CUBA CAN-DO – Forbidden Fruit At One Third the Cost

If you’re like me, telling you something’s off limits only makes you want it more. Am I right?

That’s the way I’d felt about Cuba ever since I first read Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and the coincidental US blockade of all trade with the island neighbor we preferred be a ruthless dictatorship than a communist annoyance.

But recently, after half a century cinching a pit bull choke collar ‘round the neck of a bichón*, the US, led by an enlightened Obama administration, has taken the first steps to ease the long-since-ineffectual embargo.

    We were cinching a pit bull choke 
    collar ‘round the neck of a bichón.

LOOK BUT DON’T TOUCH
It’s never been illegal for US citizens to travel to Cuba; it’s only illegal for us to spend money there. Thus, the matter’s been overseen not by the US Immigration and Naturalization, but by the Department of the Treasury—specifically, its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

In 2011, after a couple of false starts, the OFAC began allowing a few organizations to offer U.S. citizens “people-to-people” group tours to Cuba. This required formal licensing with stringent, case-by-case evaluation and strict accountability.

Licensees had to ensure that participants spent every waking hour engaged in a prescribed range of sanctioned cultural exchange activities, like tours, lectures and workshops involving music, dance, history and the country’s nascent entrepreneurship. “Sightseeing” and other purely recreational activities like days at the beach were not tolerated.

PHOTO: PillarToPost.org

Tour companies lucky enough to get licenses have been offering nearly identical itineraries at grossly inflated prices—at least partly reflecting all the red tape and middleman costs of arranging and documenting only those qualifying, tightly-organized activities. Prices for a week to ten days averaged $4,000 to $5,000, including airfare from Miami.

(Now, some intrepid Americans have been defying the embargo for years, flying first to Canada, Mexico or Jamaica and hoping US Immigration agents wouldn’t notice either the Cuban Immigration stamp—or the two entry stamps into the connecting country—when they return home. The vast majority of these under-the-radar travelers haven’t even been questioned, or, if they have, have gotten off with a hand slap. Still, the threat of hefty fines or if nothing else a lengthy legal and bureaucratic snafu, was enough to keep Cuba from rising to the top of my bucket list.)

PHOTO: Pixabay

But then, in January, 2015, the OFAC, in conjunction with the Commerce Department, enacted a further easing of travel restrictions to “engage and empower the Cuban people.” The new guidelines affected trade, financial services, telecommunications and travel services.

The changes also loosened—mentioned only as a sort of afterthought—restrictions on individual travel to Cuba. The stringent “specific” licensing of organizations gave way to “general” licensing, allowing individuals to travel on their own for any of 12 specific—though rather broadly defined—purposes. (OFAC's 12 rules) Apparently only one’s own judgement that he/she could in good faith check one of the 12 boxes, is required.

Since I’m a published author / blogger, I made my mental check next to justification number three, journalistic activity. I was ready, just in case, with some credentials, but as it turned out no one ever asked.

TALKING THE TALK
I’ve found from past experience that it’s hard to beat the value of a trip centered on a week or two of language classes. I’ve done this in Mexico and Panama, and find it combines several of my requisites for a rewarding travel experience: a ready-made host and home base; an immediate circle of new friends; a doorway (through the newly-acquired language skills) to authentic cultural experiences…and clean, comfortable—and dirt cheap—room and board.

For my Cuba adventure, I signed up with a program called Jakera. Already well rooted in Venezuela, they’ve just opened up shop in Havana, where they’ve recruited teachers and administrators, selected nearby casas particulares (well-maintained, government-regulated rooms within Habaneros’ homes), and connected with local education, arts and community development partners.

Program participants—already a few from the US, but the majority young Europeans—take Spanish classes every morning and in the afternoon alternate between cultural outings and either salsa dancing lessons or volunteering with one of those community groups.

PHOTO: JakeraCuba

Once I’d signed on with Jakera, all I had to do is line up my air travel (done through the Cuba Travel Network); figure out how to get a Cuban tourist card/visa (available for $25 at most airports with direct flights to Havana); and deal with a few personal concerns like health insurance, currency conversion, and electrical, Internet and telephone (Verizon has just started international roaming in Cuba, so I was able to at least send text messages home.) (SEE LINKS BELOW)

THE BOTTOM LINE
I enjoyed two full, amazing weeks in Cuba, including Spanish and dance lessons; excursions—most of them guided—around Havana and out into the countryside; modest but clean and comfortable lodging; two decent meals a day; and a program coordinator to help arrange for everything…all for $800usd. Even adding the always-inflated airfare** from a nearby US or Mexican connecting airport to Havana, my cost still came in under $1,200.

My only other expenses were for modest evening meals (easily do-able for less than the equivalent of $4usd a day); bus/taxi fares for a few optional excursions to other parts of the country; airport transfers; and the $25usd Cuban departure tax. Airfare from home to one’s connecting city, as it is with nearly all tour companies, is additional.

   Even if you’re disappointed—which 
   you won’t be—you’re only out a third 
   of what a less-adventurous convention-
   al trip would have set you back!

Throw in a few incidentals, and the grand total for my two glorious weeks on this lovely, languid long-forbidden Gulf/Caribbean island came to well under $1500—about a third the cost of most packages available through “sanctioned” tour operators.

