Happy Friday, America! If you were looking for something to do this weekend — and you’re the type of person who likes rum and a good cigar — perhaps you should cancel your weekend plans (arguing about politics) and book a short trip to Cuba. Bonus: If you stay until Monday, you can bring home all the stogies and rum that you want.
No, this is not a drill. According to USA Today, President Obama has just announced that bringing your vices home from Cuba is now totally okay.
From USA Today:
Under the new rules, which go into effect Monday, travelers can purchase unlimited quantities of Cuban rum and cigars in any country where they are sold so long as they are for personal consumption. Sorry American couch potatoes: You can’t order cuban rum and cigars online and have them shipped to your home.
There’s always a catch!
Let’s check in with the internet for a few responses:
https://twitter.com/JetSettersFlyIn/status/786975825056772096
Endless #cubancigars and bottomless #rum. #thanksobama
— Brad Japhe (@Braphe) October 14, 2016
Yup. As expected. Meanwhile, offline some people won’t be as thrilled with these new rules — mainly because Cuba doesn’t have a great record with political freedom and human rights. But according to USA Today, Obama believes that engaging with the country (as opposed to boycotting it) is the best way to improve relations and move forward:
“Challenges remain — and very real differences between our governments persist on issues of democracy and human rights — but I believe that engagement is the best way to address those differences and make progress on behalf of our interests and values,” Obama said. “The progress of the last two years, bolstered by today’s action, should remind the world of what’s possible when we look to the future together.”
The biggest change for travelers, is the fact that the most recent changes to the restrictions only allowed Americans to bring in a maximum $100 worth of products into the U.S. Now, it’s unlimited. So empty your bags, get you some smelly cigars and sugar cane spirits, and then hightail it back to your house — where you can still argue over politics, but this time with rum and stogies on hand. (And hey, doesn’t that make everything better?)
