find more on the National Institute for Migration in Honduras here).

— CJ

The post Spirit Airlines Relaunching Honduras Flights appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

Powered by WPeMatico

Puerto Rico’s future is for Puerto Ricans to determine

… President Donald Trump considered selling Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria obliterated … status options widely recognized in Puerto Rico and Washington: independence, statehood, … in expressing that Puerto Rico is a nuisance to him.
Puerto Ricans deserve the …

Powered by WPeMatico

Annual Afro-Caribbean street party in London goes digital

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, West London’s yearly Afro-Caribbean street party, Notting Hill Carnival, will be witnessed on computer screens around the world, streaming hours of music and performance. 

An event that dates back to the 1960s, the two-day carnival is held at the end of August and attracts more than a million visitors being a symbol of interracial tolerance and celebration of the Afro-Caribbean community. 

In a report by Reuters, the physical parade was already cancelled earlier this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. As regulations persist, gone are the booming sound systems and extravagantly costumed dancers marching through the crowded streets as well.

To keep the carnival’s spirit alive, organizers have spent a month filming acts to be broadcast over the Internet between Aug. 29 and 31, hopefully bringing it to a more global audience as well.

Matthew Phillip, the carnival’s executive director, expressed his dismay and hope for this year’s festivities saying, “First I was very sad that it wouldn’t be on the streets – I still am – but I’m very excited about the possibilities of this year taking Carnival into unique places.”

A celebration of race, a protest of work to be done

The roots of the carnival can be traced post-war when Britain opened its borders to Caribbean citizens in an effort to alleviate labor shortages and rebuild the country – causing racial tension.

In the same streets where the riots took place, the event celebrating Caribbean music, food, and culture gave way as a significant effort to bring communities together.

The first online Notting Hill Carnival will be set against a milieu of raised alertness regarding racial inequality in Britain, and while a virus that continues to circulate affect Black communities.

Therefore, will this year’s carnival be more meaningful?

“Carnival is always relevant you know… Carnival itself is almost a protest, it’s people claiming the streets,” Phillip told Reuters.

After the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, thousands of protesters marched in London last June under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement, condemning police brutality and racial inequality. 

The post Annual Afro-Caribbean street party in London goes digital appeared first on Caribbean News Now!.

Powered by WPeMatico

Rum Journal: A Great New Coconut Rum

 

Right now, more than ever, we all want to be in the Caribbean.

There’s that feeling of the Caribbean that we want; that spirit of the Caribbean with which we so desperately want to engage — to experience its wonders, its beauty, the love of its people. 

But while a number of destinations in the region have reopened in some form for visitors, many others remain restricted or closed. 

In other words, right now it’s not as easy as it used to be to get to the Caribbean. And so what we seek is a gateway, a window, a portal. A way to get there in spirit. 

And, naturally, that brings us to rum. 

Few spirits manage to capture the essence of a place, of its character, its energy, as rum. Every rum is a journey of its own to the Caribbean, even if for a fleeting moment or a few savored sips. 

We’ve long extolled in these pages the transportive power of the spirit, its ability to take you somewhere else, to a far-off beach bar, to the smoke-filled seats of a Lolo, to a dimly lit rum bar; to the deck of a boat. 

And that’s particularly true with flavored rums. 

While Rum Journal of course focuses on the art of fine aged rums, we happily acknowledge the place and import of flavored expressions — rums without pretense — they’re rums that are designed to take you somewhere fun. 

That brings us to one of the newest flavored rums on the scene: Rude Bwoy. 

The Rude Bwoy brand, the brainchild of James Larson and Patrick Mitchell (whose family has been in the Caribbean for almost half a millennium), who took their rummaking knowledge and tradition to Florida’s The Point distillery and produced a range of spirits including a terrific new coconut rum. 

The coconut expression of Rude Bwoy, which gets its name from the early days of ska music in Jamaica (a “rudie” is a mate or a friend), is stronger than the average flavored rum at 35 degrees, and is made, Wright and Larson tell us, from exclusively natural ingredients. 

So what’s it like?

Rude Bwoy Coconut has an aroma of confectioner’s sugar and coconut husk. 

The flavor profile is marked by coconut, vanilla, cane stalk, white pepper and citrus peel. 

The comparatively higher proof gives it a bold edge – but it’s remarkably balanced. 

Most coconut rums have that unwelcome veneer of artifice; this doesn’t – it tastes real, it tastes fresh, and authentic and even a bit complex. 

It’s great on the rocks or in a cocktail, but it even works neat; plainly, it’s the best coconut rum we’ve tried in a long time. 

Or, as one of our tasters noted, it’s like “the beach in a bottle.”

And right now, that’s exactly where we want to be. 

Rude Bwoy Coconut Rum

Rum Journal Rating: 90 Points 

For more, visit Rude Bwoy

— CJ

The post Rum Journal: A Great New Coconut Rum appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

Powered by WPeMatico

British Airways to Launch Daily Barbados Flights From Heathrow

 

British Airways will soon be serving Barbados with year-round, daily flights out of London Heathrow, Barbados tourism officials confirmed this week. 

The year-round daily flights will launch Oct. 17, according to Barbados Tourism Minister Lisa Cummins. “For more than 15 years, Barbados has been engaging British Airways on the re-establishment of London Heathrow as the gateway to Barbados, following the retirement of its Concorde service. We are thrilled therefore to see this finally come to fruition as it opens the door for us, quite literally, for growth opportunities in cities and continents that were once out of our reach.”

Cummins said the flights would also help improve connectivity across the UK. 

“Post-COVID-19, with British Airways seeing the contraction of various routes, the opportunity presented itself for this service and we were determined to secure it,” the Minister said. “Understanding the challenges currently faced by our industry, it is critical for us to be both smart and aggressive with our growth strategy, and this represents that.”

British Airways will be operating the route on Boeing 777-200 aircraft. 

The flights will supplement daily flights from London Gatwick, which will run from Oct. 2020 through April 2021. 

“The U.K. continues to be our primary source market. In 2019, Barbados reported record arrivals from the U.K.—234,658 arrivals of the destination’s overall 712,945. We therefore expect that this addition will bring us even more favorable results as we look confidently ahead to our future,” Cummins said.

The post British Airways to Launch Daily Barbados Flights From Heathrow appeared first on Caribbean Journal.

Powered by WPeMatico