¡CUBA!

A little over 2 weeks ago, Sam and I returned to the US after spending a week on what is a forbidden island for most Americans -- Cuba! 

It's true, Americans are not allowed to legally "vacation" in the land of Fidel Castro and Ché Guevara. It is possible, however, to get a special license to visit for educational, cultural, people-to-people interaction purposes. And of course, there is always the illegal option of first traveling to another country, like Canada or Mexico, then flying to Havana from there. Apparently lots of Americans do it that way. If the US Treasury Department finds out, there can be a heavy fine, but I'm not sure how many US citizens have been caught, especially since the Cuban customs agents generally do not stamp US passports for that reason. (How considerate of them, but I wanted the prized mark in my passport, so I requested it!)

Being the law-abiding citizens that we are, we took the legal route, and went with a tour company called Road Scholar (previously known as Elder Hostel). This is probably the best way to see Cuba the first time, but now, having done it, I would feel pretty comfortable going on our own if we ever went back. 

Cuba and the US have no banking relationship, so American credit cards and ATMs don't work. It is necessary to carry all of the money you will need in cash, which makes going with a tour company that covers all your hotels, transportation, and most of your meals, very convenient. The trade off is, you have very little control over where you go and what you do. Luckily, Road Scholar is very good at what they do, and other than not having enough free time to ourselves, we really didn't have any complaints about the program. We saw and did way more than we ever would have done by ourselves in a week! And although we usually avoid other Americans when we travel to foreign places, some of our fellow tour members turned out to be very interesting, and I think we may have made some good friends -- including a couple from Sacramento!

Because the license that allowed us to travel in Cuba required that we spend ALL of our time in cultural, people-to-people activities, our days were filled with lectures, musical performances, visits to Cuban homes, museums, a school for the arts, craft and book fairs, and numerous other buildings, memorials, and town squares. Even the time spend riding in our air conditioned bus was educational and entertaining. During our short visit, we met a lot of Cubans, saw a lot of the countryside, and a few of the cities, including Havana, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, and Santa Clara. We learned a lot, and had a wonderful time!

As usual, I have hundreds and hundreds of photos to comb through and edit, and Sam has hours of video he shot. In the next few weeks, I would like to take you on a little tour of Cuba with photos and videos, and hopefully, you will learn something you didn't know about a country that is incredibly beautiful, and whose people are resilient, resourceful, and proud. And you will find, as our amazing Cuban tour guide José liked to say, "Cuba is complicated!"