About 1:15pm we were picked up at Jim and Phil’s by a car service that took us to the Marriott Hotel at the Miami Airport.   It was $72, but more convenient than renting a car for $47, having Jim and Phil take us to get the car, filling it with gas and checking it in.  With traffic, it took us about an hour to get from Ft. Lauderdale to the Miami Airport Marriott.

This is where we met our Globus Tour group at 6:00pm for an orientation and welcome cocktails. Our Globus tour leader is a gentleman by the name of Daniel Ferro from Boca Raton, Florida. There are 25 people in our group traveling to Cuba. The majority of the group are older and retired with the exception of one couple that are traveling with their adult daughter from Indiana. The orientation lasted about 90 minutes, including filling out the required visa and immigration forms required to enter and exit Cuba legally. They say that by law we are required to keep our authorization letter for five years in the event that the US government questions our visit to Cuba. Unauthorized visits can lead to a $10,000 fine.