Given your posts in What's the most interesting car you saw today?, I assume you’re a car guy. In which case:
I have a partially vague memory* of chatting with a friend of a friend I barely knew who apparently frequented Cuba. I can’t even remember the friend who introduced us but one thing I’ll never forget was him dropping, out of the blue, that he visited Cuba several times for the prostitutes and that they were the best in the world. We had just met that night and it seemed like such a strange thing to say to me, a stranger. Entrepreneurs, indeed.
*I also remember we were at a crowded and deafening nightclub at the time and that the already very good lighting included a few lasers that were very well done. It’s funny how memory works, remembering the lighting but not who introduced me to weird hooker guy.
I’ve checked Wikipedia for this whole dollar/CUC business, and it seems that effective this year the CUC has been scrapped and replaced with direct use of the dollar. So my information about CUC use in Cuba would be obsolete, then.
Americans can go to Cuba for a dozen reasons (one of which you must declare), but it is still illegal to go to Cuba explicitly for tourism because we’re a Free Country.
Right- so I wondering about the OP’s plans- it seems to fall into the tourism category.
You can go for cultural reasons. A simple visit to a museum can satisfy the requirement. I have a friend who goes every year for the fly fishing and they visit with a local historian one day for a cultural exchange.
Also, what about covid restrictions? Are they allowing tourists from anywhere now? Do you have to quarantine on arrival? And if you’re now in Oregon, it’s going to be a long flight; Hawaii or Mexico would involve less time on a plane.
Bolding mine. Once the Covid situation normalizes, we would look into the situation and what the policy is at that time and see if we can still do it under those conditions.
It is, however, not hard to do. I went from Montreal.
I sort of remember you cannot use an American credit card in Cuba, as financial transactions are pretty strictly forbidden and likely to come to the notice of the authorities.
Not a problem. Buy your airline ticks and make your hotel reservations using a Canadian travel agency. Pay them in cash. They know the deal – they’re quite happy to work with you on this.
When you arrive in Cuba, you’ll have to show your passport, of course. The Cuban passport control people totally understand the situation, and won’t put a stamp in your passport. They’ll give you the stamp on a separate piece of paper, to be inserted into your passport for the duration of the trip.
On the return trip, once you land in Montreal or Toronto or wherever, throw the piece of paper out.
You’ll be fine.
This link is pre-COVID, but it still used by Orvis for their fly fishing to Cuba.
Missed the edit window.
I should add that my direct personal knowledge of the ins and outs of travel to Cuba for Americans is some number of years (let’s say between one and ten) out of date. I’m just giving an account of my experience, not advice.
We fly several flights per day between Havana and the USA. Pre-COVID we had 6 or 8 destinations in Cuba.
When I’ve worked those flights many of the passengers appear to be ethnically Cuban. Many do not. Crew do not stay in Cuba so all I’ve seen of Cuba is what I can see from the airplane, be that on the ground or in the air.
I’ve often wondered it there was any time in the past where the US could have acquired Cuba. It would have made a great state!
Sure, after the Spanish-American War, but it would’ve required wars to pacify it.
If you go, consider visiting Vinales. It has the most beautiful nature I saw while I visited Cuba, caves to spelunk, Hummingbirds etc. The town itself is no great shakes, but charming and a nice change of pace after some days in Havana. I slept and had most of my dinners at a family who had a bed/breakfast (casa particulare). I got their contact info from the casa particulare in Havana, and the next town I visited, Cienfuegos I think, I slept at a CP the Vinales CP recommended.
It was formally American for a short time, from 1898 (when it was ceded to the U.S. by Spain, together with Puerto Rico and the Philippines) until 1902, when it became independent. Even after that formal independence, it was clear that U.S. politicians regarded Cuba as a country in whose affairs they could meddle, as they reserved a right of military intervention.
I suppose it would have been possible for the U.S. to keep Cuba by not granting it independence - after all, that’s what happened with Puerto Rico and, until WW2, the Philippines too. But Cuba had already had an independence movement under Spanish rule.
It’s so sad to hear that the food seems to be bad. Cuban food is so good when prepared properly. I doubt I’ll ever get an opportunity to visit but I have always wanted to go because I assumed all the food would be wonderful.
Cuban food is amazing when prepared properly, by good cooks using quality ingredients.
When I was there, the ingredients just weren’t available. So the food was, well, I didn’t go hungry. I had adequate caloric intake. That’s about all I can say about the food. It was quite functional.