Cuba

Any adventurous souls ever tackle a trip to Cuba from the Keys?

Nope. It's illegal for us Americans unless you're Jayze or Beyonce...

I have been there twice.... Only to Guantanamo bay though.

When we had the Jax T.F. get together, Lena (Hobo) put it best:Hobo wanted to visit Cuba before the first Mcdonalds is built.

Maybe I should clarify my Guantanamo visit. I didn't have any terrorists as room mates or angry marines as chaperones! I was on the outside of the bars.

Sailor of Fortune said:

Maybe I should clarify my Guantanamo visit. I didn't have any terrorists as room mates or angry marines as chaperones! I was on the outside of the bars.

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Gitmo already has a McDonald's. or it did in 1990.

Capt Chuck I think did Cuba on his sailboat....he's not on this forum anymore though...

Voyages of Sea Trek: Cruising And Sailing Cuba On Our Boat, Click to enlarge page

Blue Heron said:

Nope. It's illegal for us Americans unless you're Jayze or Beyonce...

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Yes, no and it depends. What is the stated purpose of ones travel is the qualifier.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html#entry_requirements

Many Americans visit Cuba legally every year without a military uniform or paparazzi entourage complete with news coverage.

It's quite amazing how many American cruisers boats have "broken down" at sea and needed to seek "safe harbor" in Cuba to effect repairs.

Blue Heron said:

Gitmo already has a McDonald's. or it did in 1990.

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I was there in 1961 and ate at McDonald's.

temple1120 said:

Any adventurous souls ever tackle a trip to Cuba from the Keys?

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Yep. Twice. One in 1996 and again in 1997. Not in a trawler, though. In a sailboat (and went on from Cuba to Mexico). Beautiful country, nice people, but definitely a police state. Or was then, anyway, and I doubt that things have changed.

John

CPseudonym said:

Yes, no and it depends. What is the stated purpose of ones travel is the qualifier.

Cuba

Many Americans visit Cuba legally every year without a military uniform or paparazzi entourage complete with news coverage.

It's quite amazing how many American cruisers boats have "broken down" at sea and needed to seek "safe harbor" in Cuba to effect repairs.

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Great link, thanks.

It used to be several years ago that if you wanted to visit Cuba (not on a boat) you could just fly down to Mexico (Cancun or some place like that) and then fly from there to Cuba, have your visit, and return back to Mexico. Cuba did not stamp your passport, so there was no record of the visit. (I am not taking a position as to whether that is good or bad, merely stating a fact that I happen to know, because I lived in Mexico for a while on the sailboat).

John

jwnall said:

It used to be several years ago that if you wanted to visit Cuba (not on a boat) you could just fly down to Mexico (Cancun or some place like that) and then fly from there to Cuba, have your visit, and return back to Mexico. Cuba did not stamp your passport, so there was no record of the visit.

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For the most part same drill, no flights out of the US. Fly to Mexico then on to Cuba. State Department blessing for your trip is not THAT difficult to obtain if you follow their guidelines. I'm considering a trip next year myself(plane, not boat)

So why go to Cuba and give your dollars to a communist regime? Bahamas are prettier and friendlier

Many if not most of my customers and employees either made the trip or their parents did. Of course it was a one way trip from Cuba to the USA. A good customer of mine, I call him Surfer Dude, came on a sailboard. I've seen the rafts. I know how desperate those people are to get out of there. Because of that I choose not to go.

Can't wait till the knuckleheads are out of power and the country opens up.....it seems beautiful from all my time in Gitmo and flying around the island in CG helos...at least the topography.

Was in Key West and aboard USCGC Vigorous for the Mariel Boatlift in 1980...just amazing how they came over...then again that lift was too many criminals...so Castro is/was no one's fool in some ways.

HopCar said:

Many if not most of my customers and employees either made the trip or their parents did. Of course it was a one way trip from Cuba to the USA. A good customer of mine, I call him Surfer Dude, came on a sailboard. I've seen the rafts. I know how desperate those people are to get out of there. Because of that I choose not to go.

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Agree.

I spent 8 days there, legally, in 1994. 7 guys from our company went for a Sugar Cane Industry conference. We stayed in Havana at the Habana Libre, ex Hilton, most of the time except for a few gov't organized field trips to some nearby sugar mills. The people were friendly, all looking for dollars, or goods from the foreign exchange stores. The place is very run down, but I think a trip on a trawler for a few months would be great.
To give you an idea of how things are there, we had a Hospitality suite to entertain clients, quite a few of the Cuban Sugar mill managers came by for drinks. We had coca cola in cans for Cuba Libres and other drinks. The Cubans would keep the empty cans, when I asked why a friend who had been there often told me they bring them home and put them on a shelf, seems it is a status symbol to have been able to drink a Coke. These are guys who run a muti millon $ sugar plantation, kinda sad.

It's mostly a matter of "forbidden fruit" and "Pandora's box." ... There are countless (a life-time's) of tropical islands/beaches U.S. citizens can readily/legally visit. ... There's lots of bad blood between Cuba and USA (invasion, nuclear threat, assassination attempts/success), and particularly with former small businessmen formerly from Cuba.

Cuba is a huge island that has many different topographic regions as well as climatic ones. It is rich in many areas and the Cuban people in general I say can hold their own against any country...at least below the political level.

In my mind...with the right government and infusion from the outside world...Cuba would quickly blow most other tropical islands/resorts away as a place to visit

I can only hope it opens soon so I may have the pleasure of cruising a wonderful place so close to the US which in itself is a huge factor.....