(Okay, traveling as I did—staying with a local family (in a private, air-conditioned room with bath); meeting fellow travelers, not just from my own country but from all over the world; eating the same food most Cubans eat; walking a lot; and occasionally embracing the unexpected—is not for everyone. But if you’re open minded, in reasonably good health and a believer, as I am, in doing as the Romans do when in Rome, it’s worth considering, don’t you think? After all, even if you’re disappointed—which you won’t be—you’re only out a third of what a less-adventurous conventional trip would have set you back!)

A NOTE ON CUBANA AIRLINES
It’s a question of some debate whether Cuba has advanced beyond third-world-country status. But their national airline, Cubana Air, would suggest it has not. On both my arriving and returning flights—both of them delayed, without warning, by nearly 12 hours—Cubana showed that they fly whenever they want to.

To be fair, perhaps I should say they fly whenever they can. I suspect that, unlike most international carriers, Cubana has no extra aircraft to fill in when a plane suddenly becomes inoperable. And I suppose I should be grateful that they take the necessary time to make repairs.

But travelers considering Cubana should be aware that: 1. Such delays are quite likely. 2. If they do occur, Cubana cannot (or will not) switch you to an available seat on another airline; 3. The closest thing to a real person who might help you merely understand and feel better about the waste of full day of your life may be the airport’s departures screen; and 4. Cubana may add insult to injury by listing your 12-hour-late flight on that screen not as “Delayed,” but “ADJUSTED.” Argh-h-h!

MORE INFORMATION
Here are a few links to information you might find helpful in planning your independent travel to Cuba:

• TREASURY/OFAC AUTHORIZATION 
• LANGUAGE/CULTURE PROGRAM
• FLIGHTS
• LODGING/CASAS PARTICULARES
• CURRENCY CONVERSION
• VACCINATIONS/HEALTH
• MEDICAL INSURANCE
• FLYING UNDER THE RADAR
• CUBAN VISA/TOURIST CARD
• ELECTRICAL/COMMUNICATION

¡Vámonos a Cuba!

* The bichón—or more specifically the Havanese—is the national dog of Cuba.

** From either of the closest departure points for Havana—Miami or Cancun—that last 90 miles will likely cost you about the same as your first 1,500 miles. Be aware that it is still illegal for individuals to fly directly into Cuba from the US; only organizations with specific OFAC licenses can make the arrangements. This corner on the market, along, I suspect, with hefty fees from the Cuban government, account for the inflated pricing.

SOUND ACROSS WATER

When’s the last time you sat in the still night air by a lake or river and listened—really listened? There for the price your awareness is a symphony for the soul, one that expresses, more profoundly than any words can, a deep sense of place and time, of belonging, of a romantic’s yearning for simple, timeless truths. Where is your sound-on-water place?

I have this romantic notion in my head about the way sound carries over an expanse of water. The image that keeps coming to mind is that of an east- central Minnesota lake around the end of the 19th century. It could be any lake, though—perhaps one you remember fondly.

 
In my reverie I see families who've come out here from Minneapolis or St. Paul by horse and wagon to spend the long summer afternoon swimming, boating and reveling in the crystal clear waters. Laughter shimmers across the water in small, agreeable waves, eventually washing up on every shore.

As evening draws in around the lake, lovers row aimlessly, never beyond sight of the dock—but lost anyway. By nightfall, most have gone home, but a few campfires wink from surrounding woods. The snap…snap of the burning wood sounds like it’s yards away, not half a mile. You can practically hear a whisper across the lake.

SOUND AND SPACE
You’ve been here before, haven't you? In your childhood, or maybe just in your imagination? What is it about a scene like this that so captures our imagination?
Is it the purity, the utter care-free simplicity of a more innocent time (or at least a time I have the luxury of being able to render with poetic license)? I guess that goes without saying for us slow-it-down, soak-it-in romantics. But there's more to it than that, something about how the mood gets carried in those sounds.

I know there are scientific reasons for how sound waves carry across water—something about the water surface and the cooler air just above it combining to contain and channel them. But that doesn't interest me as much as the symbolic meaning.

     These sounds—if we let them—draw us in.
     Whether we like what we hear or not, they
     connect us, define us, define our community.

For me, sound is spatial. I think of the way great, spreading American elm trees define the space under and around their huge, fountain-shaped canopy—and how they used to form cathedral-like arches over St. Paul’s residential streets. Like those magnificent arbors, sound encompasses everything it can reach.

If you're a city dweller, it might be the muddled shouts and laughter stirring the thick summer evening air from the baseball diamond a block or two away.  If your neighborhood's a little rougher, maybe it’s the sounds of more boisterous goings-on. Whatever the source, these sounds—if we let them—draw us in. Whether we like what we hear or not, they connect us, define us, define our community.

   While a quiet lake at night may serve as the 
   instrument, the notes originate in the soul.

LONGING TO BELONG
Imagining once more that idyllic summer evening at the lake, that sense of community is somehow intensified. With no competing noise, the clarity and reach of that laughter, those campfire conversations and lovers' whispers, seems funneled through our ears and right to our souls. It wraps around us. And the symbolism of its having to reach across such a chilling, empty space makes the connection feel all the more intimate.

Maybe that's part of it for me—a longing for community. Don't you feel, sometimes, that we're losing that sense of sharing a beloved place or space, of wanting to protect it, of belonging to it and to one another? That, more and more these days, everyone seems in it just for themselves? 

Perhaps. But why curse the silence when we can make music? Listening for the vital signs and sounds of community doesn't mean we have to live other people's lives nor fix all the world's problems, because while a quiet lake at night may serve as the instrument, the notes originate in the soul. All we have to do is pay attention, listen with our hopes and our hearts, and care what we hear.