Two years ago, a group of members of Norysur went on a trip to Gardens of the Queen. It wasn't our first trip to Cuba, but yes to this specific fishing destination. After that trip we all swore to return, and therefore we did and we would do it again if the gods are in our side...

The group was conformed by experienced anglers and also those having their first "salt water adventure" all of us with the same enthusiasm!
We traveled by Copa Airlines through Panama, spent the night in La Havana and very very early in the morning, at 03:30 hrs we took a bus with a 6 hour drive to Jucaro where we got on board the Avalon Fleet II. A luxurious yacht of big proportions was going to be our home for the next days. After getting settled in our rooms, the boat sailed for 4 hours to the archipelago of Gardens of the Queen.
We had breakfast at 7am and by 8am we went off fishing with our guides until noon that we returned back to the boat, had lunch and some resting, and return back fishing from 3pm until sunset.

During the 3 previous weeks, the weather was very bad, windy, cloudy and rainy! Those conditions made very limited the fishing possibilities to the other groups. We instead were blessed with good weather, luck can happen sometimes! Even though the mornings were a bit windy and with no much sun, during the afternoon the skies cleared up and wind calmed down. As it usual happens in the Caribbean summer, rains at night are quite popular.
We could see bonefish everywhere and had our treat with them. In order to fish them, the cast had to be precise and sometimes the guides got even more excited than the anglers themselves!
During the 3rd day, some of us went to a far fishing zone where guides have seen tarpon before. And they were there, big tarpon of around 66 lbs average, waiting for our flies. We switched to rods #10 and sinking line, and no precision was needed in this cast, but yes the emotion of hooking one of those beasts and fight it for a while until it surrendered.

The ladies had their chances as well and as you can appreciate in the pictures, they did very well! Our congratulations to them!

The attention on board couldn't have been better, upon our return form the long fishing day we were welcome with clean wet towels to clean our face, daiquiris, pizza, mojitos and were able to completely disconnect from the world surviving 6 days without internet connection. A lost luxury nowadays!

We were able to see some permit (big ones) but were never able to take at shot at them. We'll try the next time.

Our trip now is a memory, while we're projecting the next one. Few fishing programs can be compared with this one! We'll be back...