Yes and hopefully they add flights from Montreal as well. Actually flying in Varadero kind of dictated my trip for me. I would like to come back to Jibacoa some day.
I don’t know what will start up flights to Santiago and Camaguey again and the future looks bleak. I am happy though to have supported Cuba once again. Not looking forward to going home tomorrow. I wish I had Simon’s money! Jajaja!

I think even keeping the status quo in regards to flights to Cuba from Canada would be a win at this point. Flights to Camaguey or Santiago de Cuba are years away from reality. And I'm only rich when in Cuba. In Toronto, not so much.

Air Canada has no flights to Cuba until November. WestJet and Air Transat are still showing flights starting in May. Anyone think this will happen? An ultrabasic ticket from Toronto to Varadero is just over $300 r/t with WestJet.

Hey there, Simon. I'm beginning to have my doubts, but if just taking the needed jet fuel into consideration, I don't understand why Air Canada bailed when they could have just as easily entered into a contract for refueling on the trip back to Canada in the DR or the Bahamas. Easy peasy. And if they had to increase their pricing to compensate for that added necessity, than so be it! My hope is that both Sunwing and Air Transat are busy negotiating those contracts for refueling elsewhere now so they'll be ready to roll come May. I suppose we'll know if that's the case if their current online prices for flights bump up a bit soon.

Of course the other elephant in the room is what's going to happen once Captain Chaos is done with his illegal power grab in the middle east? He's saying that Cuba is next. Terry

At just over 300 bucks r/t I would actually maybe consider going for a week but the 80 usd taxi fare to Havana from Varadero that I paid in January I am sure has jumped up quite a bit. I have never been to Cuba in the summer and don’t plan to either, especially these days. Very hard to predict what will happen. I really hope it don’t get ugly.

The story of Cuba is of independence Che Guevara’s nephew once told me.

WestJet has followed Air Canada's lead and cancelled all flights to Cuba until November. AirTransat is still showing May flights. For now anyway.

Aaaaa! Well there we go! Just a matter of time - likely within the next 24 hours - and Air Transat is sure to follow as well. I've already decided though that I'll just wait to book Yudith to come HERE to Canada on October 25th - the first DIRECT flight out of Cayo Coco to Toronto - if of course that remains viable after the adjustment is made. She can stay here with me for 3 months and we'll both fly back to Cuba for Christmas / New Years together there in Camaguey with the rest of the family as usual. Terry

I still feel ripped off because I came home early. I should have just stayed in spite of objections and concerns from my family. I was just looking at flights through Miami with American Airlines.

AeroMexico flights to Havana via Mexico City are expensive. CopaAir has some good prices to Havana through Panama, but has an almost 9 hour layover on the first flight. I'm also thinking about flying with WestJet to Merida, Mexico and maybe spend a month or so there and make my way to Cuba after that.

Kudos to you Simon if you make it back to Cuba. If flights from Canada open up again, I would think about it, depending on the flights. Yeah winter is still hanging around these parts.

Things need to happen fairly quickly if I plan on returning soon. The main thing I am waiting for is regular shipments of oil to resume. I have no desire to be in Cuba during the summer. I'd like to go from mid April to mid June.

Our Cuba plans are finished for this year but we will definitely return next winter if things have normalized. If the usa has their dirty hand in there, we will go somewhere else.

Air Transat has moved its date to return to Cuba to mid June from May 1st.

Air Transat has joined the others and have cancelled all flights to Cuba until the end of October.

YEP! I see that now, Simon! Well, that's fine with me and with Yudith too - she'll still be able to fly out of Cayo Coco late October to get here to Toronto and stay with me through Christmas before we both jet back to Cuba together for the New Years holiday celebrations there in Camaguey. And she can still fly DIRECT to Toronto too with Air Transat on October 25th as originally planned too! Thank God!

For you it ain't so good. TRUE! But the interior of Cuba away from Havana is still an option for you late this year - once again, my open invitation to have me help coordinate a stay in Camaguey for you and for perhaps CubanWaters too - still stands! Terry

Do you have a rough idea Terry of when you will arrive/depart Cuba on your next trip?

Hey there, Simon. Well, a few things have to happen first before I can make any decisions about when my next trip to Camaguey can be booked. First, sometime during this next week, the permanent residency application will finally be submitted to Canadian Immigration on behalf of Yudith and for her daughter Delenys. The next thing that has to happen is to have Canadian Immigration schedule Yudith's and Delenys's trip to Havana and to the Canadian Embassy where they'll both need to have their Biometrics taken. Once that's been completed, then I can get serious about booking Yudith to come to Canada again for a visit on her TRV - I'm tentatively aiming for late October - IF those flights from Cayo Coco to Toronto actually do happen as now planned. Yudith can then stay with me through Christmas in Canada, see her first snow, and take in the Christmas holiday festivities for the first too. I've been looking at what DIRECT flights Air Transat is now offering before New Years - we need to be back in Camaguey before the end of the year for our traditional fiesta with the family and our pig on the spit again. Right now, it's looking like Sunday, December 27th would be our day to return to Cuba through Cayo Coco and with the taxi to get us back to Camaguey city together as well. Yudith would stay there of course - I'd have to return on January 09th, again with a taxi back to Cayo Coco and leaving DIRECT to Toronto from there. A lot of moving pieces in play before any of that can happen though. Simon, let's talk more about it after everything has been completed in Havana for her and Dele. Terry

Claro amigo. I really hope Cubans can decide their own future and that the politics, policies and rhetoric from their bully come to an end. We will certainly have a clearer picture of what the future holds over the next several months. CW and I were talking about what a blast it would be to celebrate New Years Eve with you in Camaguey.

YES! You'd both have a hoot hanging with all of us during that fin de año fiesta at our casa. Mi placer! But you'll both need to take turns sitting in that chair turning the pig too! I'll make sure you both have cold beers beside you.

About the bully, I'm hoping that he forgets about regime change and just focuses on insisting that Cuba adopt a complete free market economy. Bad for the Cuban government, of course - they'd lose their cash cows! But they can make that up with taxation - just like everywhere else. The current Cuban government is necessary simply to maintain stability during that transition. But once the Cuban population begins to get RICH working within that free market economy - with help from the Cuban-American community in Miami too - the power will shift to the Cuban people. That's when they can begin to apply pressure from within to insist that the government convert to a democracy. The Cuban-Americans will forget about regime change too when they realize that they can make a buck in Cuba without needing to deal with the government. That's all that will matter to them - the business of the USA, is business. Look what happened with the relationship with communist China and Vietnam, after all. Terry

I would love to do some more travelling around the interior of Cuba. I am just really hoping for now to get back to Havana next January if that is possible. I would not be able to travel during the Christmas holidays though. Of course Simon and I would like to go Camagüey to get Terry loaded so that he would have more stories for the “Bizarre Times in Cuba” thread. Jjjjj