Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez on 3-month world tour after being denied exit permit for years

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez shows her passport before leaving Cuba to travel to Brazil and other countries at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Sanchez is one of the Cuban dissidents who applied for passports to go overseas under recently enacted travel reform. Her request was granted last month. By her own account Sanchez has on some 20 occasions been rejected for the exit visa that for decades was required of all islanders seeking to go abroad.(AP Photo/Franklin Reyes) (The Associated Press)

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez has her documents checked at passport control before leaving Cuba to travel to Brazil and other countries at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Sanchez is one of the Cuban dissidents who applied for passports to go overseas under recently enacted travel reform. Her request was granted last month. By her own account Sanchez has on some 20 occasions been rejected for the exit visa that for decades was required of all islanders seeking to go abroad.(AP Photo/Franklin Reyes) (The Associated Press)

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez waits in line to have her documents checked at passport control before leaving Cuba to travel to Brazil and other countries at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. Sanchez is one of the Cuban dissidents who applied for passports to go overseas under recently enacted travel reform. Her request was granted last month. By her own account Sanchez has on some 20 occasions been rejected for the exit visa that for decades was required of all islanders seeking to go abroad.(AP Photo/Franklin Reyes) (The Associated Press)

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez is setting out on a three-month, dozen-nation world tour after a new law eased travel restrictions on islanders last month.

Sanchez says via Twitter that she successfully made it past the migratory checkpoint at Havana's international airport, and all that's left is to get on the plane.

She's heading first to Brazil with a layover in Panama, where she tweets she's excited to try out the airport's free Wi-Fi.

Sanchez says Cuba has denied her permission to travel about 20 times in recent years. But the exit permit requirement ended with the government's travel reform in January, and Cubans now only need a passport to leave the country.

She said Sunday that she will be away from Cuba for about three months.