Yes, Cuba has lots of potential!

markpierce said:

Yes, Cuba has lots of potential!

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Yup. It does indeed. Makes me kind of sad, to be honest, because it will eventually become just another tourist trap. I still remember when we, with two other sailboats, came into Varadero, Cuba in 1997 and checked into the marina there after a somewhat traumatic crossing of the Florida Straits. We walked around town (lots of beautiful old 1957 Chevys!), and the people would say in hushed tones: "Los Veleros!" (The sailors). Have to admit that we strutted a bit and felt important.

John

psneeld said:

..it seems beautiful from all my time in Gitmo and flying around the island in CG helos...at least the topography.

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It's not just the topography, the people are beautiful too! I spent 18 months there in 1959-60.

It will be free again and the mutual respect of our people's will be evident. Going to be a lot of cash infused into Cuba when the commies go away. Afraid it will take the deaths of Castro or a coup to make it happen.

Cuba has tremendous potential. I see it every day in Miami.
I would bet that today you can get better Cuban food in Miami than you can in Cuba.
As an example, in Miami you can get really good Fritas. Fritas were a hamburger like street food sold in Cuba. The lack of fresh beef has made them much harder to find in Cuba. We just had a contest to see who makes the best Frita in Miami. El Rey De Las Fritas won. El Mago De Las Fritas was a close second.

El Mago is my favorite.

It may take awhile to become "a tourist trap" it is over 600 miles long and over 60 miles wide for most of it...not including hundreds if not thousands of beautiful little islands. It's about 2/3 the size of the State of Florida.

No doubt the major cities will tourist up once the inevitable end of the travel ban. The rural areas however will remain the same for many decades after though.

Don't forget that this ban only affects US citizens, there has been widespread tourism to Cuba for quite a while now, America is the only country that has placed an embargo on its own citizens visiting.

My local travel agent has brochures and tour information freely available. There are large English and Canadian operations that have resort style set-ups in Cuba for package holidays.I have quite a few European friends who have travelled to Cuba in the last 10 years or so, no big deal.

A quick check on Wikipedia shows that just under half Cuba's exports go to Canada and Holland, so I'm not sure what this embargo is supposed to be achieving, being that it has been in place for 40 odd years now.

Don't get me wrong, I am no supporter of the current regime, I just don't understand the rationale of the embargo. FWIW, I think it is more sensible to follow the route your government has with its dealings with Vietnam. Trade and tourism can cut across government doctrine and heal old wounds over time.

( I promised myself that when I disabled my OTDE I would not get into these types of discussions )

"I think it is more sensible to follow the route your government has with its dealings with Vietnam."

That's an argument that is currently dividing the US Cuban community.

There is a very brave young lady named Yoni Sanchez who blogs from inside Cuba about life under the Castro brothers. She recently expressed the opinion that lifting the blockade would hurt the Castro's more than the blockade does.

She writes in Spanish but people all over the world have taken it upon themselves to translate it.
Here is a link to it. Pick your language:
Los idiomas de Generación Y | Las traducciones

"Trade and tourism can cut across government doctrine and heal old wounds over time."

I personally don't want to heal wounds with the current regime.
I just want them to die, soon.

Tourism is already a well developed industry in Cuba. It is now the number one industry, recently exceeding sugar cane exports. Life over their isn't quite as bad as the US media makes it out to be, especially considering the economic embargoes placed on them, and their lack of petroleum and other resources.

Human Development Index Rating for Cuba is 59th in world, one of the highest of the Latin American countries, higher than Mexico, almost equal to the Bahamas.
Some may not agree with Cuba's political slant, but it seems to be working for them.

If it was within cruising range for me, I'd certainly be planning a visit.

I went down for a month back in 1997 or 98,...can't remember which right now. 4 of us went on a friend's newly constructed 60 foot catamaran. It had its good times, and not so good times. The gov made a real effort to keep the tourist separated from the common Cuba people. The people were very friendly, but there std of living and the farm output was severely hampered by the old communist system.

We stayed at Marina Hemingway on two occasions. it was a fair distance away from Havana. Havana port was (is?) only for commercial vessels. I used a bike to get into and around the city of Havana (and that bike got stolen by a guy who befriended me for most of one day acting as a guide).

Went cruising along part of the coast and did some diving and exploring. But we were trailed by a Cuban gunboat that keep their distance,...just watching us.

I actually came back to Fla and bought a used VW dune buggy with the idea to ship it down there and do a 'land trip' with it. But other matters came up.

Always had the idea of a 'Swiss Family Robertson' tree house on an island in the Caribbean, ...thought one of the MANY small islands off Cuba might be a potential. But didn't see any that looked that good, and way too much officialdom. (I had thought at the time that Pres Clinton just might make a move towards normalization)

I looked up info on Cuba before that visit, and its seems to my recollection that Cuba is very nearly 900 miles long. It could stretch from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay down to Daytona beach Fla.

Andy G said:

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Don't get me wrong, I am no supporter of the current regime, I just don't understand the rationale of the embargo. FWIW, I think it is more sensible to follow the route your government has with its dealings with Vietnam. Trade and tourism can cut across government doctrine and heal old wounds over time.

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I had thoughts that Clinton might make a big effort at normalizing our relations with Cuba. I had been working over in SE Asia and saw what was happening with Vietnam ( I was there 30 years before my trip to Cuba).....capitalization was drowning out communisms. Would have worked in Cuba as well. Our USA foreign policies can really be F-upped at times.